Aldina's Bread

Yesterday I had a second chance to see a Portuguese bread oven in use. Aldina bakes every Saturday for the weekly market in Tabua (Sunday mornings). Friends of ours live near her, and suggested I go to watch her bake.

She makes three types of bread: rye, corn, and regular white wheat. After firing the oven once, she fires again for a short time (30 minutes or so) between each batch (about 20-25 loaves of each). I arrived in time to watch the third and final batch.

The bread-making process is just about what I would have expected. She retains a little of the fermenting sponge from one week to the next. However, when using this reserved leaven she always adds a few grams of purchased live yeast, so I don't think the yeast can be described as a sourdough. Whether this is necessary or not I can't tell; many recipes note that yeast can be used for a few generations but then has to be discarded, whereas until recently I have been using the same culture for something like 12 years.

That in itself is bit of a story; unfortunately I seem to have "lost" my yeast culture. Though I have dried and revived it many times, the dried flakes I brought to Portugal appear to have died. After such a long time, this is bit of a blow and I'm sad to have lost a familar culture. Still, Aldina was kind enough to give me some of hers, and I'll use that next weekend when we plan to experimentally fire a bread oven at a friend's place for a housewarming party. Whether this culture is anything really special (tasty!) or just the same as the local commercial live yeast that she adds every week I have yet to find out....