Is Your Bread Actually Sourdough? Here’s How to Buy the Real Thing

Sourdough bread is incredibly popular and for good reason. It’s thought to be healthier than other breads, and it has a delicious texture and a distinctive tangy taste. Do you reach for a loaf of sourdough as you rush through the supermarket bakery on a quick shop? And if so, are you sure the bread you are getting is really sourdough? There is another category of bread, known as fake or faux sourdough, also referred to as sourfaux, that is often labeled as sourdough but differs from the real thing in several important ways. Here’s what you need to know when shopping for sourdough bread so you always buy the genuine thing.

What Sets Sourdough Bread Apart

Some bakers call sourdough the original bread; it's the oldest form of leavened bread, and it's different from other breads in four important ways:

Short Ingredient List

It is made from four ingredients: flour, salt, and water, with a live sourdough culture, often called a sourdough starter, acting as the leavening agent. Some sourdough may have a seeded exterior or herbs added to the dough, or it may use a blend of flours, adding additional ingredients to the list. But true sourdough bread does not include any additives, preservatives, or commercial leaveners.

Sourdough Starter

A sourdough starter is essential for making sourdough bread. It’s a time-honored, natural way of leavening bread that predates the invention of commercial yeasts. A sourdough starter is a live culture that requires care to maintain its viability, allowing you to produce sourdough bread. 

Time

The other essential ingredient in making sourdough bread is time; commercial yeasts are much faster-acting, allowing a loaf to be made more quickly. Sourdough starter is a slow leavener that ferments the dough, which is what makes sourdough bread healthier. It contains prebiotics, and there is evidence that bread made with a sourdough starter can make gluten more easily digestible. If a bread isn’t a true sourdough made with a starter, you aren’t getting the health benefits of fermentation.

Note that while all true sourdough bread is slow fermented, not all slow-fermented bread is sourdough. Other types of bread can be made using a slow fermentation process.

Taste

In addition to its short ingredient list, live starter, and slow fermentation, sourdough bread stands apart from other loaves for its tangy taste. Depending on the recipe used and the skill of the baker, the bread can have a subtle or not-so-subtle tangy flavor, and this is how most people would identify a bread as being sourdough. 

Fake or Faux Sourdough Is Different

There is no legal definition of sourdough bread in the U.S., so bakeries and grocery stores can label any of their breads as sourdough. These might be breads made with some sourdough starter, but also with commercial yeast to speed up the bread-making process, or they can be leavened only with commercial yeast and added sour ingredients, like yogurt, to give the bread a sourdough-like taste. They are made by a different process because they do not rely on the sourdough starter and a long fermentation to raise the bread.

As Darrold and Marty Glanville of Sunrise Flour Mill have noted, a skilled baker can use baker’s yeast to make bread with qualities that imitate those often associated with sourdough, such as a crisp, chewy crust and open crumb. But just because it looks or tastes like sourdough does not mean it is true sourdough.

How to Tell If a Bread Is Fake Sourdough

If you’re shopping at the supermarket bakery or a larger bakery where loaves are packaged and labeled, read the label. The biggest sign that a bread is a faux sourdough is if the list is more than a few ingredients. If you see any of the following ingredients, the bread is not true sourdough:

• Commercial or baker's yeast, like baking powder, or other commercial leaveners.
• Sugars or barley malt.
• Tangy additions, such as yogurt, vinegar, or sourdough flavoring,
  

If the breads are not labeled and there isn’t a sign listing ingredients, ask the counter staff. If they don’t know, ask to speak to one of the bakers. But if the staff don’t know what true sourdough is, it could be a sign that the breads are made with commercial yeast; most genuine sourdough bakers are very proud of their breads and will educate staff about the difference between true sourdough and other breads.

Where Fake Sourdough Fits In

From YouTube to TikTok, social media is full of mock sourdough recipes. Most are not claiming to be true sourdough (“mock” is a hint!), but “sourdough without a starter” is not a real sourdough. These recipes are for breads that don’t call for a starter, so they aren’t true sourdough. They may be easy to make and taste great; there is certainly no harm in making and eating them, but the benefits won't be the same!