"Mike Avery" > wrote in message =
news:mailman.2.1069908219.204.rec.food.sourdough@m ail.otherwhen.com...
On 26 Nov 2003 at 18:33, Charles Perry wrote:

> > Something happens when a dough is made from wheat flour and
> > water, even without adding commercial yeast or sourdough culture, to
> > improve the flavor of the eventual bread. I have tried this with =
good
> > results with 12 to 24 hour lead time before adding the yeast or
> > culture.=20

> This is pretty well documented. It's called a pre-ferment or =
autolyse. =20
> For brewers here, it's not the same thing as when your yeast goes into =

> autolysis.

It is pretty hopeless to try to settle this with a dictionary. Bakers'
terminology is not very standard. I have used the term preferment
to include the sponge, and culture build stages prior to it. I believe
that is the more conventional usage, and that belief is strengthened
by Googling with <preferment> and <dough>.

> The autolyse term was coined by Calvel, if memory serves. He, and=20
> others, found that letting the flour get wet starts a reaction. The=20
> reaction is based on enzymes in the flour.

Autolysis is a respectable word, found in dictionaries, meaning auto-
digestion. That Calvel was/is not a scientist seems to be indicated by
his importing of a smudged version of that word into bakerspeak, being=20
quite indefinite as to whether it is a separate thing, or a misspelling =
of=20
autolysis.

Autolyse does seem conventionally, among bakers, to mean dough=20
without yeast, assuming it is a noun, or an adjective if it is intended =
to
be a modifier as in 'autolyse step'.

It is a fuzzy word, and like most bakerspeak terms, it should be=20
replaced by an operational definition. Autolysis, on the other hand,
is a definite word, but one that probably applies to more than one=20
stage in dough preparation.

My guess is that the most important autolysis in sourdough fermentation
occurs when yeast starve and die, and self-digest in their own, or =
ambient,
enzymes, becoming, in that process, food for lactobacteria. But that is
just my guess, and as far as I know, it has never been suggested by any
legitimate baking technologists or food technology academicians..

Another little known thing is that long dough fermentation is the way to =

get good, even eventually sour, bread. During that, the flour and water =

"get to know each other" incidentally quite as well, I suspect, as if =
they=20
were impressed into a prior yeastless union. That realization is =
consistent
with the above paragraph.

Compared to that, manipulations of storage cultures and preferments are
relatively quite ineffectual, as are yeastless prenuptials. But that is =
just my
opinion, and that opinion is cogent only to white sourdoughs.

--=20
Dick Adams
<firstname> dot <lastname>at bigfoot dot com