Long ago before there was yeast what people used to make bread? Before there was yeast, people used to make bread using sourdough starter. The ancient method for making this bread was discovered about 4000 years ago. Sourdough or often called natural yeast is used until the mid-1800s or rather until Louis Pasteur discovered instant yeast. What kinds of sourdough techniques have developed in the community? Two types of sourdough are often used, namely preferments or sourdough with the addition of yeast called poolish in France and Biga for in Italy. There are also source or natural yeast without yeast, usually using the terms levain in France and Lau Mien in China and Italian Mother Sour in Italy. Nowadays many use sourdough starter that they make themselves or get it online.
What is the sourdough making process? The process of making sourdough is quite long. Ingredients such as bread flour, wheat bran, and water are the main ingredients in making sourdough in a ratio of 1: 1: 1. Every 6 hours sourdough must be fed bread flour or high protein flour. After two weeks and forming a sour aroma, then sourdough is ready for use. Some rules are applied for sourdough feeding with consistency 1 to 3 times a day. If only once, the portion of the meal should be more or twice. After that, the sourdough must be put into the chiller. But if feeding 2-3 times a day sourdough can be stored in the outside air. Sourdough contains quite healthy bacteria, with the name lactobacillus, a type of bacteria and yeast that is mixed so that it can expand properly.
What are the benefits of using bread using sourdough? The advantages of bread by using sourdough can be seen in terms of the efficiency of the time of making bread. By using sourdough, stirring the bread dough will be faster because the yeast is already in the ‘starter’, so that when the sourdough mixing process does not need to use yeast again. Besides, the first development fermentation is faster because there are already some active yeasts and final proofing is also faster.
