DEVELOPING FLAVOR: GRAIN AND FERMENTATION
This newsletter is really about everything that Instagram is not... Flavor.
When I was out in San Francisco last week I reconnected with a good friend who had recently started working with a winemaker down in Santa Cruz. We spent the afternoon hopping to various wine shops across the city - drinking, tasting, discussing. It was fascinating to trace various flavors back to the grape, the farming, the weather, harvest, style of winemaking. This afternoon primed me for the intensive bread tasting that went down over the next 4 days.
In San Francisco you find great sourdough bread all over the flavor spectrum - some leaning into fermentation (bright acidity, floral / fruity from the bacteria and yeast culture) (ex Tartine) and some more into the grain (nutty, subtle sweetness) (ex Morell’s Bread, Josey Baker Bread). For me, I’m just figuring out how to pull the different levers to coax out flavor from grain and fermentation.
As I dive in to my own experiments, I looked around the internet for resources on the topic. This Bread Tasting Wheel by Micheal Kalenty reinforced the fact that as a fermented food (beer, wine, cheese), the flavor can and should be thought about in much the same way. Having language to characterize the flavor of the crust and crumb is powerful. It seems like it will allow me to be much more specific as I identify different characteristics - fruity sour notes in the crumb —> green apple, quince, lemon; fruity notes in the crust —-> Fig, Raisin, Stewed Fruit.
Expressing more flavor from fermentation:
Right now (11/4), we inoculate our dough with 18% of a fully mature starter that’s 100% hydration and built up 3 hours prior with a 100% inoculation. We then do a 3hr bulk at 83 degrees, shape and rest at room temp for about an hour, cold proof avg temp 43 degrees. Here are some things I’m going to try:
Warmer final proof — try proofing at 50-55 degrees. At lower fridge temps, fermentation slows way down, yeasts start to produce energy storage sugars which will later caramelize in the crust and C02 that increases the volume. Bacteria will also slowly acidify the dough with a higher proportion of acetic acid (compared to lactic acid). A cold(er) final proof may make more sense for loaves with higher % whole grain where the focus is on the grain vs. some of these fermentation flavors that may become more available at higher temps (mid 50s) where bacteria are more active. Just last night I was reading in The Joy Of Pizza that Dan ferments his dough overnight at 52 degrees in the final cold proof.
Higher hydration levain to further boost activity
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