Hello Sourdough people....
Lately I read the January –February issueof Cereal Foods World Vol 49
(1) (2004)of the American Association of Cereal Chemist journal
which had an article about the recent symposium in sourdough held in
Europe.
It was titled" Sourdough Fermentation: From Fundamentals to
Applications by Michael Ganzle and Luc de Vuyst.
Among the topics mentioned were the Taxonomy Biodiversity and
Genetics of Sourdough lactic acid bacteria.
They also classified fermented bread dough into four types:
Type O which is made of baker's yeast and can include also strains of
lactobacilli present in such yeast culture.
Type 1 dough belong to the traditional sourdough ( cultured by
continuous propagation at normal temperature)which contains primarily
lactobacillus san Francisco.
Type 2 dough used in industrial sourdough baking that consist of
thermophilic, and acid tolerant lactobacilli called as L. fermentii
and L. pontis.
Type 3 dough which uses dried sourdough and starter cultures
This confirms that sourdough is not all about san francisco....but a
rather wide lot of organisms that are claimed by that paper and new
speices are continously being discovered.
There was also a brief discussion of the fermentation technology and
Application ; its all about industrialized application of sourdough
culture.The baking industry has adopted certain strains with specific
metabolic properties( that is hightly suitable to automated production
in industrial baking) which are available as paste and powder
freeze-dried preparation and as liquid or pumpable cultures.This
means that the traditional methods are ill suited for such highly
mechanized institutional production.
Very interesting topics indeed.
In addtion....there was also other discussioin
That includes preservative action of sourdough organisms, health
aspects of sourdough, its effect on reducing the gluten sensitivity of
celiac sufferers through a different biochemical mechanisms,the
difference of bread aroma and flavor between lactic bacteria and
yeasts.etc.
Unfortunately it was not a detailed technical discussion in that
journal but a summary; but the complete proceedings of it will be
available soon in the scientific journal called ‘ Trends in Food
Science and Technology' by the middle of 2004.
This information is likely to warm up the hearts of the sourdough
devotees here.
Roy