Back-to-Basics FRENCH BREAD

The French have two distinct bread traditions. One is of breads that are crusty, crunchy, and limited to four ingredients: flour, leavening, salt, and water. They’re the sexy, trendy breads of today. When the leavening is sourdough rather than yeast, the resulting loaves are those featured in “artisan” bakeries and those that inspire many of us to bake our own bread at home.

For several hundred years, when English speakers said “French bread,” we didn’t think of the golden, rough-textured breads we so love today. And we never thought of sourdough! Sour was a taste we didn’t like in bread.

Cookbooks in the 19th century advised adding soda to neutralize any starter or bread dough