There are scores of self-proclaimed sourdough experts out there, each willing to share with you the "secret" to sourdough. Problem is, these "secrets" are often completely contradictory. Sourdough is an area of enormous controversy, as well as firmly held ignorance.

"Scientific" bakers hold that sourdough bread can't be made without a thorough understanding of the symbiotic chemical relationship between yeast and lactobacilli. At the same time, people made bread with wild yeast for millennia — so how complicated could it be?

We know that yeast and lactobacilli leaven and flavor sourdough bread. We also know that temperature and hydration (the liquid/flour ratio) are important. But bakers' intuition is as essential to sourdough success as pure science. We see the same flour/water combination behaving differently from one time of year to another (or even from day to day); and it's as much experience as science that teaches us what's going on, and how to adapt.

So look at everything you read about sourdough as simply one approach. There are as many ways to create, nurture, and bake with a starter as there are bakers in the world. The information you read here works well for us, and we've shared our expertise with hundreds of thousands of satisfied bakers. But the "right" way to bake with sourdough is whatever works best for YOU.