Salt Rising Bread Simulation
 

Heintzman Bakery, Louisville, KY, advertises salt rising bread and,
according to a news article which came to my attention, they use a SRB
starter that has persisted for several decades. In my experience, it
is all but impossible to maintain a starter from day-to-day, let alone
over years, so in response to their invitation to submit comments, I
asked for a general description of their technique. I also ordered
three loaves of their bread.

Heintzman has not responded to my question.

Wife and I have long made SRB and agree that the Heintzman product is
not salt rising bread. Though I did not have a similar sensation, she
declares a bitter aftertaste. The crust and crumb resemble Wonder
Bread although there is a faint SRB odor. Before sampling the bread,
we imagined that it might be some version of sourdough, but if so, it
is unlike any sourdough loaf we have encountered. Our best guess is
that Heintzman doctors a conventional yeast dough with something that
imparts the faint SRB odor.

It seems irresponsible for Heintzman to describe a simulation as salt
rising bread.

Has anyone else sampled the Heintzman product to have an opinion?

Sigurdn

Maybe a hybrid tecnique?
But if the microbes is really Clostridium perfringens can it co habit
with the bakers yeast to make such combined fermentation feasible.?
I am not familiar with the pH optima of such bacteia but yeast thrive
in slighty acidic conditions.
Have you tried inoculating your salt rising dough recipe with bakers
yeast and what its the results? That may help you answer the puzzle if
the bakery you queried is doing a related technique.
Its unfortunate that SRB is not part of my baking interests.
BTW,I heard that there are bakery ingredient suppliers that supply salt
risimg bread premixes. I think that would answer the question why
Heinzman are reluctant to divulge more information as they are not
actually doing the 100% salt rising bread..
And they maybe right ,they are maintaining the use of such SRB
simulated mixes for years<g>.
Roy

The so-called SRB yeast once sold by King Arthur required baker's yeast
in creation of the dough. The result was inferior to straight SRB, but
much more in character than the Heintzman product.

Inferior SRB does not interest me so I am unlikely to experiment with
hybrid leaveners.

If Heintzman recognize that "they are not actually doing 100% salt
rising bread." they should acknowledge the fact in their advertising.

Sigurdn