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Fermentation Atlas

Cereals and bread from Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia

Scalded-rye sourdough breads (Borodinsky, Latvian rupjmaize, Lithuanian, Estonian leib)Бородинский хлеб

Rye flour and rye malt are scalded with near-boiling water and held warm while the malt enzymes turn starch into sugar. The sweet scald is soured by heat-loving lactic bacteria, then mixed into a rye dough that is proofed in tins and baked into a dense, dark, sweet-sour loaf. Made in 5 steps over 24 h – 27 h. The longest step, sour the scald with heat-loving lactic bacteria, takes 22 h (Murniece R 2023) and runs at 30–55 °C (Murniece R 2023). Lactobacillus delbrueckii, the dominant lactic bacterium in fermented rye scald and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and baker's yeast in the later fermentation stage do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step22 hMeasured[murniece2023]Sour the scald with heat-loving lactic bacteria
Temperature30–55 °CMeasured[murniece2023]Sour the scald with heat-loving lactic bacteria
AciditypH 4.1Measured[murniece2023]Proof in tins and bake
Fully documentedCereals and bread24 h – 27 hMore cereals and breadMore from RussiaMore from Belarus

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceProportions from bakery studies and a Russian patent for an industrial Borodinsky; household recipes vary.
Rye flour[ru2259727][murniece2023]
Wheat flour, first grade · A smaller share in Borodinsky[ru2259727]
Fermented rye malt · Scalded with rye flour and water at 90–100 °C for Borodinsky[ru2259727]
1 % of the flour weightDiastatic (unfermented) rye malt · In a Latvian bakery-style scald; Belarusian bakeries use 4.0–5.0 % of the flour weight[murniece2023][samuilenko2022]
Sugar, salt, coriander and baker's yeast[ru2259727]
Rye sourdough or a back-slopped portion of fermented scald[murniece2023]
Starterbackslop (fermented scald or rye sourdough); thermophilic lactic bacteria for the scald

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h – 27 h

Start
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90–100 °Cshapes, not to countYeastsMoulds

What changes: Near-boiling water is stirred into rye flour and malt, and the starch swells

Step 1 of 5
Scald rye flour and malt with hot water
Time
Not documented
Temperature
90–100 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
Moulds
L. delbrueckii
L. plantarum

Output: hot rye scald.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
starch gelatinises into a thick paste
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

scalding inactivates the bacteria, yeasts and moulds already in the flour

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

These breads add a scald to the rye dough. Hot water and malt turn part of the flour into a sweet paste, and heat-loving lactic bacteria sour it, so the loaf is both sweeter and sourer than a plain rye sourdough.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Borodinsky (Russia)Rye and some wheat flour, fermented rye malt, sugar and coriander.
  • Latvian rupjmaizeWholegrain rye with a fermented scald soured by thermophilic lactic bacteria.
  • Finnish ruisleipä / reikäleipäAll-rye sourdough from a juuri starter kept in a wooden trough; ring loaves with a hole, historically dried on poles.
  • Danish rugbrødWhole grains and cracked rye, tin-baked.
  • German pumpernickelCoarse rye meal and a very long, low-temperature steam bake that darkens it without colouring.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [murniece2023] Murniece R., Reidzane S., Galoburda R., Radenkovs V., Klava D. et al. 2023, The impact of fermented scald on rye and hull-less barley dough and bread structure formation, Foods 12:4475, doi:10.3390/foods12244475paper
  2. [samuilenko2022] Самуйленко Т.Д. 2022, Влияние процесса осахаривания на биотехнологические свойства термофильной заквашенной заварки (Effect of saccharification on the biotechnological properties of thermophilic fermented scald), Food Industry, Science and Technologies 15(2):11–20, doi:10.47612/2073-4794-2022-15-2(56)-11-20paper
  3. [ru2259727] Russian patent RU2259727, 2005, Pan bread "Novy Borodinsky" (abstract)other
  4. [ru2262234] Russian patent RU2262234, 2005, Method for producing pan bread "Borodinsky Novy" (abstract)other
  5. [s1] Wikipedia, Sourdough (Danish rugbrød, pumpernickel), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdoughwiki