Thanks to Louis Pasteur, the French microbiologist best
known for developing pasteurization, in 1857, the western world learned that alcohol fermentation is due to living yeasts. It’s not surprising that a Frenchman would be the one to declare that
yeast is a living organism, especially considering the important role of yeast in many of France’s preferred foods: wine, bread, cheese.
Wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria are present
in the air and form a symbiotic culture when housed in a mixture of flour and
water. Together they create unique and local flavors of sourdough bread. So,
starting today, I will be setting up a yeast trap to capture some Canoe Island
yeast and next time you come visit us, we can have our very own Canoe Island
sourdough baguettes! Le baguette de tradition is such an important food in France that by law, only the
following ingredients are allowed to be used in its making: wheat flour, water,
yeast, salt. I suppose we’ll have to call our loaves les baguettes de Canoë!
A bubbly San Francisco starter in front of my very first yeast trap!
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