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Watching Sourdough Being Made
In the 1840s miners and pioneers brought sourdough over the Sierras to San Francisco. The starter was so valuable that it was often taken to bed with them to keep it warm and assure its survival through the long, cold winters. Due to this, early prospectors were given the nickname 'Sourdoughs.' Once in the Bay Area the dough met with a local foggy airborne bacteria, now called 'Lactobacillus Sanfrancisco,' to create a uniquely sour, sourdough loaf that was different from any other. The result was so popular that this extraordinary starter was often given as a prized part of a bride’s dowry.

By 1849 there were 70 sourdough bakeries in San Francisco but it was Isidore Boudin who combined the local dough with French baking traditions to create the golden loaf that we know today. His tangy loaves were crispy-chewy on the outside, light and full of holes on the inside. Following the 1906 earthquake, Boudin avoided disaster when he stashed some of the original mother dough in a moist bucket and carried it away from the raging fire. Today Boudin's bakes 25,000 loaves of sourdough a day and every one can still be traced back to that original starter of 1849.
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