Final answer:
Artisanal bread-making was labor-intensive historically due to the unpredictable nature of wild yeast. Today, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used for its reliable fermentation, contributing to the bread's desired texture and flavor. Scientists have also used ancient yeasts to study historical foodways.
Step-by-step explanation:
Historically, artisanal breads were created using wild yeasts captured from the air, which made the bread-making process long and arduous. This labor-intensive method often led to the discard of many dough batches due to the unpredictable nature of wild yeast compared to modern strains. The wild yeast would sometimes not ferment the dough sufficiently, resulting in bread that did not rise properly and had to be thrown out.
Yeast is crucial in bread-making because it performs alcoholic fermentation, converting sugars in the dough to carbon dioxide gas. This gas forms bubbles and causes the dough to rise, creating the small holes seen in bread which contribute to its light and fluffy texture. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commonly known as brewer's or baker's yeast, is widely used due to its predictability and ease of culture in producing carbon dioxide rapidly and the palatable flavors it imparts during fermentation.
In an interesting application of biological research, yeast microbes dormant on ancient Egyptian ceramics were reawakened and used to bake bread, helping to understand ancient foodways. This underscores the significance of yeast not only in food production but also as a powerful tool for understanding historical and cultural aspects of human civilization.