GERMAN
Black Forest gâteau (British English) and Black
Forest cake (American English and Australian English) are the English names for the German dessert Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte "Black Forest cherry torte".
Typically,
Black Forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then
the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate
shavings. In some European traditions sour cherries are used both between the
layers and for decorating the top.
Traditionally,Kirchwasser (a clear liquor distilled from tart
cherries) is added to the cake, although other liquors are also used
(such as rum, which is common in Austrian
recipes). In the United States, Black Forest cake is most often prepared
without alcohol. German statutory interpretation states Kirschwasser as a
mandatory ingredient, otherwise the cake is legally not allowed to be marketed
as Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.
History
The cake is
named not directly after the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) mountain range
in southwestern Germany but rather from the specialty liquor of that region,
known as Schwarzwälder Kirsch(wasser) and distilled from tart cherries.
This is the ingredient, with its distinctive cherry pit flavor and alcoholic
content, that gives the cake its flavor. Cherries, cream, and Kirschwasser were
first combined in the form of a dessert in which cooked cherries were served
with cream and Kirschwasser, while a cake combining cherries, biscuit and cream (but without Kirschwasser)
probably originated in Germany.
Today, the Swiss canton of Zug is world-renowned for its Zuger Kirschtorte, a biscuit-based cake which formerly
contained no Kirschwasser. A version from the canton of Basel also exists.
The confectioner Josef
Keller (1887–1981) claimed to have invented Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte in its present form in 1915 at the
then prominent Café Agner in Bad Godesberg, now a suburb of Bonn
about 500 km north of the Black Forest. This claim, however, has never
been substantiated.
Schwarzwälder
Kirschtorte was first mentioned in writing in
1934. At the time it was particularly associated with Berlin but was also available from
high-class confectioners in other German, Austrian, and Swiss cities. In 1949
it took 13th place in a list of best-known German cakes, and since that time Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte has become world-renowned.
The record for the world's largest authentic black forest
cake was set at Europa Park,
Germany on 16 July 2006, by K&D Bakery.
Measuring
nearly 80sqm and weighing 3,000 kg, the cake, which is 10m in diameter,
used up 700l of cream, 5,600 eggs, 800 kg of cherries, 40 kg of
chocolate shavings and 120l of Kirsch.
On
9 December 2012, a team led by chefs Jörg Mink and Julien Bompard, made Asia's
biggest black forest cake at the S-One Expo in
Singapore on 9 December 2012.
The 500 kg cake was made from 165l of cream,
1,500 eggs, 68 kg of cherries, 60 kg of chocolate shavings and 10l of
Kirsch.
Swedish Black Forest Cake
A Swedish
cake called Schwarzwald tarta is related to the traditional Black Forest cake
only by name. It consists of layers of meringue with whipped cream in between.
The whole cake is also covered with whipped cream and decorated with chocolate.
Stollen
A Stollen is a fruit cake containing dried fruit and often marzipan and covered with sugar, powdered sugar or icing sugar. The
cake is usually made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts and
spices.
Stollen is a traditional German cake, usually eaten during the Christmas season, when it is
called Weihnachtsstollen
or Christstollen.
Recipe
Stollen is a
bread-like fruit cake made with yeast, water and flour, and
usually with zest added to the dough.
Candied orange
peel and candied citrus peel (Zitronat), raisins and almonds, and different spices such as cardamom and cinnamon are added. Other ingredients, such as
milk, sugar, butter, salt, rum, eggs, vanilla, other dried fruits and nuts and marzipan may also be added to the Stollen
dough. Except for the fruit added, the dough is quite low in sugar.
The
finished cake is sprinkled with icing sugar. The traditional weight of a
Stollen is around 4.4 pounds (2 kg), but smaller sizes are now available.
The Dresden
Stollen (originally Striezel), a moist, heavy bread filled with fruit, was
first mentioned in an official document in 1474, and the most famous Stollen is
still the Dresdner Stollen, sold, amongst other places, at the
local Christmas market, Striezelmarkt.
Dresden Stollen is produced in the city
of Dresden and distinguished by a special seal
depicting King Augustus II the Strong. This
"official" Stollen is produced by only 150 Dresden bakers.
History
The early
Stollen was a different pastry, the ingredients were very different - flour,
oats and water.
As a
Christmas pastry, Stollen was baked for the first time at the Saxon Royal Court
in 1427, and was made with flour, yeast, oil
and water.
The Advent season was a time of fasting, and
bakers were not allowed to use butter, only oil, and the cake was tasteless and
hard.
In the 15th
century, in medieval Saxony (in central Germany, north of Bavaria and south of
Brandenburg), the Prince Elector Ernst (1441 - 1486) and his brother Duke Albrecht(1443–1500) decided to remedy
this by writing to the Pope in Rome. The Saxon bakers needed to use butter, as oil
in Saxony was expensive, hard to come by, and had to be made from turnips,
although we now know this was a healthy option.
Pope
Nicholas V (1397–1455), in 1450 denied the first
appeal. Five popes died before finally, Pope Innocent VIII, (1432–1492)in
1490 sent a letter to the Prince, known as the "Butter-Letter" which
granted the use of butter (without having to pay a fine) - but only for the
Prince-Elector and his family and household.
Others were
also permitted to use butter, but with the condition of having to pay annually
1/20th of a gold Gulden to support the building of the Freiburg Minster. The ban on butter
was removed when Saxony became Protestant.
Over the
centuries, the cake changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless
"bread" to a sweeter cake with richer ingredients, such
as marzipan, although the traditional Stollen is not as sweet, light and
airy as the copies made around the world.
Dresden stolllen festival
Every year a
Stollenfest takes place in Dresden. This historical tradition ended only in
1918 with the fall of the monarchy, and started again in 1994, but the idea
comes from Dresden’s history.
Dresden’s
Christmas market was mentioned in the chronicles for the first time in 1474.
The
tradition of baking Christmas Stollen in Dresden is very old. Christmas Stollen
in Dresden was already baked in the 15th century.
In 1560, the
bakers of Dresden offered the rulers of Saxony Christmas Stollen weighing 36
pounds each as gift, and the custom continued.
Augustus II
the Strong (1670–1733) was the Elector of
Saxony, King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania. The King loved pomp,
luxury, splendour and feasts. In 1730, he impressed his subjects, ordering the
Bakers’ Guild of Dresden to make a giant 1.7-tonne Stollen, big enough for
everyone to have a portion to eat. There were around 24,000 guests who were
taking part in the festivities on the occasion of the legendary amusement
festivity known as Zeithainer Lustlager. For this special occasion, the court
architect Matthaus Daneil Poppelmann (1662-1737), built a particularly oversized Stollen oven. An oversized Stollen knife also had
been designed solely for this occasion
Today, the
festival takes place on the Saturday before the second Sunday in Advent, and
the cake weighs between three and four tonnes. A carriage takes the cake in a
parade through the streets of Dresden to the Christmas market, where it is
ceremoniously cut into pieces and distributed among the crowd, for a small sum
which goes to charity. A special knife, the Grand Dresden Stollen Knife, a
silver-plated knife, 1.60 meters long weighing 12 kg, which is a copy of
the lost baroque original knife from 1730, is used to festively cut the
oversize Stollen at the Dresden Christmas fair.
The largest
Stollen was baked in 2010 by Lidl; it was 70 meters long and was certified by
the Guinness Book of World Records, at
the trainstation of Haarlem.
A stollen is
like regular sweetened fruit bread. However, because it is slathered with
melted unsalted butter and rolled in sugar as soon as it comes out of the oven,
the result is a much better keeping and moister product. The marzipan rope in
the middle is optional. The dried fruits are macerated in rum or brandy for a
superior tasting bread.
Prezel
A pretzel (known as Brezel in German, sometimes also Brezn or Breze) is a type of baked food made from dough in soft and hard varieties and savory
or sweet flavors in a unique knot-like shape, originating in Europe. The pretzel shape is a
distinctive symmetrical looped form, with the ends of a long strip of dough
intertwine brought together and then twisted back onto itself in a certain way
("a pretzel loop").
Pretzels in stick form may also be called
pretzels in the English-speaking context. For seasoning and decoration various
glazes, salt crystals, sugar and various seeds or nuts can be used. The size
varies from large enough for one to be a sufficient serving, to much smaller.
A bread
pretzel popular in southern Germany and adjoining German-speaking areas, as
well as in some areas of the United States, is made from wheat flour, water and
yeast, usually sprinkled with coarse salt, hand-sized and made for consumption
on the same day. It is relatively soft, rather than brittle. To avoid confusion
with any other kind of pretzel, German speakers call this variety
"Laugenbrezel" (lye pretzel) because it is dipped in lye solution (NaoH) before baking. Sweet pastry pretzels with many textures, toppings
and coatings, are made. Crisp hard pretzels, e.g. pretzel sticks and a variety
of shapes basically made from the same ingredients, have evolved from the lye
pretzel by baking out excess moisture, thereby increasing shelf life and
crispness.
History
There are numerous accounts on the origin of
pretzels, as well as the origin of the name; most agree that they have
Christian backgrounds and were invented by monks. According to The
History of Science and Technology,
by Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans, in 610 AD "...an Italian monk
invents pretzels as a reward to children who learn their prayers. He calls the
strips of baked dough, folded to resemble arms crossing the chest, 'pretiola'
("little rewards")". However, no source is cited to back up
these details. Another source locates the invention in a monastery in southern
France. The looped pretzel may also be related to a
Greek ring bread, derived from communion bread used in monasteries a thousand
years ago In Germany there are stories that pretzels were
the invention of desperate bakers held hostage by local Dignatories. Meyers Konversations-Lexikon from 1905 suspects the origin of
pretzels in a ban of heathen baking traditions, such as in the form of a sun cross, at the Synod of Estinnes
in the year 743. The pretzel may have emerged as a substitute. The German name "Brezel"
may derive also from Latin bracellus (a medieval term for
"bracelet"), or bracchiola ("little arms").
The pretzel
has been in use as an emblem of bakers and formerly their guilds in southern German areas since at
least the 12th century. A 12th-century illustration in the Hortus deliciarum from the southwest German Alsace region (today France) may contain the
earliest depiction of a pretzel.
Within the Catholic Church, pretzels were
regarded as having religious significance for both ingredients and shape.
Pretzels made with a simple recipe using only flour and water could be eaten
during Lent, when Christians were forbidden to eat
eggs, lard, or dairy products such as milk and butter. As time passed, pretzels
became associated with both Lent and Easter. Pretzels were hidden on Easter
morning just as eggs are hidden today, and are particularly associated with Lent, fasting, and prayers before Easter.
Like the
holes in the hubs of round Swedish flat bread (which let them be hung on
strings), the loops in pretzels may have served a practical purpose: bakers
could hang them on sticks, for instance, projecting upwards from a central
column, as shown in a painting by Job Berckheyde (1630–93) from around 1681.
Upper-German-speaking countries
Pretzel
baking has most firmly taken root in southern Germany and adjoining Upper
German-speaking areas, and pretzels have been an integral part of German baking
traditions for centuries.
Lye pretzels
are popular in southern Germany, Alsace, Austria and German-speaking
Switzerland as a variety of bread, a side dish or a snack, and come in many
local varieties. Almost every region and even city has its own way of baking
them. Examples for pretzel names in various Upper-German dialects are Brezn, Bretzel, Brezzl, Brezgen, Bretzga, Bretzet, Bretschl, Kringel, Silserli and Sülzerli. Baked for consumption on the same
day, they are sold in every bakery and in special booths or stands in downtown
streets. Often, they are sliced horizontally, buttered, and sold as Butterbrezel, or come with slices of cold meats
or cheese. Sesame, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin or caraway seeds, melted cheese and
bacon bits are other popular toppings. Some bakeries offer pretzels made of
different flours, such as whole wheat, rye or spelt. In Bavaria, lye pretzels
accompany a main dish such as Weisswurst sausage. The same dough and baking
procedure with lye and salt is used to make other kinds of "lye
pastry" (Laugengebäck): lye rolls, buns, croissants and even
loaves (Laugenbrötchen, Laugenstangen, Laugen croissants, Laugenbrot). Yet, in some parts of Bavaria, especially in lower Bavaria,
unglazed "white" pretzels, sprinkled with salt and caraway seeds are
still popular. Basically with the same ingredients, lye pretzels come in
numerous local varieties. Sizes are usually similar; the main differences are
the thickness of the dough, the content of fat and the degree of baking.
Typical Swabian pretzels, for example, have very thin
"arms" and a "fat belly" with a split, and a higher fat
content. The thicker part makes it easier to slice them for the use of
sandwiches. In Bavarian pretzels, the arms are left thicker so they do not bake
to a crisp and contain very little fat.
The pretzel
shape is used for a variety of sweet pastries made of different types of dough
(flaky, brittle, soft, crispy) with a variety of toppings (icing, nuts, seeds,
cinnamon). Around Christmas they can be made of soft gingerbread ("Lebkuchen")
with chocolate coating.
In southern
Germany and adjoining German-speaking areas, pretzels have retained their
original religious meanings and are still used in various traditions and
festivals.
In some
areas, on January 1, people give each other lightly sweetened yeast pretzels
for good luck and good fortune. These "New-Years pretzels" are made
in different sizes and can have a width of 50 centimetres (20 in) and
more. Sometimes children visit their godparents to fetch their New Years
pretzel. On May 1, love-struck boys used to paint a pretzel on the doors of the
adored. On the other hand, an upside-down pretzel would have been a sign of
disgrace. Especially Catholic areas, such as Austria, Bavaria or some parts of
Swabia, the "Palm pretzel" is made for Palm Sunday celebrations. Sizes can range from
30 cm (1 ft) up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) and they can weigh
up to 2.5 kg (6 lbs). An old tradition on Palm Sunday
dating back to 1533 is the outdoor pretzel market (Brezgenmarkt) in the
Hungerbrunnen Valley near Heldenfingen.
In the Rhineland region, sweet pretzels are made with
pudding-filled loops (pudding pretzels).
On Laetare Sunday in Luxembourg, the fourth Sunday in Lent, there is a festival called
"Pretzel Sunday". Boys give their girlfriends pretzels or cakes in
pretzel form. The size symbolizes how much he likes
her. In return, if a girl wants to increase his attention, she will give him a
decorated egg on Easter. The pretzel custom is reversed on Pretzel Sunday
during leap years. This custom also still exists in some
areas of the Swabian Alb.
On the same
occasion in Rhenish
Hesse and the Palatinate, people have parades
carrying big pretzels mounted on colourful decorated poles.
Popular
during Lent in Biberach are "Lent pretzels", which
are shortly boiled in water before baking and afterwards sprinkled with salt.
Schloss Burg is renowned for a 200-year-old
speciality, the "Burger pretzel". Its texture and flavour resembles rusk or zwieback. A local story says that the
recipe came from a grateful Napoleonic soldier in 1795, whose wounds were
treated by a baker's family in the little town of Burg. The cultural importance of the
pretzel for Burg is expressed by a monument in honour of the pretzel bakers,
and by an 18-km hiking trail nearby called "Pretzel Hiking Trail".
A variety
typical for Upper Franconia is the "anise pretzel". The
town of Weidenberg celebrates the "Pretzel
weeks" during the carnival season, when anise flavored pretzels are served with
special dishes such as cooked meat with horseradish or roast. In the city of Lubect, the 500-year old guild of boatmen on the Stecknitz Canal
call their annual meetings in January Kringelhöge (Pretzelfun). The elaborate affair,
with about 200 participants, is celebrated as a breakfast with beer, and
includes Mass in the Lübeck Cathedral and a presentation of songs by a
children's choir. In earlier times, the children were very poor, coming from an
orphanage, and each received a Kringel (pretzel) as a reward. Hence, the
name "Pretzelfun" was adopted, because this gift was considered a
highlight. Today, the children come from schools, but they still get the
pretzels.
The lye
pretzel is the theme for a number of festivals in Germany. The city of Speyer prides itself to be the "pretzel
town", and around the second weekend of July, from Friday to Tuesday, it
holds an annual funfair and festival called "Brezelfest",
which is the largest beer festival in the Upper Rhine region, and attracts around 300,000
visitors. The festival includes a parade with over 100 bands, floats and clubs
participating from the whole region, and 22,000 pretzels are thrown among the
crowds. On the market square of Speyer, there
is a fountain with a statue of a boy selling pretzels. The pretzel booths on
the main street are permanently installed and were specially designed when the
whole downtown area was redone for the 2000th anniversary. One-day pretzel fests and markets in
other German towns are in Kirchhellen, a borough of Bottrop, or in Kornwesthem.
In 2003 and
2004, "Peace Pretzels" were baked for a UNICEF charity event and other charity
purposes in Munich. Instead of the typical pretzel loop,
they were made in the similar shape of a peace symbol.
United States
In the 19th
century, southern German and Swiss German immigrants introduced the pretzel to
North America. The immigrants became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, and in time, many
handmade pretzel bakeries populated the central Pennsylvania countryside, and
the pretzel's popularity spread.
In the 20th
century, soft pretzels became extremely popular in other regions of the United
States. Cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York became renowned for their soft
pretzels. The key to success was the introduction
of the new mass production methods of the industrialized age, which increased
the availability and quantity, and the opening up of multiple points of
distribution at schools, convenience and grocery stores, and entertainment
venues such as movie theaters, arenas, concert halls, and sport stadiums. Prior
to that, street vendors used to sell pretzels on street corners in wooden
glass-enclosed cases.
In
particular, it became iconic with Philadelphia and was established as a cuisine of Philadelphia for snacking at school, work, or
home, and considered by most to be a quick meal. The average Philadelphian
today consumes about twelve times as many pretzels as the national average.
Pennsylvania
today is the center of American pretzel production for both the hard crispy and
the soft bread types of pretzels. Southeastern Pennsylvania, with its large
population of German background, is considered the birthplace of the American
pretzel industry, and many pretzel bakers are still located in the area.
Pennsylvania produces 80% of the nation's pretzels.
The annual
United States pretzel industry is worth over $550 million. The average American consumes about
1.5 pounds (0.7 kg) of pretzels per year.
The
privately run "Pretzel Museum" opened in Philadelphia in 1993. In 2003, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell declared April 26 "National
Pretzel Day" to acknowledge the importance of the pretzel to the state's
history and economy. Philly Pretzel Factory stores offer a free pretzel to each customer on
this day.
In Tell
City, Indiana, the Tell City Pretzels originated over 100 years ago. In 1858
Casper Gloor, a baker from Switzerland settled in Tell City, Indiana. Gloor was
a member of the Swiss Colonization Society. He soon became known for the
pretzels that he baked from a recipe brought from Switzerland. Today, the
recipe remains in use.
Hard
pretzels originated in the United States, where, in 1850, the Sturgis bakery in Lititz, Pennsylvania, became the
first commercial hard pretzel bakery. Snack food hard pretzels were shaped as sticks (around 3 millimetres (0.12 in)
thick and 12 centimetres (4.7 in) long), loops, braids, letters or little
pretzels; they have become a popular snack in many countries around the world.
A thicker variety of sticks can be 1 centimetre (0.39 in) thick; in the U.
S. these are called Bavarian pretzels. Unlike the soft pretzels,
these were durable when kept in an airtight environment and marketable in a
variety of convenience stores. In Europe, snack food pretzels are usually sprinkled with salt, but also
with sesame seed, poppy seed or cheese. In the U.S., they come in many
varieties of flavors and coatings, such as yogurt, chocolate, strawberry,
mustard, cheese and others, and chocolate-covered hard pretzels are popular
around Christmas time and given as gifts. The variety of shapes and sizes
became contest of imagination in the marketing of the pretzels taste. During
the 1900s, people in Philadelphia would use the small slender pretzel stick as
a common accompaniment to ice cream or would crumble pretzels as a
topping. This combination of cold sweet and salty taste was very popular for
many years. Eventually this led to the development of an ice cream cone tasting
like a pretzel. More recently Mars, Incorporated manufactures M&M's with
a small spherical pretzel covered in milk
chocolate and candy coated in all of the standard M&Ms
colors, called "Pretzel M&M's".
Pennsylvania milestones
1800s
Southern German and Swiss German immigrants who became known as
the Pennsylvania Dutch introduced soft pretzels and pretzel bakery
businesses.
1861
Sturgis Pretzel House in Lititz, Pennsylvania becomes the
first commercial hard pretzel bakery in the United States.
1889
The Anderson Pretzel Factory in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania is founded. Today it calls itself the world's largest,
producing 65 tons of hard pretzels daily.
1935
The Reading Pretzel Machinery Company in Reading, Pennsylvania introduced the first automatic
hard pretzel twisting machine.
1963
The largest soft pretzel of its time, weighing 40 pounds and
measuring 5 feet across, is baked by Joseph Nacchio of the Federal Pretzel
Baking Company. for film "It's a Mad Mad Mad World."
1978
The first machine-produced stamped cut soft pretzel was innovated
at Federal Pretzel Baking Company.
1993
The first Pretzel Museum of soft pretzels is opened in Philadelphia.
Designed and operated by the Nacchio family. A short 7 minute film,
demonstration of championship hand twisting at 57 per minute and tasting were
highlights.
2003
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell declares April 26 National Pretzel Day
to acknowledge the importance of the pretzel to the state's history and economy.
Other countries
Although not as popular as among German
speakers and Americans, the looped pretzel is known in other European countries
and in other countries around the world. In the Czech Republic, the pretzel is
known as preclík, in Finland
as viipurinrinkeli. The
Spanish, French and Italians call it pretzel, bretzel or brezel,
the Dutch favor sweet variants calledkrakeling, Norwegian and Danish
call it a kringle, in Polish it
is precel, in Serbian it
is pereca, and in
Hungarian it is perec. In Romania the pretzel is known as covrigi and it's a very popular
fast food in urban areas and also as a holiday gift.
In popular culture
The pretzel has become an element in popular
culture, both as a food staple and its unique knotted twist shape which has inspired ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes,[41]images and
other phenomena. Although historically, the pretzel has influenced culture
it has recently been heavily influenced by mass media.
Landscape architecture and sculpture memorialized the
strong identity that the City of Philadelphia had with pretzel cuisine of local
bakers and popularity in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Recreation Department
renamed in 2004 a facility formerly identified as Manayunk Park, located on the
4300 block of Silverwood Street as "Pretzel Park." The
re-designed park includes pretzel like looped pathways and a public
art statue in the shape of a pretzel sculpted by Warren C. Holzman.
Municipal government adopts pretzel logo as trademark by the City
of Freeport, Illinois, also known as "Pretzel City USA".
Dance steps developed in swing dancing became the
"pretzel dance move", which dates back to the 1920s.
Furniture Design inspired Pretzel Chair designed in 1952
by George Nelson.
Amusement ride of the Pretzel Loop design in Roller coaster
elements maximizes the g-forces on riders, increasing the "thrill
element" of riding a roller coaster. On a pretzel loop, riders are upside
down at the beginning, and on their backs and going backwards at the bottom.
Fashion inspired sling bikini is a pretzel bathing suit
design emerged in the early 1990s, as a new fashion product of Spandex. It
is a bikini variant, haltered maillot that criss-crosses the front and
fastens to the waistline. With the advent of the 1990s fabric known
as Lycra, these bikinis first emerged and became most popular on the beaches of Europe,
including Saint Tropez,Marabella, Mykonos and Ibiza.
"Pretzel Logic" is the name of a single released by the pop
music group Steely Dan from their album Pretzel Logic,
originally released in 1974. Pretzel Nugget is a 1994 EP by
the Beastie Boys, released on the Grand Royal records label.
Slang "Pretzelphyte" meaning a follower loyal to soft
pretzels; or a soft pretzel aficionado.
Ecosystem ecology The "SolVin-Pretzel"
because of its shape was the name given to the inflatable United Nations Global
Canopy Programme's light weight research platform which is placed on top of the
canopy of rainforests to study the ecology below.
Viral Media President George W. Bush
faints in January 2002 after choking on a pretzel. He tells a press conference,
"When you're eating pretzels, chew before you swallow. Listen to your
mother."
Sour Dough
Sourdough is a bread product
made by a long fermentation of dough using naturally occurring lactobacilli and yeasts. In
comparison with breads made quickly with cultivated yeast, it usually has a
mildly sour taste because of the lactic acid produced by the
lactobacilli.
Introduction
Sourdough is a dough containing a Lactobacillus culture in symbiotic combination with yeasts. It is one
of the principal means of biological leavening in bread baking, the
others using cultivated forms of yeast (Saccharomyces).
It is important in
baking rye-based breads,
where yeast does not produce
comparable results. Compared to breads made with baker's yeast it produces a
mildly sour taste because of the lactic acid produced by the
lactobacilli.
Preparation
Starter
The
preparation of sourdough begins with a pre-ferment, (the "starter"
or "levain", also known as the "chief", "chef" or
"head"), made of flour and water. The purpose of the starter is to
produce a vigorous leaven and to develop the flavour of the bread. In practice
there are several kinds. The ratio of water to flour in the starter (the
"hydration") varies and a starter may be a fluid batter or a stiff
dough.
When wheat
flour comes into contact with water, naturally occurring amylase enzymes break down the starch into maltose; the enzyme maltase converts the maltose sugar into glucose,
which yeast can metabolize. Flour naturally contains a variety of
yeasts and bacterial spores. With sufficient time, temperature,
and refreshments with new or fresh dough, the mixture develops a balanced,
symbiotic or stable culture.
This culture will cause a dough to rise if
the gluten has been developed sufficiently. The bacteria ferment
sugars that the yeast cannot metabolise and their by-products are metabolised
by yeast, which produces carbon dioxide gas, which leavens the
dough.
Obtaining a satisfactory rise from sourdough takes longer than in a
dough leavened with packaged yeast because the yeast in a sourdough is less
vigorous. In the presence of lactic acid bacteria, however, some sourdough
yeasts have been observed to produce twice the gas of baker's or packaged
yeast.
The acidic conditions in sourdough, along with the bacteria also
producing enzymes that break down proteins, result in weaker gluten and may
produce a denser finished product.
Refreshment of the starter
As it
ferments, sometimes for several days, the volume of the starter is increased by
periodic additions of flour and water, called "refreshments". As long as this starter culture is
fed flour and water regularly it will remain active.
The ratio of
fermented dough to fresh dough is critical in the development and maintenance
of a starter.
This ratio is called "inoculation" or the
"refreshment ratio". Higher refreshment ratios are
associated with greater microbial stability in the sourdough. In San Francisco
sourdough, the ratio is 40% of the total weight, which is
roughly equivalent to 67% of the new-dough's weight.
A high
refreshment ratio keeps acidity of the refreshed dough relatively low. Acidity levels of below pH 4.0
inhibit lactobacilli and favour acid-tolerant yeasts.
A starter
prepared from scratch with a salted wheat-rye dough takes about 54 hours at 27 °C (81 °F) to stabilise at a pH between 4.4 and
4.6.
A drier and
cooler starter has less bacterial activity and more yeast growth, which results
in the bacterial production of more acetic acid relative to lactic acid.
Conversely, a wetter and warmer starter has more bacterial activity and less
yeast growth, with more lactic acid relative to acetic acid. The yeasts produce mainly CO2 and ethanol.
A dry, cool starter produces a more
sour loaf than a wet, warm one. Firm starters (such as the Flemish Desem starter, which may be buried in a
large container of flour to prevent drying out) tend to be more resource-intensive
than wet ones.
Intervals
between refreshments
A stable
culture in which L.sanfranciscensis is the dominant bacterium requires a
temperature between 25–30 °C (77–86 °F) and refreshments every 24
hours for about two weeks. Refreshment intervals of longer than three days
acidify the dough and may change the microbial ecosystem.
The
intervals between refreshments of the starter may be reduced in order to
increase the rate of gas (CO2) production, a process described as
"acceleration". In this process, the ratio of yeasts
to lactobacilli may be altered. Generally, if once-daily
refreshment-intervals have not been reduced to several hours, the percentage
amount of starter in the final dough should be reduced to obtain a satisfactory
rise during proof.
Faster
starter processes, requiring fewer refreshments, have been devised, sometimes
using commercial sourdough starters as inoculants. These starters generally fall into
two types.
One is made from traditionally maintained and stable starter doughs,
often dried, in which the ratios of micro-organisms are uncertain. Another is
made from micro-organisms carefully isolated from Petri dishes, grown into
large, homogeneous populations in fermentors, and processed into combined
baker's products with numerically defined ratios and known quantities of
microorganisms well suited to particular bread styles.
Local methods
Bakers have devised several ways of encouraging a stable culture of
micro-organisms in the starter. Unbleached, unbromated flour contains
more micro-organisms than more processed flours. Bran-containing
(wholemeal) flour provides the greatest variety of organisms and additional
minerals, though some cultures use an initial mixture of white flour and rye or
whole wheat flour or "seed" the culture using unwashed
organic grapes (for the wild yeasts on their skins).
Grapes and
grape must are also sources of lactic acid bacteria, as are many
other edible plants. Basil leaves are soaked in room-temperature water for
an hour to seed traditional Greek sourdough. Using water from boiled
potatoes is said to increase the activity of the bacteria by providing
additional starch. Some bakers recommend unchlorinated water for feeding
cultures. Adding a small quantity of diastatic malt provides
maltase and simple sugars to support the yeasts initially.
Bakers often make loaves with fermented dough from a previous batch
(which they call "mother dough", "chef" or
"seed sour") rather than making a new starter every time they bake.
The original starter culture may be many years old. Because of their pH level
and the presence of antibacterial agents, such cultures are stable and able to
prevent colonization by unwanted yeasts and bacteria. For this reason,
sourdough products keep fresh for a long time and are good at resisting
spoilage and mold.
The flavour of sourdough bread varies from place to place according to
the method used, the hydration of the starter and the final dough, the
refreshment ratio, the length of the fermentation periods, ambient temperature,
humidity and elevation, all of which contribute to the microbiology of the
sourdough.
Baking
Finally, the starter is mixed with flour and water to make a dough of
the desired consistency. The starter's flour weight is usually 13 to 25% of the
total flour weight, though formulas may vary.
The dough is shaped into
loaves, left to rise and baked.
Because the rise time of most sourdough starters is longer than that of
breads made with baker's yeasts, sourdough starters are generally unsuitable
for use in a bread machine.
Biology and chemistry of sourdough
A sourdough is a stable symbiotic culture of lactic acid
bacteria (LAB) and yeast in a mixture
of flour and water. Typically, the LAB metabolises sugars that
the yeast cannot metabolise and the yeast metabolises the products of the LAB
fermentation. Broadly speaking, the yeast produces the gas that leavens the
dough and the LAB produces lactic acid, which contributes flavor.
The yeasts Candida milleri or Saccharomyces
exiguus usually populate sourdough cultures symbiotically with Lactobacillus
sanfranciscensis. The perfect yeast S. exiguus is
related to the imperfect yeasts C. milleri and C.
holmii; while Torulopsis holmii,Torula holmii, and S.
rosei are synonyms used more frequently prior to 1978. C.
milleri and C. holmii are physiologically similar,
but DNA testing established them as distinct.
Other yeasts reported found
include C. humilis, C. krusei, Pichia anomaola, C.
peliculosa, P. membranifaciens, and C. valida.
L. sanfranciscensis prefers
to consume maltose, while C. milleri is maltase negative.
There have been changes in the taxonomy of yeasts in recent
decades. Lactobacillus species' phylogenetc groupings
have also been undergoing reclassification, first being studied in 1991 by
Collins, et al. In 1995, Hammes and Vogel phylogenetically
grouped L. sanfranciscensis to L. casei-Pediococcus. In
2003, Hammes and Hertel grouped it to L. buchneri. In 2007,
Dellaglio and Felis grouped it to L. fructivorans.
LAB are anaerobic, which means they can multiply in the absence of
oxygen. Hammes and Vogel in 1995 distinguished three metabolic groups
of LAB:
Group A. Obligately homofermentative.
They metabolise hexoses via the Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas (EMP) pathway
to produce two molecules of lactic acid (C3H6O3),
(>85%) but no carbon dioxide (CO2).
They cannot tolerate
oxygen. "They grow at 45 °C but not at 15 °C." "They are
represented by L. delbrueckii and L. acidophilus."
Group B. Facultatively heterofermentative.
They metabolise hexoses to lactic acid, and pentoses to lactic
and acetic acids. They can use oxygen and will "produce more oxidized
fermentations (e.g. acetate) if O2 is present." They
"grow at 15 °C and show variable growth at 45 °C."
They are
"represented by L. casei and L. plantarum."
Group C. Obligately heterofermentative.
They metabolise hexoses via the EMP pathway to produce lactic acid, acetic
acid, and CO2; and pentoses via the phosphogluconate pathway to
lactic and acetic acids.They are represented by L. fermentum, L.
brevis, L. kefiri, and L. sanfranciscensis.
Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis was
named for its discovery in San Francisco sourdough starters, although it is
not endemic to San Francisco. In general, San Francisco sourdough is
the same as a Type I sourdough.Type I sourdoughs have a pH range of 3.8 to 4.5
and are fermented in a temperature range of 20 to 30 °C (68 to
86 °F); Saccharomyces exiguus leavens the dough, Lactobacillus
sanfranciscensis and L. pontis highlight a
lactic-acid bacterial flora that includes L. fermentum, L.
fructivorans, L. brevis, and L. paralimentarius. In
Type II sourdoughs Saccharomyces cerevisiae is added to leaven the
dough, L. pontis and L. panis highlight the
flora.
These sourdoughs have a pH less than 3.5 and are fermented within a
temperature range of 30 to 50 °C (86 to 122 °F) for several days
without feedings, which reduces the flora's activity. This process was
adopted by some in industry, in part, due to simplification of the
multiple-step build typical of Type I traditional sourdoughs.
Dutch wheat sourdough investigations found that, even though S.
cerevisiae exerted infection pressure on sourdough's microbial
ecosystem, it had died off after two refreshment cycles. Continuously
maintained, stable sourdough cannot be unintentionally contaminated by S.
cerevisiae. 4% salt inhibits L. sanfranciscensis,
while C. milleri can withstand 8%.
A Belgian study of wheat and spelt doughs refreshed once every 24 hours
and fermented at 30 °C (86 °F) in a laboratory environment
provides insight into the three-phase evolution of first-generation-to-stable
sourdough ecosystems. In the first two days of refreshment, atypical
genera Enterococcus and Lactococcus bacteria
highlighted the doughs. During days 2-5, sourdough-specific bacteria belonging
to the genera Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, and Weissella outcompete
earlier strains. Yeasts grew more slowly and reached population peaks near days
4-5. By days 5-7, "well-adapted" Lactobacillus strains
such as L. fermentum and L. plantarum had
emerged. At their peaks, yeast populations were in the range of about 1-10% of
the lactobacilli populations or 1:10-1:100. One characteristic of a stable
dough is that the heterofermentative have outcompeted homofermentative
lactobacilli.
In order to produce acetic acid, L. sanfrancisensis needs maltose and fructose. Wheat
dough contains abundant starch and some polyfructosanes, which
enzymes degrade to "maltose, fructose and little glucose."The
terms "fructosan, glucofructan, sucrosyl fructan, polyfructan, and
polyfructosan" are all used to describe a class of compounds that are
"structurally and metabolically" related to sucrose, where
"carbon is stored as sucrose and polymers of fructose (fructans)." Yeasts
have the ability to free fructose from glucofructans which compose about 1-2%
of the dough.
Glucofructans are long strings of fructose molecules attached to
a single glucose molecule. Sucrose can be considered the shortest glucofructan,
with only a single fructose molecule attached. When L. sanfrancisensis reduces
all available fructose, it stops producing acetic acid and begins producing
ethanol. If the fermenting dough gets too warm, the yeasts slow down, producing
less fructose. Fructose depletion is more of a concern in doughs with lower
enzymatic activities.
Hstory of sour dough
Sourdough
likely originated in Ancient Egyptian times around 1500 BC and was likely
the first form of leavening available to bakers. Sourdough remained the usual
form of leavening down into the European Middle Ages until being replaced by barm from the beer brewing process, and then later
purpose-cultured yeast.
Bread made
from 100 percent rye flour, which is very popular in the northern half of Europe, is usually leavened with
sourdough. Baker's yeast is not useful as a leavening agent for rye bread, as rye does not contain
enough gluten.
The structure of rye bread is
based primarily on the starch in the flour, as well as other
carbohydrates known as pentosans; however, rye amylase is active at substantially higher temperatures
than wheat amylase, causing the structure of the bread to disintegrate as the
starches are broken down during cooking.
The lowered pH of a sourdough starter, therefore,
inactivates the amylases when heat cannot, allowing the carbohydrates in the
bread to gel and set properly. In the southern part of Europe, where baguette and even panettone were originally made with wheat flour
and rye flour, sourdough has become less common in recent times; it has been
replaced by the faster-growing baker's yeast, sometimes supplemented with
longer fermentation rests to allow for some bacterial activity to build flavor.
Sourdough
was the main bread made in Northern California during the California Gold Rush, and it remains
a part of the culture of San Francisco today. The bread became so common
that "sourdough" became a general nickname for the gold prospectors. The nickname remains in
"Sourdough Sam", the mascot of the San Francisco 49ers. A
"sourdough" is also a nickname used in the North (Yukon/Alaska) for
someone having spent an entire winter north of the Arctic Circle and refers to
their tradition of protecting their Sourdough during the coldest months by
keeping it close to their body.
The
sourdough tradition was carried into Alaska and the western Canadian territories
during the Klondike Gold Rush. Conventional
leavenings such as yeast and baking soda were much less reliable in the
conditions faced by the prospectors. Experienced miners and other settlers
frequently carried a pouch of starter either around their neck or on a belt;
these were fiercely guarded to keep from freezing. However, freezing does not
kill a sourdough starter; excessive heat does. Old hands came to be called
"sourdoughs", a term that is still applied to any Alaskan old-timer.
In English-speaking
countries, where wheat-based breads predominate, sourdough is no longer the
standard method for bread leavening. It was gradually replaced, first by the
use of barm from beer making, then, after the confirmation of germ theory by Louis Pasteur, by cultured yeasts.
Although sourdough bread was superseded in commercial bakeries in the 20th
century, it has undergone a revival among artisan bakers.
San
Francisco sourdough is the most famous sourdough bread made in the U.S. today.
In contrast to sourdough production in other areas of the country, the San
Francisco variety has remained in continuous production since 1849, with some
bakeries, e.g., Boudin Bakery among others, able to trace their
starters back to California's Gold Rush period. It is a white bread
characterized by a pronounced sourness (not all varieties are as sour as San
Francisco sourdough), so much so that the dominant strain of lactobacillus in
sourdough starters was named Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.
Sourdough also became popular
because of its ability to combine well with seafoods and soups, such as cicioppino, clam chowder, and chili.
Sourdough
has not enjoyed the popularity it once had since bread became mass-produced.
However, many restaurant chains, such as Cracker Barrel, keep it as a menu
staple. Manufacturers make up for the lack of yeast and bacterial culture by
introducing into their dough an artificially-made mix known as bread improver.
Type of sourdough bread
There are
many breads that use techniques similar to that used in the making of sourdough
bread.
Baking soda (and sometimes baking powder) may be added to a
sourdough-type starter. This neutralizes the acid in the starter and generates carbon dioxide in the process, providing a lift to
the dough or batter in a manner similar to Irish soda bread. This method is used
in kitchens where the starter is kept off-balance with a high acid level. It is
common in Alaska.
Amish
Friendship Bread uses a sourdough starter that
includes sugar and milk. It is also leavened with baking powder and baking soda, making like a quick
bread. An Amish sourdough is fed with sugar and potato flakes every 3–5 days.
German Pumpernickel is traditionally made from a
sourdough starter, although modern pumpernickel loaves often use commercial
yeasts, sometimes spiked with citric acid or lactic acid to inactivate the amylases in the rye flour.
The Flemish
Desem bread is a popular form of
whole-wheat sourdough, cultured in a dryish medium.
Other
recipes use starters that are not natural leavens. The Italian Biga and French Poolish add sourdough-like flavors to breads
by allowing the yeast to ferment for at least half a day. Unlike a true
sourdough, these recipes usually start with commercial yeast, and the
production of lactobacillus is incidental.
In Azerbaijan, whole-wheat sourdough
flatbreads are traditionally eaten.
In Ethiopia, teff flour is used to make Injera. A similar variant is eaten in Somalia (where it is called canjeelo or
lahooh) and Yemen (where it is known as lahoh).
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