Sourdough is, as the name suggests, a type of bread which has a slightly sour taste to it.
Normal breads are made using cultivated yeasts (the yeasts are used as a leavening agent in the dough; leavening agents lighten and soften the dough). Sourdough is made using natural yeasts and lactobacilli, rather than cultivated ones. The sour flavour comes from the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli.
Sourdough is a very old way of making bread. How old is not known, but sourdough bread has been found dating back almost six thousand years, and it probably pre-dates that by several thousand years. Most bread in history is sourdough; it is only in the past century and a half or so that cultivated yeasts have been used. Sourdough may not be as common or popular as it once was, but it is still produced.
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