Only in the last hundred years has making light, airy breads been a certainty. Before that, breadmaking took years of experience and a generous measure of luck.
Early humans made bread by mixing crushed grains with water and spreading the mixture on stones to bake in the sun. Later, similar mixtures were baked in hot ashes.
The ancient Egyptians are credited with making the first leavened bread. Perhaps a batch of dough was allowed to stand before it was baked. Wild yeast cells settled in and grew, producing tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide and making the dough rise. The bread was softer and more palatable, so it became the custom to let the dough stand for some time before baking. This technique was hit or miss, however, because on some days, the air bore no suitable yeast.
Later, a baker discovered that a little dough raised in this manner could be used as a starter for the next batch of bread. The portion of bread kept to start the next batch was called leaven; it was the forerunner of today`s sourdough bread.
The Romans sometimes used a leaven made of grape juice and millet to hasten the fermentation of their breads. The juice contained yeast from the skins of the grapes. Barm, the foam that forms on beer during fermentation, was used as leaven by the Celts in Britain.
By the time the colonists made their way to the New World, the yeast organism had been identified and the brewing industry had begun. A byproduct of beermaking was brewer`s yeast that could be used as a starter for bread. The yeast floated to the top of the beer and was skimmed off and put into stone bottles. Bakers cold-buy their yeast from a local brewery or make a
”brew” at home.
Brewer`s yeast had one drawback; it frequently had a bitter taste that was imparted to the bread.
Besides brewer`s yeast, homemakers in the 19th Century used specially brewed ferments to make yeast. The basis for most of these ferments was a mash of grain, flour or boiled potatoes. Hops were often included to prevent sourness.
Salt-rising bread was made from a starter of milk, cornmeal and, sometimes, potatoes. The term ”salt-rising” referred to the practice of nesting the bowl of starter in a bed of heated salt to keep it warm overnight. A little salt also was added to the starter to delay the bacteria growth that might sour the milk.
For frontier families, sourdough was the most important possession after the Bible. Not only was it used to make bread, flapjacks and biscuits, but it could be used to fill cracks in the log cabin, treat wounds, brew hooch and feed the dogs.
The word ”sourdough” became a part of American language during the 1897 to 1898 Yukon gold strike, although sourdough had been a staple in California gold camps 50 years before. The word could mean the prospector or his dough. Prospectors carried their starter buried in the tops of bags of flour or in pots strapped to their backs.
A starter, or sponge, is simply a thick flour-and-water batter, though some recipes call for sugar, salt, milk, potato water or even yeast. The starter is allowed to stand uncovered for a day or two or more, depending on the ingredients and the temperature, and is then used in place of yeast in a recipe. After each use, the starter pot is replenished with flour and water to restore the mixture to its original volume and consistency.
During the 19th Century, Austrian chemists developed a system for mass-producing yeast. The yeast was sown in vats containing fermenting brew. When it rose to the top, the yeast was removed and washed, and some of the water was removed by pressure. It was then formed into ready-to-use cakes.
Bakers were wary of this new product, called dried yeast or German yeast, because it didn`t keep well and it was often bulked out with starch, chalk and pipe clay. But by 1900, journals were carrying advertisem*nts for yeast, all claiming the purest quality.
In 1863, an immigrant named Charles Fleischmann went back to Austria to search for a good-quality baker`s yeast and returned to America with the yeast cells in a test tube in his vest pocket. In 1868, he began selling compressed yeast wrapped in tin foil.
With the onset of World War II, the U.S. government sought a dehydrated yeast that could be used to make bread on the battlefield. In 1943, Fleischmann`s company produced the first active dry yeast. After the war, dry yeast was introduced to the retail market and is now the form of yeast most commonly used for home baking.
