[Sca-cooks] Sourdough (was Re: Corn Bread)

[Decker, Terry D.]

I certainly don't consider your question stupid.  I just have a slightly
different view of baking than you.

Beer drinking countries have often used ale barm (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)
to leaven bread rather than use a sourdough leaven.  The method is first
recorded in Pliny's Natural Histories and is common in period English
baking.  Ancient Roman bakers, who were often Greek or Germanic, used ale
barm, grape must and sourdough as leavens.

Southern European countries tended to depend on starters, levains and
biggas, as described in Platina.

France, being France, banned the use of barm or yeast at some point (I'm
still trying to determine if this was in period or not) and required that
all bread be made with sourdough.  The law was repealed largely due to the
fact that the airy baugette requires a fast acting yeast to produce the
proper texture.

A commercial baker of the day would likely know about the different methods
of leavening, but his country of origin would very likely determine the
chosen method of leavening.  I will admit the evidence is a bit tenuous,
since professionals didn't let out trade secrets and recipes are few and far
between, but it seems to be reflected in 19th Century baking techniques.

Bear

> I'm probably about to ask a stupid question, so pardon my
> baking ignorance,
> but why would the country of origin make a difference as to
> whether or not
> it would have been a sourdough? I've thought sour doughs were
> a natural
> evolution of fresh doughs, as wild yeast and lactobacillus
> find them over
> time. What am I missing?
>
> Yours inquisitively,
> Thomas Longshanks
>
> > An experienced baker would probably have tried both
> straight corn flour
> and
> > a maslin flour of maize and wheat.  Whether it was
> sourdough or not would
> > have depended upon the country of origin and the
> traditional mysteries of
> > the baker.
> >
> > Bear