Your white bread smells like vinegar, and you do not know what to do. It seems like an unavoidable fate despite following the recipe word by word. You have even considered switching brands for the flour, sugar, and yeast, yet it still ends up smelling sour; why is that?
There is a tendency for white bread to have an acidic smell which most will notice is akin to a vinegar-like scent. The main reason for a sour smell is because of bread’s over-fermentation. When the dough is left to ferment for too long, acids form, releasing a scent akin to vinegar.
How can you prevent the development of such smells, and what causes it? We will go through the scientific facts throughout this article.
White Bread That Can Smell Like Vinegar And Why
All white bread can develop a musty vinegar scent when not appropriately prepared. Well, technically, all fermented bread can have this scent. Bread that does not utilize yeast cannot develop a vinegar smell due to the absence of fermentation, which forms the acids that form the said scent.
However, some bread recipes are likelier to develop a sour taste, especially if you introduce a special kind of bacteria to them. For example, most sourdough bread recipes introduce a lot of lactobacilli that produce a lot of acetic acids. These bacteria create the typical acidic smell and taste of sourdough. (Weeks, E., Gatsby P., 2003, “The Biology of Sourdough“)
However, there are times wherein, even though you do not employ the help of lactobacilli in sourdough bread, your bread still ends up smelling like Mars’ left armpit. So what exactly happened that made your white bread smell like vinegar?
What Is That Stench?
As discussed earlier, the introduction of yeast exposes your bread to the possible development of a vinegar-like smell. Yeast that bakers introduce in their dough feed on starches.
Now, the yeast itself does not produce acids. Instead, yeast produces ethanol, and believe it or not, it is slightly basic, meaning it is the opposite of acidic. The pH of most strong acids lies at around three to five, but ethanol sits at slightly above neutral seven. (source)
This process of producing ethanol is called ethanol fermentation, and this very process makes your bread rise. Yeast will consume the sugars and starch in the dough, producing ethanol and carbon dioxide.
While ethanol is a by-product and less than 2% remains after baking (under proper fermentation), carbon dioxide creates these bubbles that make your bread chewy and not feel like a rock.
However, ethanol turns into a problem if too much of it is in the bread. A particular third party intervenes, acetobacter bacteria, which loves the ethanol. This bacterium replaces the ethanol with acetic acid, producing a musty smell. Now your white bread smells like vinegar. (R.C. Petreaca, 2013, “Brenner’s Encyclopedia of Genetics – Second Edition”)
What makes this worse is when one’s bread underbakes, it may pick up traces of bacteria. Instead of your bread smelling like vinegar, it will have actual hints of vinegar inside.
A Short Recap On Why White Bread Smells Like Vinegar
- When white bread is over-fermented, bread might smell like vinegar.
- When one adds yeast to the dough, it starts consuming starches and sugar. The by-products of this process are carbon dioxide and ethanol. This process is called ethanol fermentation.
- Carbon dioxide makes your bread rise.
- Meanwhile, a particular type of bacteria consumes ethanol. These bacteria produce acetic acid.
- The acetic acid produces a vinegar-like smell.
- If one does not bake bread properly, it picks up certain bacteria, leaving traces of vinegar.
Now that you know why your bread has that smell, it is only logical to understand how to prevent the traces of a vinegar-like scent in your white bread. So how does one achieve this? We introduce some tips to regulate the presence of acetic acid in your bread.
White Bread Smells Like Vinegar: How To Prevent It
- Keep your bread baked right.
- When your proof your dough for too long, it creates too much ethanol.
- Hot environments accelerate the proofing process. Make sure that you are proofing in a dry, cool environment.
- Monitor yeast usage. You may use up too much yeast for a single batch.
Keep Your Bread Baked Right
When one does not bake bread properly, certain bacteria might reside in the bread and turn the ethanol into full-on vinegar. The baking time for bread varies significantly from one recipe to another. The most common practice (or at least among white bread recipes) is to bake your bread for 30 minutes at more than 300 F or 175 C.
Do Not You Proof Your Dough For Too Long
Proofing your bread long helps develop complex taste palettes that complement the bread well. Indeed, there is no doubt that we should extend the proofing process for as long as possible? No, as aside from making your bread collapse, it could also make your white bread smell like vinegar.
Fermentation can be of two categories. The initial rise, or bowl fermentation, must last at least two hours. Meanwhile, the proofing fermentation (or second rise) should, in general, take no more than one hour.
Keep Cool And Dry
The fermentation process accelerates exponentially as the environmental temperature rises. For every 8 C / 17 F rise in temperature, the speed of fermentation doubles.
Make sure to keep your dough away from hot areas. Furthermore, if needed, store your dough in the chiller section in the fridge.
Monitor Yeast Usage
Using too much yeast can compromise the taste of your bread and speed up the fermentation process. For every four cups of flour, use seven grams of yeast.
Summary
White bread smells like vinegar due to over-fermentation. As yeast starts to eat up the starches and sugars, they produce a considerable amount of carbon dioxide and alcohol. Unfortunately, certain bacteria can utilize this alcohol to produce acetic acid, thus creating a vinegar-like smell.
To prevent this, make sure that you do not underbake your bread. Moreover, temperature control is incredibly integral to maintaining the speed of fermentation. Improper yeast ratios also create problems.
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