Instructions: In the mid 80s a pathologist, Dr. Ed Wood, held a position in Saudi Arabia. Wood is an avid bread maker and, realizing he was in the birthplace of bread, explored local bakeries in his spare time. In particular, he searched for sourdough cultures that had been passed down from the beginning of civilization. He persuaded local bakers to part with some of their historical starters and took them home to Cascade, Idaho. There he dried the starters to a form that allows them to be reconstituted with the addition of warm water and flour. He also subjected sourdough starters from other parts of the world to the same treatment. His collection now includes bread starters from 8 regions: the Yukon, San Francisco, France, Austria, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.

Each starter imparts a unique flavor or texture to bread. French sourdough is mild, but rises well. Bahrain sourdough is one of the most sour, while Yukon sourdough is moderately sour. He says the Saudi sourdough has the most distinctive flavor and the most overrated is from San Francisco (!). He calls the Russian starter his most aggressive starter, able to handle heavy doughs.

He has started a business selling the starters, which may be ordered by

ordered by sending check or money order to:

Sourdoughs International

In addition Wood wrote a cookbook, _World Sourdoughs From Antiquity_ baked goods. The book, which comes with a free starter of your choice, number. This is the number for Sinclair Publishing. The previous number is the number for Sourdoughs International.)

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