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Comment by abeppu | Hacker News Reader

Even if some of the yeast is from ancient strains, I wonder if it's really feasible to get a mix that's representative of what was in those containers 4,500 years ago. Shouldn't the population be changed by the selective pressure of being starved and dormant for that long (i.e. the ones that can be revived might be a small minority)? Or for yeast, is chilling for millennia no big deal?

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This reminds me one of the best tasting bread I enjoyed was Naan from North India. Anyone else know of any other bread which can rival Naan?

A good Paratha is better than Naan IMO.

Roomali Roti is also very good

The issue with old strains is similar to the whole concept of homeopathy. Sure, the original strain might be 4000 years old, but keeping a sourdough starter usable means keeping it exposed to air where it gathers fresh bacteria, eventually leading to the starter being statistically significant only to the bacteria of the locale, not the source of the starter.

I'm confused - yeasts are not bacteria?

No, they are a unicellular fungus, which is a completely separate evolutionary branch (eukaryota).

Other bacteria join the party, not just yeast.

[EDIT] which are fungi anyway, incidentally

If the yeast in your sourdough have been replaced by bacteria gathered from the air, then I think you should throw it away ASAP.

Every locale has its own indigenous yeast variants. Unless you go to ridiculous lengths to isolate your starter from the environment (which some people do, including sterilizing the flour used to feed the starter), it's going to eventually be taken over by local yeast.

Which, IMHO, is a fine thing! Bake where you are.

Beer and bread, and the yeasts used to make them, used to be indigenous to the region, and sometimes very localised. Every brewery and bakery had their own local yeast cultures. The rise of factory bakeries and breweries meant nearly all of those died off. IIRC industrial brewing depends on just 3 or 4 strains of yeast. Only the relatively recent resurgence of craft baking and brewing has kept some of the others around.

The local strains that led to so many wonderful tasting breads and beers have been lost.

I'd be as interested in learning how the local strains of yeast have changed over those intervening 4,500 years, as seeing he a good result trying to bake from what he retrieved.

White labs are doing a good job of providing some choices to the homebrew market.

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