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Is Poolish Polish?

189 bytes removed, 17:50, 31 July 2021
Ever since people domesticated cereals (or maybe it was the other way around), they have known that if you grind the grains down into flour, then mix the flour with water into dough and bake it, then you'll get a flat, crumbly bread like roti, pita or matzo. But if you leave the dough in a warm place for a few hours before baking it, then it will start to bubble and rise; and if you then bake it, the bread will be soft, fluffy, pleasantly tart and aromatic. Beer, another cereal product, has been known about as long as bread. And it's been also known for a long time that if you gather the froth from the surface of fermenting brew and add it to the bread dough, then it will rise faster.
<nomobile>[[File:Poolish.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.7|Poolish - above, freshly mixed; bottombelow, risen]]</nomobile>
Centuries later, once microscopes were around, the bubbles that cause the dough to rise were shown to be produced my microörganisms. Oversimplifying, there are two kinds of them. One kind is lactic-acid bacteria, which eat the sugars present in the flour, excreting carbon dioxide and lactic acid. Bacteria like these are also responsible for milk going sour (hence their name: "lactic" means "milk", "acid" means "sour") and for cabbage turning into sauerkraut. In bread, the carbon dioxide produces the bubbles which make the bread fluffy, while the lactic acid gives the bread its specific tart flavour. The dough which is left for bacteria to make it sour is called, you guessed it, sourdough.
The year 1842 saw the brewing of the world's first lager in Pilsen (now Plzeň, Czech Republic). Lager is a lower-fermentation beer, which means that the yeast, once done, sinks to the bottom of the vat rather than float to surface. Pilsner-type lager caught Europe by the storm, which had the unexpected side-effect of bakers no longer having access to a source of fresh yeast, as there was nothing to collect from the surface of the lager brew. And fresh yeast was indispensable. In the case of sourdough, it's common to leave some of it to kick-start the next batch, with the resulting flavour only getting better every time. This approach doesn't work with yeast, though, as old yeast gives bread a rather unpleasant, stale aroma.
  Trzeba było zatem wymyślić sposóbA method, therefore, żeby te stare drożdże jakoś odmłodzićwas needed to somehow rejuvenate this old yeast. I&nbsp;właśnie w&nbsp;tym celu wynaleziono podmłodyAnd this is why pre-ferments were invented. Chodzi o&nbsp;The idea is to effect preliminary fermentation and let new generations of yeast to, że najpierw przeprowadza się wstępną fermentację, żeby ze starych drożdży wypączkowały nowe, młode pokolenia grzybowych komórekbud out from the old ones. Dopiero potem przeprowadza się drugą fazę fermentacji, której celem jest spulchnienie ciasta przy użyciu odmłodzonej populacji drożdżyOnly then comes the second phase of fermentation whose purpose is to rise the dough with the young population of yeast. Są różne rodzaje podmłódPre-ferments come in several kinds, takie jak włoska such as the Italian ''biga'' (z której robi się ''ciabatty''used in production of ciabattas) czy angielski ''or the English sponge'' (dosłownie: „gąbka”, z&nbsp;której robi się bułki do hamburgerówused to make hamburger buns). Ale nas interesuje podmłoda luźna, czyli o&nbsp;konsystencji rzadszejBut what we're interested in is the highly-hydrated pre-ferment, bardziej zbliżonej do ciasta naleśnikowegoin which flour and water are mixed in equal proportion by weight, w&nbsp;której mąka i&nbsp;woda są wymieszane w&nbsp;proporcji (wagowo) pół na półproducing a runny starter similar in its consistency to pancake batter. This method is mostly used in preparing the dough for baguettes and other typically French rolls. Tej metody używa się przeważnie do wyrobu ciasta na bagietki i&nbsp;inne typowo francuskie bułki pszenne, i&nbsp;ta właśnie metoda nosi nazwę „''And this is the method which is known by the word "poolish''”". UffPhew!<mobileonly>[[File:Poolish.jpg|thumb|upright|left|''Poolish'' – u&nbsp- above, freshly mixed;góry świeżo zmieszanybelow, u&nbsp;dołu wyrośniętyrisen]]</mobileonly>
== Let Them Eat… What Exactly? ==
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