Talking Dutch: Our daily bread
If a food company boss succeeds in his aims, your loaf could soon taste the way it did back in ancient Egypt
Derek Blyth on the rise and fall of sourdough
At least, that is the message that Stefan Capelle wants to get across. He is the managing director of Puratos, a Flemish food company based in Groot-Bijgaarden, just outside Brussels. More to the point, he is the founder of the world’s first sourdough library.
Wij willen de diversiteit van zuurdesem zo veel mogelijk bewaren – we want to preserve the diversity of sourdough as much as possible, he said in a recent interview with De Morgen. Het is frustrerend te zien hoe smakeloos heel wat brood tegenwoordig is – it is depressing to see how tasteless so much bread is today.
Sourdough has been used to make bread rise since the ancient Egyptian period, Capelle explains, but most bakers stopped using it in the 19th century because it was much easier to use yeast. Dat is zeer jammer, want met het verdwijnen van zuurdesem ging ook veel smaak in het brood verloren – that is a real shame because, without sourdough, a great deal of the taste is lost.
Past and present
Not that we need to worry too much here because the bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien sells big flat round loaves made with old-fashioned sourdough. Capelle is delighted with this development – De toekomst van het brood ligt in zijn verleden – the future of bread lies in the past.
But Capelle wants to go one step further by creating a library of sourdough types. Voor onze bibliotheek zijn we vooral geïnteresseerd in authentieke zuurdesems, die eeuwenlang van generatie op generatie zijn overgegaan, zodat ze een interessant verhaal te vertellen hebben – For our library we are particularly interested in authentic varieties of sourdough, which have been passed down over the centuries from generation to generation; so they have an interesting story to tell.
Most of the samples in the library come from Italy, which is apparently where the best sourdough is made. Het beste brood vind je in Puglia – you find the best bread in Puglia. De fermentatie met harde tarwebloem zorgt voor een intense smaak – the fermentation with hard wheat flour results in an intense taste.
Capelle hopes that bakers will go to the library, which is in Sankt-Vith, Liège province, to discover new taste experiences and take them back to share with Flanders. Dit wordt hier een magische plek voor bakkers – this is going to become a magical place for bakers, he says.
If he succeeds, your daily bread could soon taste the way it did back in ancient Egypt.
