This page briefly describes how fermented bread first came about and how (in laymans terms) the process works.

Right back in the dawn of human history, primitive man (or woman) discovered that certain grains were edible. It was but a short step to the discovery that they became more readily consumable if they were broken. It seems obvious that the breaking was effected by means ready to hand - two heavy stones between which the grains were pounded. In this way the first corn meal was produced and milling got its inception.

The discovery of fire and its application to human comfort was a major achievement; used in cooking it rendered food much more appetising and digestible. Baking was simple; all that was needed was a flat stone that could be placed onto a fire and heated and onto which the rough bread cakes, made from cornmeal and water, could be placed and baked. The history of baking began at this point.

It was soon discovered that if the hot stone was enclosed by more stones, with the crevices sealed with clay, then the heat was conserved. In this way the first oven evolved.

A mixture of cornmeal and water shaped into rough pieces and baked on a hot stone resulted in a course bread quite hard in consistency, the only flavour being that conferred by the grain used and from that given by certain changes during baking. This was known as unleavened bread. The introduction of fermentation or leavening to bread was almost certainly the result of an accident, it being possible, at some distant point in history, that a piece of old dough was mixed into one freshly made with the result that the baked bread was found to be less dense. In this way the bread became leavened and the art of panary fermentation got its inception.

The art and practice of fermentation became highly developed in ancient Egypt, and amongst the early Jews. Soon it became common practice to save a piece of dough to mix with the new, so as to ensure continuity of the fermentation process.

It was soon discovered that the speed of fermentation was partly controlled by the consistency of the dough, a soft dough fermenting more quickly than a tight dough. Very soft mixes of malt, hops and water, together with a little of the course meal then used by the baker, were made up and then left uncovered, to be inoculated by airborne yeast organisms (although this was unknown at the time). After a period of time during which the yeast cells multiplied, the barm as it was called, was made into a dough. A piece of this dough was saved to act as a starter for the next barm and so the process went on. In many parts of the world, the sour dough method of fermentation is still used, particularly in the manufacture of rye breads.

All through the centuries it was thought that leavening was a spontaneous phenomena, until in 1859 the great French scientist Louis Pasteur discovered that it was the result of living yeast micro organisms, converting sugar into carbon dioxide gas(CO²) which leavened or aerated the dough.

The principle of panary fermentation is the production of CO². This is brought about by the action of the enzymes in yeast and flour. The initial gas production comes from the breakdown of glucose present in flour, or contained in added ingredients. Further glucose is made available by the conversion of other carbohydrates by specific enzymes. The gas is entangled and held in the gluten network which is gradually made more elastic during the fermentation process and so the dough rises. There are acid and alcohol by-products of fermentation which make a contribution to flavour.

When in the oven, gas production is accelerated until at last the yeast is killed and activity ceases. The expansion of air and gas and the pressure of water vapour causes an increase in volume which is maintained by the coagulation of all the proteins present as baking proceeds.



 

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