Living Dough - 233 Year Old San Francisco Sourdough Starter Culture - Active & Live Organic Sourdough Starter for Baking - For Artisanal Bread, Pizza Dough, Waffles & More

The Living Dough 400 Year Old History Black Death Sourdough Starter is both a conversation piece and a fantastic baking ingredient. It arrived active and easy to feed, and within a couple of days I had a strong, bubbly starter ready to bake with. The flavor it brings to bread is outstanding—complex, slightly tangy, and perfect for artisan-style loaves. I’ve also used it for pizza dough and waffles with great results. Clear instructions made it simple to maintain, even if you’re newer to sourdough. If you love baking and appreciate a bit of history behind your food, this starter is absolutely worth it.

Excellent sourdough starter. Delicious, healthy smell and visibly active upon the first feeding. I have baked successfully with the starter using heritage organic wheat flour, organic rye flour, and artisan malted bread flour in loaves. In the 6 weeks I’ve used it, the starter culture has changed some with the flour I’m feeding it and my kitchen conditions but that is typical and expected. I’ve baked plain sourdough bread, Jewish rye bread, cinnamon rolls, pizza, and cardamom buns so far - all very nice.

I couldn't help but be curious about a long living starter! I decided to go with the oldest one. It shipped promptly, and arrived sooner than expected. It was well packaged. The seal on the jar was intact. When it hissed open I was met with a rich aroma. I got roughly 60 grams of starter and fed it at 1:1:1 with unbleached bread flour. Very quickly I was seeing activity and a healthy rise. There was lots of active bubbling to be seen! The first time around took about 6 hours to peak, give or take. Every 1:1:1 feeding after that had it doubling and then peaking in less than 4 in my warm kitchen. I fed it peak to peak 3 times before I baked with it. The first loaf turned out beautifully! The rise in the dough was quick and consistent. I did have medium rye for 1/6th of the flour and the rest bread flour, all King Arthur Organic Unbleached. The rye does get a faster rise, but this is my usual blend and this rose noticeably faster. The dough smelled heavenly. It did have its own distinct characteristics in smell. It was fascinating to see how this starter behaved in comparison to my previous starter. Even during the long cold proofing my loaf rose a bit more with this strain. Everything looked and felt good. Definitely had a distinct higher performance. I finally got my loaf into the oven. The oven spring on the loaf was very good! The crumb was lovely. Even though I served it before it fully cooled it was still fluffy and light. The bread had delicious and distinct aromatics! This starter certainly has character. I asked the seller about this strains origins and history. They responded quickly with some really interesting information! I was so jazzed to read about it. This strain in particular is in a European Sourdough Museum (Belgium, I believe) . I'm going to look into that museum to see if I can see what details their testing found. Since this strain has some early origin lore in Wales, I had to think of a proper name. Since legends say that's where Merlin came from, I felt I needed to honor that. Since I already have a strain named Sir Lanceloaf (Since I use King Arthur flour mostly) i had to tie it all together. As I watched the starter rising it occurred to me. I named it Excalibread. If you're even the mildest bit curious, or just starting your own Sourdough Journey, I cannot recommend this brand enough. I can't recommend this strain enough! It's a powerful and healthy little starter! I was so pleased with my loaf that I decided to let Sir Lanceloaf take a fridge vacation and I'll be maintaining Excalibread on the counter for the foreseeable future. It was such a great experience all around. So, allow me to be the little Amazon devil on your shoulder, add to cart!!!

This stuff is AWESOME!!! I am a terrible sourdough “parent.” My starter has been starved and neglected often. I just pour off the hooch (every time to decrease sourness) and feed it and it’s back in action. This is powerful enough to make bread in 6 hours after you have had it and kept it fed for a couple months. I don’t even use the unbleached flour. Makes great cinnamon roles too. I have even just mixed up dough and put it directly into the fridge and it still rises. It’s fast enough that I have used it to make pizza with quite a few times. I have never had success with sourdough before, and this is a great place for a beginner. Nice mild flavor, unlike some cultures that are super sour. Thank you for sharing this with the world!!!

Like many of you out there, I binge watched a LOT of how to sourdough videos.... And then took the plunge. Ordered this spunky old 900 yr old Dutch starter! It arrived a few days and opened with a loud Pop, and a lovely aroma! I fed it with 1:1:1 and said a prayer 🙏 the very next day it was bubbling over and insanely active! So I figured I'd go ahead and give it a go. I'm insanely shocked how beautiful my first loaf is.... It was like Christmas morning when I opened the oven this morning 🥰 I highly recommend this high quality starter.... (I also made Claire Saffitz sourdough pancakes this morning and they were incredible!!) If you're on the fence and nervous about sourdough, don't be.... It's very easy to do!!