I Suppose reading flour packets is one up on reading cornflake packets (Fridge bread recipe, June 4), but one must read with discretion. How can one trust a paper-bag writer who promotes pseudo sourdough?

Julian Cole excuses himself on the grounds that he cannot explain sourdough in 369 words. Could he not at least remind us of the romance of sourdough? The hardy pioneers with their tins of sourdough, and the literary connection with Robert Service and Dangerous Dan McGrew; and the heroic Doughboys who marched “from Atlanta to the Sea”, and who followed General Pershing to Berlin, and who would be with us yet if conscription had not ordained General Issue and a new name for Yankee soldiers.

In the wilderness or on the battlefield, the dough saved from one baking raised the next. As with pickling, smoking and drying, the food of necessity became the choice of connoisseurs.

Sourdough rising, like that of an Englishman, “needs time”, but at least one supermarket has proved it can end up with something flabby and tasteless. Ah, Julian! Take time, and teach those who need teaching.

William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York.

• Julian Cole writes: Thanks to Mr Dixon Smith for his interesting account; what I intended to suggest was that the recipe itself takes a bit of explaining.