[Sca-cooks] Observation on Leavenings

[Terry Decker]

You are probably seeing the difference between a normal starter and a fresh 
active yeast.  It is fairly common to use coolers to slow the rise of yeast 
breads, while allowing sourdoughs to rise at room temperature, because of 
the difference in the activity.

The common view (to which I subscribe) is Northern Europe tended to use 
yeast in the form of ale barm while the area around the Mediterranean where 
wine was the common beverage used sourdough.  Note that the use of yeast or 
starter is not geographically exclusive, but a tendency reinforced by 
climate.  Ale doesn't do well in warmer climes.

The Egyptians are the first people known to make leavened bread and from the 
little we know, it was sourdough.  Dupaigne disagrees, stating that the 
Egyptians used ale barm, but doesn't provide any evidence to support the 
claim.  It is possible that the Egyptians used both methods of leavening

There are Roman recipes which use fermented grape must as leavening.  To my 
knowledge, the earliest record of ale barm being used to leaven bread is a 
description in Pliny about the Vandals method of making bread.  Yeast breads 
were probably being prepared by Gallic bakers in Italy by the time of 
Pliny's death in 71 CE (based on some of the finds from Pompeii, and 
information from David and Toussaint-Samat).

The period English bread recipes use ale barm, which appears to have been 
the favored method into the 19th Century.  Platina, on the otherhand, 
describes bread made from a dough starter.  Dupaigne states that during the 
Middle Ages, natural starters were the standard in France until the 17th 
Century, when a mix of yeast and starter came into use.  From other sources, 
I gather that starter was required by law in France until the developement 
of the baguette (which requires a very active yeast).  Again Dupaigne 
provides little documentation and I have yet to find when the French limited 
breadmaking to natural starter.  The evidence suggests that ale drinking 
regions used ale barm and wine drinking regions used starters.  I still 
don't have a copy of that French text on Baking and Bakers in the Middle 
Ages (IIRC), so my answers may lie there.

Bear



> Making a few loaves of whole wheat bread, and experimenting a little.
>
> One set was made with yeast from a local brewer's recent endeavors, and 
> the
> other with my starter.
>
> Interestingly enough here in the cold months the sourdough was very very
> slow, but the yeast was quite perky, much like using regular yeast.
>
> I ponder this, is it true that the northern countries used a primarily ale
> barm starter for breads, while lower (aka warmer) countries used dough
> starters?
>
> I know for instance dough starters and ale barm were used in England, and
> that no one was locked to any one kind of starter, just pondering a few
> generalities.
>
> Simon Hondy