[Sca-cooks] Commercial bread leavening

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Harris Mark.S-rsve60:
>Bear replied to me with:
>>Soda bread is a bread leavened with baking soda rather than yeast.
>
>I was going to ask whether this meant that most modern, commercial 
>breads were soda breads, but then Admantius' comments make it clear 
>that "soda bread" is actually a bit more specific than that. But 
>this does raise a question. What is the rising agent in most 
>commercial breads, the wonder bread and similar ones, not the 
>artesian breads baked in your local deli? Are they using yeast or a 
>chemical agent? For years I had assumed the latter, but now I'm 
>wondering if it isn't yeast after all.

As far as I know, virtually all of the commercial, packaged, 
pre-sliced, supermarket-sandwich breads are raised with yeast, 
possibly with the help of various chemicals, but primarily, yeast. 
For the most part, they're all some variation or imitation of the 
standard baker's white Pullman loaf, which you used to buy in 
bakeries and have sliced to order.

You may be thinking of quick breads, which include many biscuit, 
cornbread and muffin recipes.

Adamantius