
Baking Bread: The Chemistry of Bread-Making - dredmorbius
https://www.compoundchem.com/2016/01/13/bread/
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skat20phys
Most of that is oriented toward yeast breads, but as a minor point that was
confusing to me for awhile:

At least in the US, there is no technical legal definition for baking powder.
So companies vary widely in what is included in baking powder. Ideally, baking
powder would include a dry acid and base that react only in typical baking
temperatures, but this is not the case. Some are very similar to baking soda
in formulation, and others use different ingredients that require heat to
react to any substantial extent.

There's an article somewhere I found that has a really great discussion of the
issues, with history and reviews, but I can't find it. This is a sort of
abridged version that smooths over some of the differences you'll run into:

[http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12997/baking-
powder](http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12997/baking-powder)

~~~
dredmorbius
For sourdoughs, the story's roughly similar. Soda breads use alternate
leavening, chemical (baking soda) rather than biological (yeast).

Flatbresds remove leavening entirely.

And alternative (gluten free) flours require either forgoing the gluten-based
network structure providing dough integrity (say, with cornbread and some
ricecakes), or substituting alternative binding agents (as with xanthan gum),
also mentioned.

The piece does. not discuss much of proportions -- baker's percentages,
measuring by weight rather than volume, hydration), dough working and
formation (kneading vs. stretch and fold or slap and fold), fermentation and
proofing methods, steaming, baking temps, covered vs. uncovered baking,
scoring, all of which I've been playing with for the past week or so.

But it's a good quick intro.

------
prike
Does anyone know some similarly good source on food science? This is
interesting.

~~~
dredmorbius
There was a book published ... years ago ... author interviewed on Fresh Air
circa 2001. Let me see if I can track it down....

Russ Parsons, _How to Read a French Fry_ , 2001.

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/how-to-read-a-french-fry-
and-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/how-to-read-a-french-fry-and-other-
stories-of-intriguing-kitchen-science/oclc/804799372)

Interview: [https://freshairarchive.org/segments/los-angeles-times-
food-...](https://freshairarchive.org/segments/los-angeles-times-food-editor-
russ-parsons)

