How Boudin Bakery baked its way through history

"There are some overlapping tales about the bread's starter. It is rumored to have been passed to Boudin by a gold prospector, a '49er, but also to have come with Isidore from France. It is certainly enriched with an airborne yeast that seems characteristic of this city - so much so that it has been saddled with the mouthful Latin handle of lactobacillus sanfranciscensis."

"Boudin had a ready-made market here, since, as of 1852, nearly one in six of the 36,000 San Franciscans came from France - many of them escaping turmoil and widespread unemployment in the mother country. Soon enough, the horse-drawn Boudin bread-wagon became a familiar sight on the hilly streets, its delivery-men pushing the distinctively scored, rounded loaves onto nails customers left protruding next to their doors."

Isidore Boudin founded Boudin Bakery during the Gold Rush and maintained a focus on distinctive sourdough bread for nearly two centuries. The starter's origin is uncertain—rumored to have come from a '49er or from Isidore in France, but the culture is enriched with a local airborne yeast identified as lactobacillus sanfranciscensis. By 1852 a large French immigrant community provided demand, and horse-drawn bread wagons delivered scored, rounded loaves onto nails outside homes. In the 1860s Boudin rejected new commercial yeast from Fleischmann's, preserving traditional methods and establishing a reputation for stubborn continuity.

Read at Medium