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SOME EXPERIMENTS FOR THE PURPOSE OF DETERMINING THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLES OF BREAD MAKING. MINNIE HOWE. (ABSTRACT.)
This paper described a series of experiments made by the author at the Iowa
State University during the winter and spring of 1891, together with their results.
The problem was to seperate the bacteriam, Bacillus subtilis, and the yeast plant,
Saccharomyces cerevisice, found together in ordinary soft yeast, to obtain pure
cultures of each, and to determine the part each played in bread making.
It was found that bread made of sterilized flour and raised with the pure Bacillus
culture was light, but not as spongy as ordin ary bread, sweet, close-grained, rather
dark colored, smelling and tasting much like " salt-risen " bread.
Bread raised with the pure yeast culture under exactly the same conditions as
the first was somewhat light, sweet, not so tine grained nor as light as either ordinary
bread or that made with bacteria. It had a peculiar, insipid odor unlike
either of the other kinds, and was tasteless, as if made out of sawdust.
The results of these experiments seem to show that neither the yeast plant nor
the Bacillus alone will make as good bread as both together; that either without
the other will produce alcoholic fermentation and cause the bread to rise; that the
Bacillus is rather more efficient alone than the yeast. No one set of experiments,
however, can be regarded as conclusive.
| What was being baked this day was "Salt Risen Bread". In making Salt Risen Bread the starter culture uses Bacillus subtilis instead of yeast. The result is a lighter, less porous bread with a "cheesy" flavor. The name is supposedly derived from the process of using salt crystals to retain heat to warm the dough enough during the night so that it would be ready for baking in the morning. Thus, on the trail, bread dough could be prepared in the evening, allowed to rise overnight, and baked in the morning before going on the trail. |
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