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Fermentation Atlas

Cereals and bread from Italy

Lievito madre / pasta madre (Italian sourdough)lievito madre

Lievito madre is a firm wheat dough full of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts, kept alive by regular refreshments with flour and water. Between refreshments it is tied in cloth or kept under water. Italian law requires it for panettone, pandoro and colomba. Made in 6 steps over 27 h – 40 h. The longest step, make the first dough (panettone), takes 18 h (De Vero L 2021) and runs at 20–22 °C (De Vero L 2021). Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis and Kazachstania humilis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step18 hMeasured[devero2021]Make the first dough (panettone)
Temperature20–22 °CMeasured[devero2021]Make the first dough (panettone)
AciditypH 5.3–5.4Measured[devero2021]Make the first dough (panettone)
Fully documentedCereals and bread27 h – 40 hMore cereals and breadMore from Italy

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne refreshment from a Swiss bakery training recipe: equal weights of madre and flour, with water at 60 % of the flour. To start a new madre, the same recipe mixes 1,200 g of flour with 450 g of water and 300 g of fruit juice, yeast water or raisin water.
1,000 gRipe lievito madre[pistor2019]
1,000 gWheat flour (Swiss type 720)[pistor2019]
600 gWater[pistor2019]
Starterback-slopped; each refreshment is seeded with part of the previous madre

Total time across the recorded steps: 27 h – 40 h

Start
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25–35 °CpH 3.8–3.9shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaYeasts

What changes: A piece of madre is worked into fresh flour and water, then rises and sours

Step 1 of 6
Refresh (rinfresco)
Time
4–16 h
Reported
Temperature
25–35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 3.8–3.9
Measured
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts
F. sanfranciscensis
Kazachstania humilis
Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Output: ripe madre.

Flavour
sour
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

fresh flour feeds the lactic bacteria and yeasts, which sour and raise the dough

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

Lievito madre is a firm wheat sourdough, refreshed often and kept warm, so it stays mild and full of yeast for rich sweet doughs. Italian law reserves the names panettone, pandoro and colomba for cakes raised by natural sourdough; baker's yeast may be added only up to 1 % of the dough.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Levain liquide (liquid madre)Refreshed with equal weights of flour and water, so it is a pourable batter.
  • Pasta di riporto (crìscito)A piece of the finished bread dough, salt included, kept back to raise the next batch; the southern Italian practice.

History and sources

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

A 2005 Italian ministerial decree defines panettone, pandoro and colomba as cakes made by natural fermentation of sourdough, with "lievito naturale costituito da pasta acida" among their ingredients.

  1. [dm2005] Decreto 22 luglio 2005, Disciplina della produzione e della vendita di taluni prodotti dolciari da forno, Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 177 of 1 August 2005 (copy hosted by Frareg)gov
  2. [devero2021] De Vero L., Iosca G., La China S., Licciardello F., Gullo M., Pulvirenti A. 2021, Yeasts and lactic acid bacteria for panettone production, an assessment of candidate strains, Microorganisms 9:1093paper
  3. [pistor2019] Röthlin U. 2019, Sauerteig regional & international (training slides; Lievito Madre and Levain Liquide recipes), Pistor AG (Switzerland)web
  4. [s1] Wikipedia (it), Lievito naturale (names; pasta di riporto and crìscito)wiki