The Yeast that Ate my Brain

In a British Columbia article titled “Where’s the Organic Wine?” the author says:

“Conventional wine may also be produced naturally, or may include more than a dozen additives, such as synthetic yeasts, sulphite preservatives and taste and appearance enhancers. Natural, organic methods rely on cultured, not genetically modified yeast for initial fermentation.”

Disregarding the other undocumented claims in this paragraph, I am seeing these derogatory references to wine yeasts more and more frequently. Somehow, people are getting the idea that commercially available yeasts are not natural.

Now, granted, they're not wild yeasts--yeasts floating around in the air over a winery and vineyard. But let me assert one more time that commercially available yeasts are simply captured and then identified in the wild and propagated (grown or multiplied in a controlled environment on natural foods) as a clean, pure strain--without all the unidentified cousins and bacterial houseguests that cohabit with wild yeasts.

It is similar to buying heirloom tomato seeds. Tomato plants are propagated in a controlled greenhouse environment to protect the purity of the strain, and packaged up in little paper packets for sale over the internet. When you order Black Russian or Purple Calabash seeds, you don’t expect to receive a motley mix of Orange Banana, Mortgage Lifter, and Yellow Taxi.

From a yeast supplier, you can buy Bordeaux strains, Barolo strains, Riesling strains, etc. etc. They are all completely natural and viable yeasts, they are just separate and identifiable and will have a somewhat predictable effect on grape must and juice.

This morning I am baking a loaf of bread (well, okay in the bread machine) and I am using Fleischmann's 'Rapid Rise' Bread Machine Yeast. At the top of the label it says ‘All Natural Yeast.’ Probably they had to say that so consumers and FDA inspectors would not assume it is synthetic or genetically modified because it comes in a jar.

According to Michael Ruhlman in The Making of a Chef, only 5% of the bread produced in the United States is truly artisanal bread, often made with wild yeast starters.

Granted, if I were a purist, I would set the mixture of flour, water and salt in the sunporch and wait for native yeasts to start the fermentation. That's how original sourdough starters are created. But then, if I were a purist, I wouldn't be using Gold Medal 'Better for Bread' 'Ideal for Bread Machines' Specialty Flour. I would wait until August, go down to the pond and harvest wild millet, and then grind the millet into flour between rocks.

That would make one tiny loaf per year.

As a mother and homemaker I am careful about the bread that I buy for my family, but no matter what healthy, multi-grain bread I pick up each week at the store--it is made with a pure yeast strain that is delivered to the bakery in commercially available jars and cans.

Comments

[Rob Cole]

But but but... how can it be natural with names like L1-KV1116?!!!!

;~)

[Mary Baker]

I know, ssshhhh! When reporters find out that some grape rootstocks come with unimaginative names like '1103P' just think of the fallout!