I have noticed a lot of publicity recently given over to Dave Chang of Monofuko & Lucky Peach fame & his espousal of Microbial Terroir - principally scientists cooperating with an experiment on fermenting pork. I'm not sure if "Microbial Terroir" is the new "Molecular Gastronomy", but proponents make some interesting points & state that there is a lot of magic about the effects of the immediate microbial environment on cider, geuze/lambic & wine production & with sourdough. In the west & in big scale production miso, shoyu, tempeh, tempeh, salt pickles, sake/mirin & mainstream beverages are often produced with lab cultures, but for example local tempeh production in Indonesia usually relies on the microbial terroir. My point is that sourdough (be it in classic bread production or used to make South Asian specialities, such as idli or hoppers) is probably the most crucial product to this way at looking at our food. Even if someone has obtained a ferment a zillion years old & used by countless people, it will soon adapt to the environment in which it is used. More often sourdough users will have originated their dough from scratch. I see that science is being done around great vineyards (certainly in France & New Zealand) around the microbial contribution to that greatness; is similar science or joined-up work being done around sourdough?
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There are a couple of articles about this in the Journal of Environmental and Applied Microbiology (think I got that right, but a little searching should get you there if i am off by a bit). There are two articles looking at sourdough in italian bakeries. They conclude the microbial population in the starter is all about the bakery.
I seem to remember an article about Polish cheese along the same lines, but I was concentrating on the sourdough.
I like this journal--it's free online and they are very good about identifying the suite of critters, which conveys an impression of great and beautiful complexity.