[Sca-cooks] Commercial bread leavening
Alex Clark
alexbclark at pennswoods.net
Thu Feb 12 14:01:47 PST 2004
At 10:01 AM 2/12/2004 -0700, Stefan wrote:
>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.
According to _On Food and Cooking_ by McGee (1984, Collier Books), "In
commercial baking, where time and work are money, mechanical dough
developers can produce a "ripe" dough, with good aeration and an optimum
gluten, in 4 minutes. Yeast is added to such doughs only as flavoring." (p.
308)
Alex Clark (Henry of Maldon)
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