Bread Flavor
The incomparable flavor of simple wheat
bread has three sources: the flavor of wheat
flour, the products of yeast and bacterial
fermentation, and the reactions caused by
oven heat during baking. The aroma of low-
extraction white flour is dominated by vanilla,
spicy, metallic, and fatty notes (from vanillin,
a furanone, and fatty aldehydes), while whole-
meal flour is richer in most of these and in
addition has cucumber, fried, “sweaty,” and
honey notes (from other fatty aldehydes and
alcohols and phenylacetic acid). Yeast
fermentation generates a “yeasty” character, a
large part of which comes from fruity esters
and eggy sulfur compounds. Baking
contributes the toasty products of browning
reactions. Starters add general complexity and
a distinctive sour note from acetic and other
organic acids.
Mass-Produced Breads