The pleasure of Pallant’s linguistic maneuvers is undeniable the implications of the title, in which the word culture signifies the fullness of humanity as well as its scientific usage, is just one such strategy.

He began with life in the earliest known civilization, moving from there to ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, both the French and Industrial revolutions, and into the modern-day: when the baking and consumption of sourdough bread became a widespread coping mechanism in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Filled with wonder at the notion of such a venerable culture and the history it was likely steeped in, Pallant dove headlong into the history of sourdough bread. Through contact with the man who gave the starter to Pallant’s colleague, Pallant came to believe that his starter originated during the lesser-known Colorado gold rush of 1893, making it over a century old. The years that Pallant spent with his starter lent it the power of a trusted companion, a “living heirloom,” and he was gripped by the need to know its origins, its true age, the history imbued in its cells. Pallant has been baking with this particular starter for decades, ever since a colleague’s wife gifted him a portion of it at a picnic in the summer of 1988. Pallant, a professor of environmental science and sustainability at Allegheny College, was inspired to write the book by his relationship with his own sourdough starter. Pallant’s personal journey with bread-baking is interwoven with a globe-trotting history of this dietary staple, as well as food science, microbiology, and some of the author’s favorite bread recipes, to produce a genre-defying narrative. Part memoir, part historical account, part cookbook, Pallant’s book contains many ingredients kneaded together into something unexpected and new. How does a starter start? What are the origins of a beginning? Questions such as these animate Eric Pallant’s eminently readable new book, Sourdough Culture: A History of Bread Making from Ancient to Modern Bakers.

Novel sourdough