Ancient Egyptian Resurrection: The 4,500-Year-Old Wonder
In 2019, Jonathan Blackley, the inventor of the Xbox, partnered with a biologist and archaeologist to extract dormant yeast from an ancient Egyptian bread-baking pot. They believe the yeast dates back between 4,500 and 5,000 years, though other experts in the sourdough space still admit the actual original of sourdough is hard to pin down. What makes this discovery absolutely mind-blowing isn’t just the age, but the fact that someone who revolutionized gaming technology helped bring ancient bread back to life. Even with these questions around ancient Egyptian baking practices, one man Seamus Blackley — creator of the original XBox — teamed up with Love and a microbiologist to harvest yeast from ancient pots. Blackley’s sourdough starter, created from 4,500 year-old yeast, is considered the oldest sourdough starter, per Oldest. Imagine holding a living piece of history that was baking bread when the pyramids were still under construction. This starter isn’t just ancient—it’s a time traveler that somehow survived millennia without refrigeration or modern preservatives.
The Oregon Trail Pioneer: Carl Griffith’s 1847 Heritage
According to Carl T. Griffith, his family’s sourdough culture was originally created by his great-grandmother, who traveled with her sourdough west from Missouri along the Oregon Trail in 1847, settling near Salem, Oregon. All I know is that it started west in 1847 from Missouri. I would guess with the family of Dr. John Savage as one of his daughters (my great grandmother) was the cook. It came on west and settled near Salem Or. The sourdough starter was passed down to 10-year-old Carl Griffith in about 1930 in a Basque-American sheep camp. His family was building a homestead in the Steens Mountains at the time, and he baked bread in a Dutch oven in a campfire-heated pit. Carl’s Friends have distributed more than 54,000 samples of Griffith’s sourdough starter. As of 2023, the society had mailed nearly 65,000 baggies of dried starter to bakers across the globe. The remarkable thing about Carl’s story is how he transformed from a cattle drive baker into a World War II veteran and lawyer, yet never forgot his living inheritance from the frontier days.
San Francisco’s Golden Rush Survivor: Boudin Bakery’s 175-Year Legacy
In 1849, Isidore Boudin struck gold with four simple ingredients: flour, water, salt, and mother dough. A piece of the original “mother dough” continues to be used in every loaf of sourdough bread baked by Boudin since the Gold Rush era. As she was evacuating, Louise Boudin saved the family legacy by gathering up the mother dough and taking it with her in a bucket as she fled to safety. This incredible tale of survival through the 1906 San Francisco earthquake shows just how precious these living cultures were to families. As this essay on FoundSF explains, the strains of yeast and bacteria that are specific to San Francisco’s foggy microclimate would later be dubbed Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis. And these wild cultures, which have given rise to newer, crustier artisan breads, are largely similar to what gave birth to Boudin’s French-style sour loaves back in 1849. The bakery says it is the city’s oldest continuously operating business. Every single day for 175 years, this starter has been fed and tended like a family pet that happens to make incredible bread.
The European Aristocrat: Saint Honoratus from the Silk Road
A bakery called Chrissi’s Farmhouse Bakery uses it and said, “This noble starter dates back 900 years. It is a heritage sourdough culture and has a rich history dating back to the Silk Road Trades era. In honor of the Patron Saint Honore (Saint of Bakers), this starter actually originated from Wales.” Think about it—this starter was alive when Marco Polo was trading spices along the Silk Road. The fact that it bears the name of Saint Honoré, the patron saint of bakers, adds an almost mystical quality to its already impressive pedigree. While other starters were crossing American plains in covered wagons, this one was probably witnessing medieval European trade routes and surviving through centuries of political upheaval. Unlike many modern starters that can be temperamental, these ancient cultures seem to possess an almost supernatural resilience that comes from surviving wars, famines, and natural disasters. The connection to Welsh origins also suggests this starter may have traveled even further than we imagine, possibly crossing the English Channel multiple times throughout its nearly millennium-long existence.
Germany’s Black Death Survivor: The 1633 Bavarian Legend
One called the “Bavarian ‘Black Death’ Sourdough” is available on Etsy. REALsoughdoughstarter, the seller, said in the listing, “Oral history indicates that this starter dates back to around the period of Germany’s Black Death (1633) and originated in or near the town of Oberammergau. Black Death Starter: dates back to 1633, supposedly passed through many generations in Germany. The name alone sends chills down your spine—a starter that lived through one of Europe’s most devastating plague outbreaks. Oberammergau, famous for its Passion Play performed every ten years since 1634, provides the perfect dramatic backdrop for this starter’s origin story. Imagine families desperately trying to keep their bread alive while entire communities were dying around them. This starter didn’t just survive the Black Death; it thrived through it, providing sustenance when commercial food sources were scarce or non-existent. The fact that people in 1633 were so dedicated to preserving their sourdough culture during such desperate times shows how essential these living breads were to human survival.
French Revolutionary Bread: The 225-Year Parisian Heirloom
This is a sourdough starter culture originating from a bakery in France that has been operating on the outskirts of Paris since the late 1700s or early 1800s. I have had it for years and have kept it up with continual feedings at least once or twice a week. It has been gifted through two people and I don’t know the bakery name, but I do believe that it is genuinely this old! I’ve tried a few different sourdoughs, but this one can convert even the most staunch sourdough hater (me prior to trying this one because I do not enjoy the super sour sourdough bread). Picture this: while Marie Antoinette was allegedly saying “let them eat cake,” this starter was already feeding hungry Parisians with real, honest bread. It can achieve nearly a three times rise in 4-6 hours when I feed it twice daily and leave it on the kitchen counter (room temperature around 72-73 degrees F). It has amazing virility and light flavor. The current owner’s confession about being a former “sourdough hater” who was converted by this particular starter speaks volumes about its unique character. This French aristocrat of the sourdough world has apparently mastered the art of being powerful without being overpowering—perhaps a survival skill learned during the French Revolution when subtlety meant the difference between life and death.
Montana’s Century-Old Cowboy: The Rural Heritage Starter
This dough was birthed 100 years ago and was used to make sourdough biscuits over the fire in rural Montana by this seller’s great-great-grandfather. This century-old sourdough starter hails from Juneau, Alaska, and has a wheat base for the health-conscious. There’s something beautifully American about a starter that spent its early years crackling over campfires in the Big Sky Country. It’s become an important part of the family heritage and based on the reviews, looks like it will be for years to come. What strikes me about these frontier starters is their incredible adaptability—they learned to thrive in harsh conditions where failure meant hunger. While city dwellers had bakeries and grocery stores, these rural starters were often the difference between a family eating well or going hungry during long, isolated winters. Sourdough can also be used to make some delicious pancakes, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, and cornbread. The versatility of these century-old cultures reflects the resourcefulness of the families who kept them alive—when you’re living off the land, your bread starter better be able to do more than just make loaves.
Alaska’s Klondike Gold Rush Relic: The Yukon Survivor
The oldest known sourdough starter is over 120 years old, originating in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush. The oldest sourdough starter in Canada is believed to be from the 1890s, maintained by a bakery in Whitehorse, Yukon. Ione Christensen told The New York Times her sourdough starter was passed down to her by her great-grandfather Wesley David Ballentine. As Ballentine hiked the treacherous Chilkoot Pass in search of the Klondike gold fields, he made the starter in a flour sack — over a hundred years later, Christensen still had the starter. Can you imagine trudging through frozen wilderness with your life savings and a bag of bubbling dough? Over 75% of century-old sourdough starters in North America are descendants of Gold Rush-era cultures … Approximately 80% of bakeries in San Francisco use sourdough starters that are descendants of Gold Rush-era cultures. These Alaskan starters weren’t just making bread—they were providing crucial nutrition to men who were literally risking everything for the chance of striking it rich. The fact that someone carried a flour sack of starter over the notoriously deadly Chilkoot Pass shows how essential these cultures were to survival in extreme conditions.
The Swiss Alpine Ancient: Walliser Roggenbrot Heritage
The oldest sourdough starter in Switzerland is believed to be from the late 1700s, used for traditional Walliser Roggenbrot. Over 50% of century-old sourdough starters in Europe are used in bakeries that have been family-owned for multiple generations. Over 70% of century-old sourdough starters in Europe are used for traditional regional bread varieties. High in the Swiss Alps, where winters can last six months and isolation was a way of life, this rye bread starter represents the ultimate in mountain survival cooking. Walliser Roggenbrot, a dense, dark rye bread from the Valais region, was designed to last for months in root cellars and alpine huts. Approximately 70% of century-old sourdough starters are fed with a combination of wheat and rye flours … The average feeding frequency for maintaining century-old sourdough starters is once every 12-24 hours. The Swiss have always been masters of precision and longevity—their watches, their banks, and apparently their sourdough starters. This alpine survivor has been quietly fermenting in mountain bakeries for over two centuries, creating the hearty, sustaining bread that helped Swiss mountain communities survive some of the harshest winters on Earth.
The Science Behind These Ancient Survivors
A sourdough starter is more than just yeast: it’s a symbiotic culture of yeasts and bacteria. Commonly, the bacteria is one or more strains of lactobacillus, the yeast may be one of many different varieties, including saccharomyces and candida. Across various studies, twenty-three species of yeast and forty-three species of bacteria have been identified. Approximately 30% of century-old sourdough starters contain wild yeast strains not found in commercial yeast. The same principle is at play in sourdough starter — because starter is continually replaced with new doses of flour and water to feed the flourishing community of microbes that it contains, it doesn’t stay stagnant. Instead, “starters tend to evolve along with you and your feeding practices,” explains Baker’s Hotline member and sourdough specialist Barb Alpern. For most bakers, the answer is a clear no. … Maurizio Leo, author of the award-winning bread cookbook The Perfect Loaf, still uses the first starter he ever made; it’s now 12 years old. And while he’s sentimental about that starter, he says its age doesn’t really impact his bread. What’s fascinating is that while we treasure these ancient lineages, the actual microbes are constantly changing and adapting to their new environments. My kitchen is different and my refreshing or feeding regime is different, and it’s been shown that these factors have a significant effect on the dominant strains of yeast and bacteria which change between the original and the offshoot. For example, in one study it was found that the composition of sourdough across a number of bakeries in Belgium was mainly affected by the bakery environment, rather than the type of flour used. These starters are less like museum pieces and more like living family trees that carry forward the genetic memory of their origins while constantly adapting to survive in their new homes.
Did you expect that bread could outlive empires, survive plagues, and cross continents in flour sacks?
