Question

Success in bread making depends largely on your understanding of two basic principles:

a) Ingredient selection and equipment use
b) Time and temperature
c) Mixing methods and dough types
d) Oven humidity and proofing duration

Answer 1

Artisanal bread making was challenging before modern yeast strains because capturing wild yeasts for leavening was unreliable, often resulting in dough that couldn't be used.

Step-by-step explanation:

Historically, the process of making artisanal breads was difficult because wild yeasts were unpredictable and could lead to inconsistent results. Before the development of commercial yeast strains, bakers had to rely on capturing these wild yeasts from the air, which did not always work as intended. This often resulted in a long and painstaking process with many batches of dough being discarded due to failure to leaven properly.

The yeast needs to convert sugar into carbon dioxide to make the dough rise, but this process was hard to control with wild yeasts. The introduction of cultivated yeasts made the process more reliable, as these strains were easily cultured, tough to kill, and provided quicker and more predictable results. This made bread making more efficient and less laborious.