We tried San Francisco's legendary sourdough from the best local bakeries - and the winner was clear

San Francisco and sourdough bread are basically synonymous. Gold miners discovered this in the mid-1800s, and visitors to the city have been rediscovering it ever since.

It's not just hometown pride either - the special flavor in San Francisco sourdough comes from the lactic acids produced by bacteria that gets into the bread.

I recently set out on a mission to find the best sourdough bread San Francisco has to offer. To choose the bakeries I'd visit, I consulted rankings from Serious Eats, Yelp, Trip Savvy and Foursquare. At each bakery, I ordered an untoasted piece of bread with no accoutrements to get the true taste and flavor. I ranked my slices based on overall flavor, crunch, and texture.

Four loaves of sourdough later, here are the results: