So-called “friendship bread” is a ball of dough you cultivate, add ingredients, split off some of the dough, give away some of the dough, make bread, and keep a little bit around to cultivate for the next batch. Whoever gets some of the dough then does the same. I guess the idea is there is some sort of continuity between all these loaves of bread everywhere though (oh dear god forgive me for saying this) time and space.1
Whenever I think about friendship bread I throw up a little bit in my mouth.
What I find far more interesting… is the idea that someone could have a RepRap where every plastic part came from a different machine.
- I don’t profess to be an expert on friendship bread. I could have some of the finer points wrong. [↩]
If you think that’s gross, did you know theres a bakery in San Francisco that “Since 1849 they have been using the same sourdough culture, which they call a “Mother dough” and the same recipe, flour, water, a pinch of salt and some of the this “Mother Dough”.So important is their “Mother Dough” it was heroically saved by Louise Boudin during the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.” See: http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/sourdough.htm
Aside from the obligatory social element, you’re describing sourdough, which uses a cultivated ‘mother culture’ of bacteria and wild yeasts rather than “Saccharomyces cervicea”, the standard bread yeast used for almost everything else today. I have heard it said that sourdough cultures were the norm before yeast took over, and that some negative traits of modern breads are down to this difference. I’d believe it, too: a phenomenon called “Oral tolerance” means that your immune system is less effective at fighting things you eat regularly, so eating lots of yeasty foods may predispose you to yeast infections or let yeasts colonise your gut (where they don’t belong).
I’m going to completely defer to your expertise on the bio-issues associated with sourdough. That said, my experience with “friendship bread” is having a friend’s wife hand a ziplock baggie of a disgusting looking milky liquid to me to deliver to my wife. I cannot possibly imagine that shuffling baggies of stale liquid is the preferred method of producing sourdough bread.
Since we’re WAY off topic anyhow… Amusing “oral tolerance” is the exact opposite of “homepathic medicine.” Homeopathy is the pseudo-science that your immune system will be boosted against certain ‘toxins’ by taking in small amounts of those ‘toxins.’
This will really freak you out then – According to http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/sourdough.htm In San Francisco there’s a bakery that “Since 1849 they have been using the same sourdough culture, which they call a “Mother dough” and the same recipe, flour, water, a pinch of salt and some of the this “Mother Dough”.So important is their “Mother Dough” it was heroically saved by Louise Boudin during the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.”
This will really freak you out then – According to The History of Sourdough website – In San Francisco there’s a bakery that “Since 1849 they have been using the same sourdough culture, which they call a “Mother dough” and the same recipe, flour, water, a pinch of salt and some of the this “Mother Dough”.So important is their “Mother Dough” it was heroically saved by Louise Boudin during the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.”
Actually, that doesn’t bother me. People walking around exchanging ziplock baggies of germs does bother me. When my friend finally delivered his sack of culture to me it had been sitting in his car for several days and then in his office desk for another day or two.
I cannot possibly imagine this is part of the SF sourdough baking tradition.