Gastronomy is full of naughty expressions to, as they say, add value to the product.
“Belgian chocolate”, for example. Damn it that there is not a single cocoa tree in Belgium outside the greenhouses of the botanical garden.
This Belgian chocolate is made with African, Brazilian, Indonesian cocoa from countries in the equatorial range and is often harvested by farmers in more than precarious situations – to find out more, watch the episode about chocolate from the series “Rotten” (Netflix).
Belgian or not, chocolate is an industrial food produced on a gigantic scale, standardized and standardized, by groups with global operations. But it’s the charm grindstone to stew a “Belgian” on the truffles of the street vendor at the entrance to the station, right?
Let’s forget about chocolate for now to talk about a seasonal product, Panettone.
Many brands proudly print on the packaging the expression “natural fermentation”. What would that be, exactly?
In baking, what is usually called natural fermentation is the dough that is fermented by wild microorganisms, cultivated from a bait (made from flour or other food) that harvests fungi and bacteria from the environment. This is called levain, as opposed to industrially multiplied yeast strains for commercial biological yeast.
“Natural” fermentation is slower than controlled fermentation and, thanks to the action of bacteria that produce acetic acid, it can give the dough a sour taste.
It’s natural? Certainly. The term “natural” is not a lie, but it sets up a subtle semantic trap as it is used to counteract fermentation with selected strains.
In this case, the yeast is composed of live fungi of the species Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Yeasts transform sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide in so-called alcoholic fermentation – the same for bread, beer and wine.
It’s natural? Totally and absolutely. It’s an induced fermentation, but so is the wild one. Both are natural, but the use of the word NATURAL gives the product an extra tchan. It is a crutch that has always figured in hipster artisan bakery and was recently incorporated by the big industry.
The only process in which the term “natural fermentation” sounds inadequate is the growth of doughs from instant chemical yeast. Not because it’s artificial, but because it’s not fermentation.
In chemical yeast, an acid and a base react when exposed to a moist, heated environment. It’s chemistry, it’s nature, but the term “fermentation” applies to a far more complex category of biochemical processes.
Another important point: such natural fermentation is neither better nor worse than fermentation with industrial yeast.
As an example, in the certified Neapolitan pizza, levain dough is prohibited. Acidity is considered a defect.
Another common storytelling: the talk that the yeast came from Italy or Portugal in the 19th century pipipi popopó. It’s like saying I came from Europe in the 17th century. Levain is a colony of organisms that multiply and die. The funguinhos of today are not the same as when nonno landed in Santos.
(Follow and like Cozinha Bruta on social media. Follow Instagram and Twitter.) ​
.
