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FERMENTING
FOOD
It may seem counterintuitive in today’s society, where we’re
paranoid about food going bad and germs and disease,
but fermentation—particularly of grain—actually relies on
the growing of healthy bacterial cultures. These are living
organisms, but ones that are beneficial to digestion.
“I would call any bread made using this method sourdough,”
said Michael Gänzle, PhD, professor and Canada Research
Chair in the Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science
department at the University of Alberta. “In North America, the
term is usually associated with San Francisco sourdough. Many
bakers who use sourdough call it ‘leavened.’”
Basic sourdough cultures that form the basis for creating
foods like bread, pancakes, doughnuts and muffins start out
with a mixture—usually of wheat or another grain-based flour
ERMENTATION IS ONE OF THE OLDEST METHODS
of preparing and preserving food.
And, when it comes to fermenting grains to produce
home- or bakery-made items such as bread, pancakes and even
pasta, the old ways have never really died out.
Part of this continued popularity is due to the raised
awareness of the benefits of “eating live” and the move towards
probiotics, said John Juurlink, owner of Prairie Mill Bread Co.
in Calgary.
“When we say ‘eating live,’ you get the visual of eating raw
chicken, but in this context it’s really about working with live
cultures, enzymes,” Juurlink said. “It does help with the digestive
tract—you can feel it working in your body.”
Wait a second—did he just say “eating live”?
The Food Issue
2014
grainswest.com
63
Feature
F
It only gets better with age
BY ALEX FRAZER-HARRISON