In Search of the Perfect Loaf: A Home Baker's Odyssey (35 page)

White wheat
—A variety of hard wheat that has a recessive gene that changes the pigment of the bran from reddish brown to a creamy color, altering the flavor of whole grain bread so that it is less assertive. White flour milled from white wheat (in which the germ and bran are removed) is even lighter in color than white flour milled from hard red wheat. Most of the white wheat grown in the United States is exported to Asia, where it is used in the production of noodles.

Introduction

one
fifth
of
humanity’s
calories
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), “Wheat: Global Alliance for Improving Food Security and the Livelihoods of the Resource Poor in the Developing World,” August 30, 2011.

The
ancient
Romans
The latin
fornix
means arch, referring both to the arch of the oven ceiling and the vaulted arcades around the Colosseum in Rome where prostitutes plied their trade. The word may also reflect the association of the oven as life giving. Jeffrey Hamelman,
Bread:
A
Baker’s
Book
of
Techniques
and
Recipes
(Wiley, 2004), p. 21.

Chapter 1:
Boulangerie Delmontel’s Baguette

The
poorest
slept
Steven Laurence Kaplan,
The
Bakers
of
Paris
and
the
Bread
Question,
1700–1775
(Duke University Press, 1996), p. 71.

By
1987,
a
cultural
critic
Steven Laurence Kaplan,
Good
Bread
Is
Back:
A
Contemporary
History
of
French
Bread,
the
Way
It
Is
Made,
and
the
People
Who
Make
It
(Duke University Press, 2006), pp. 98 and 340.

“There
was
no
danger”
James MacGuire, “The Baguette,”
The
Art
of
Eating
73/74 (2006).

Home
bakers
experienced
Mark Bittman, “The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work,”
The
New
York
Times
, November 8, 2006. For more variations on the recipe, see Jim Lahey,
My
Bread:
The
Revolutionary
No-Work,
No-Knead
Method
(W. W. Norton & Company, 2009).

Before
the
1920s
Jim Chevallier,
About
the
Baguette:
Exploring
the
Origin
of
a
French
National
Ico
n, self-published e-book available on Amazon.com.

they
drove
oxygen
into
the
dough
Oxidation causes a breakdown of lipids in flour, which includes vitamin E. The oxidation of carotenoids also compromises beta-carotene and other antioxidants.

Ascorbic
acid
Raymond Calvel,
The
Taste
of
Bread
(Aspen Publishers, 2001). See the section “Excessive Oxidation and Its Consequences,” pp. 30–37.

bread
consumption
declined
Edward Behr, “Paris (or What Is French Food?); Part I, Posing the Question and The Classic Parisian Baguette,”
The
Art
of
Eating
45 (Winter 1998), p. 10.

one
quarter
of
the
nation
Eleanor Beardsley, “Outsourced Croissants Outrage Traditional French Bakers,” National Public Radio, August 7, 2012.

This
process
was
crucial
There is evidence that wild yeasts contribute to endogenous fermentation, though the point has been debated. Others suggest that the primary yeast species in wine fermentation are domesticated species added by vintners. See LeGras et al., “Bread, Beer and Wine:
Saccharomyces
Cerevisiae
Diversity Reflects Human History,”
Molecular
Ecology
17 (2007).

Pichard
motioned
The hydration of this dough ranges from 78 to 82 percent, though Pichard stressed that it depends on the flour.

before
baker’s
yeast
The fresh baker’s yeast is generally 0.2 to 0.4 percent of the flour weight.

On
the
surface
of
the
dough
Pichard revealed another aspect of his method, which was crucial to understanding why it worked. The white flour did not have any additives, not even enzymatic malt. Since flour alone contains less than 1 percent fermentable sugar, the enzymatic agent found in barley malt is often necessary to help the fermentation process along. Most white flours contain these added enzymes. So why then does Pichard avoid malted flour? Because in the “endogenous” fermentation, what few enzymes are present in the flour have plenty of time to work. If the dough hasn’t fermented sufficiently, Pichard just lets it sit longer. If the flour contained malt, the result would be an excess of enzymatic activity over that period, meaning that too much starch would convert to sugar, causing the loaf to break down into a gummy mass. This is precisely what happened when I tried Pichard’s technique at home, because my flour contained malt. I let the flour and water sit at room temperature for a full day, but when I added yeast and made the dough, it never properly developed and the baguette was gummy inside. The prognosis? The enzymes in the malt had broken down too much starch in the “endogenous” fermentation. If I was going to try his method again, it would have to be with unmalted flour.

Compared
with
table
salt
One gram of coarse sea salt contains 350 to 375 milligrams of sodium chloride, compared with 400 milligrams in kosher salt.

Tim
immediately
liked
the
idea
Tim Carman, “Can Local Baguette Makers Compete With an Ace Home Baker? Our Debut Competition Raises Bread Discourse to a New Level,” Washington City Paper, May 8, 2009. Available at www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/37173/can-local-baguette-makers-compete-with-an-ace-home-baker.

Chapter 2:
Culturing Wild Leaven in My Kitchen

More
than
one
billion
bacteria
Interview with Michael Gänzle, April 2, 2013.

a
minute
amount
of
wild
yeast
Jill A. Snowdon et al., “Microorganisms in Honey,”
International
Journal
of
Food
Microbiology
31.1 (1996): 1–26. See also Peter B. Olaitan et al., “Honey: A Reservoir for Microorganisms and an Inhibitory Agent for Microbes,”
African
Health
Sciences
7.3 (2007).

arabinoxylan
Marco Gobbetti and Michael Gänzle, eds.,
Handbook
on
Sourdough
Biotechnology
(
Springer, 2013), chap. 9, p. 235. See also Paula Figoni,
How
Baking
Works:
Exploring
the
Fundamentals
of
Baking
Science
(Wiley, 2007), p. 70.

millet
made
the
best
sourdough
I actually tried to make the millet starter Pliny describes, but after two days of fermentation I saw little activity, so when I fed it a second time, I added malted barley. Not much happened, so on the third day, I added rye, honey, and millet. I continued this feeding regime until the sixth day, when I switched to rye entirely. After two weeks, it was very powerful and had a slightly sweet smell from the honey and it worked as well as my other starters that were then on vacation in my refrigerator, but it would be inaccurate to say it was a millet starter. Given its prevalence in archeological sites, I’m likely to give millet starter another try.

millet
wine
has
been
found
Patrick E. McGovern,
Uncorking
the
Past:
The
Quest
for
Wine,
Beer,
and
Other
Alcoholic
Beverages
(
University of California Press, 2009), Kindle edition, Kindle location 1073.

One
recently
investigated
vector
Irene Stefanini et al., “Role of Social Wasps in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ecology and Evolution,”
Proceedings
of
the
National
Academy
of
Sciences
109.33 (2012): 13398–403.

ripe
grapes
with
punctured
Robert Mortimer and Mario Polsinelli, “On the Origins of Wine Yeast,”
Research
in
Microbiology
150.3 (1999): 199–204.

called
the
aleurone
The aleurone contains the only living cells of the grain and is the most nutrient-dense element, with more protein, vitamins, minerals, and fiber than any other part of the seed. Its antioxidants are such a powerful preservative for the seed kernel that they have been studied to extend the shelf life of food products; its phytosterols have been shown to lower cholesterol, reduce blood pressure, and offer a host of other health benefits. But it is removed in the milling of white flour.

Saliva,
which
contains
ptyalin
Ptyalin is also a powerful piece of evidence against the oft-stated “Paleo diet” thesis which says that humans have not adapted to eating cereal grains. We have, when it comes to starch digestion. Populations that historically ate a high amount of starchy foods, such as grains and cereals, show a predominance of genes that favor the production of amylase enzymes in the saliva and thus starch digestion. See George H. Perry et al., “Diet and the Evolution of Human Amylase Gene Copy Number Variation,”
Nature
Genetics
39.10 (2007): 1256–60.

the
yeast
begin
a
process
Emily Buehler,
Bread
Science:
The
Chemistry
and
Craft
of
Making
Bread
(Two Blue Books, 2006), pp. 34–38.

651
variants
Jean Luc Legras et al., “Bread, Beer and Wine: Saccharomyces cerevisiae Diversity Reflects Human History,”
Molecular
Ecology
16.10 (2007): 2091–102.

Yeasts—a
fungi—are
actually
ubiquitous
Interview with Chris Hittenger, assistant professor, University of Wisconsin, December 17, 2012.

At
least
23 yeast
species
:
C. Meroth et al., “Monitoring the Bacterial Population Dynamics in Sourdough Fermentation Processes by Using PCR-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology 69(1) (Jan. 2003): 475–82.

But
if
wine
came
before
Interview with Sol Katz, August 3, 2011. Katz caused a stir on the microbrew circuit in the 1990s by helping concoct a contemporary version of Mesopotamian beer, based on the translation of a poem from 1800 b.c.

Rice
and
honey
mead
McGovern, Uncorking the Past, Kindle locations 1572–73, for China. The Göbekli Tepe site in Turkey, from 11,600 years ago, appears to have evidence of beer making as well. Oliver Dietrich et al., “The Role of Cult and Feasting in the Emergence of Neolithic Communities: New Evidence from Göbekli Tepe, South-eastern Turkey,”
Antiquity
86.333 (2012): 674–95.

Debra
Wink,
a
home
baker
Wink’s instructions on this method were provided in a two-part post on TheFreshLoaf.com.

Scientists
are
just
starting
to
tease
out
Marcia Shu-Wei Su et al., “Intestinal Origin of Sourdough Lactobacillus reuteri Isolates as Revealed by Phylogenetic, Genetic, and Physiological Analysis,”
Applied
and
Environmental
Microbiology
78.18 (2012): 6777–80.

But
lactobacilli
are
far
more
prevalent
Jens Walter, “Ecological Role of Lactobacilli in the Gastrointestinal Tract: Implications for Fundamental and Biomedical Research,”
Applied
and
Environmental
Microbiology
74.16 (2008): 4985–96.