Proteolysis Characteristics?
There’s a local bakery (I’ll leave out details that could identify them) that makes what they say is a traditional San Francisco sourdough, and indeed their starter is from San Francisco.
I’ve purchased two batards from them over a couple of months and both loaves are the worst sourdough breads I have had. Notably, their loaves have an intense acetic sourness to them. This got me wondering if their loaves were suffering from proteolysis.
Are these characteristics indicators of proteolysis:
* Intensely, unpleasantly sour (acetic acid, in this case)
* Strangely dry crumb
* Even distribution of holes, all uniformly small in size
* Flat batards with poor structure
* Poor oven spring (docked to form an ear but the cut barely spreads at all, like it is slack)
I am thinking that in the search for getting extremely sour bread they may have allowed it to go to far and degrade the gluten.
Does the above sound like dough that’s become proteolytic?
I would have added photos but I didn’t think to take any before I chucked the last loaf. Additionally, the loaves might identify the bakery to anyone local and I truly wish them the very best.
Although proteolysis is usually caused by enzymatic action, it can also be caused by low pH. Your suspicion that the extremely sour taste of the bread in question is linked to proteolysis certainly sounds correct.
Bob
I am not at all familiar with the original SFSD. But I often read that things like vinegar are used to impart an acetic sour to the bread. This may or may not be the case.
If is also my understanding that he crumb was uniform and not very open, like today's Instagram versions.
Question - for those that remember the real deal SFSD, was the sour more acetic or lactic in flavor?
Dan
One thing I’d like to mention is that they do not list vinegar on their ingredients list: starter, flour, water, salt.
If I didn’t make it obvious, the dry crumb is strange. It’s not over baked or stale, but like something else is amiss with the gels that give bread softness.