Vienna bread

Vienna bread is a type of bread that is produced from a process developed in Vienna, Austria, in the 19th century.

The Vienna process in part used high milling of Hungarian grain, cereal press-yeast for leavening, and care and thought in the production process.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Steam baking 3 See also 4 References

History

In the 19th century, for the first time, bread was made only from beer yeast and new dough (no old dough). The first noted or applauded example of this was the sweet-fermented Imperial "Kaiser-Semmel" roll of the Vienna bakery at the Paris Exposition of 1867.^[2] These sweet-fermented rolls lacked the acid sourness typical of lactobacillus, and were said to be popular and in high demand.

Prior to this time, bakers had been using old-dough leavens, and they discovered that accelerating the latter refreshments' rest intervals promoted yeast growth in a race against time and what would later be learned were overwhelming lactobacillus numbers. At some point bakers began to add brewer's or beer yeast or barm to the latter refreshments, and liked the results. However, beer brewers slowly switched from top-fermenting to bottom-fermenting yeast (both S. cerevisiae), creating a shortage of yeast for making sweet-fermented breads, so the Vienna Process was developed by 1846.^[3]

In 1845 the Association of Vienna Bakers announced a contest for the production of a sweet-fermenting yeast, this prize was awarded in 1850 to Adolph Ignaz Mautner (see biography^[4]). In 1867 the Paris Exposition was said to recognize the Vienna Bakery as, "First in the world."^[5]

“

In Vienna leaven is never used for making the rolls and small goods for which that city is famous. Viennese bakers use either brewers' yeast or a ferment, prepared by themselves, of which the basis is an infusion of hops.[6]

”

Vienna yeast was propagated utilizing a mash of malted corn, barley, and rye. After pitching a small amount of yeast into the cooled wort, and introducing some air,^[7] the propagated yeast floated to the surface. The krausen was collected with some care by skimming, and it may have been washed lightly with distilled water. It was then drained and compressed with the aid of a hydraulic press.^[8]

Press-yeast was one forerunner to our modern, commercial Baker's yeast.^[7]

Other remarkable aspects of the report included procedures for high milling of grains (see Vienna grits^[9]), cracking them incrementally instead of mashing them with one pass.^[10]

The Vienna bakery of the exposition year made three kinds of bread: the sweet-fermented Imperial rolls; wheat and rye as well as rye-only loaves; and a large variety of fancy breads and sweet cakes. The Imperial rolls were made with the finer grades of flour, milk and water in a 50:50 ratio, beer yeast, and salt. Other breads made with the same grades of flour claimed to include: Tea cakes which added butter and may have excluded water in favor of milk; Gipfel or Pinnacle cake which used milk (no water) and lard; and Brioche, made with milk and sugar.^[11]

Steam baking

The Vienna bread-production process innovations are often popularly credited^[12] for baking with steam leading to different crust characteristics, however Horsford, in his 1875 Report on Vienna Bread, wrote:

“

The Austrian bakery in the Paris Exposition in 1867, for the production of loaf-bread, was provided with the steam-arrangement; but the oven of the Vienna bakery, on exhibition at the Vienna Exposition for the production of rolls, was a dry oven.[13]

”

The dough is placed into the oven under a ceiling of steam or, alternatively, the oven is injected with steam as soon as the loaf is loaded. This adds moisture to the body, the crumb, of the bread which delays establishment of the crust and tends to prevent cracking, resulting in a more evenly risen and thinner crust as well as a light and airy crumb.^[13] When the steam is gone (sometimes today, withdrawn), the dry heat of the oven bakes the crust, producing its characteristically slightly crisp and flaky texture. Vienna bread is typically formed as an oblong loaf, but can be baked in other shapes. As a longer loaf, it may well have been the origin of French bread as bakers there attempted to adopt the steam method to produce their baguettes.

See also

• (Kaiser)semmel
• Proofing (baking technique)
• Austrian cuisine

References