Bread Fermentation Seed Culture Prepared from Inaniwa Udon Dough in Saline Medium

Abstract

To obtain fermentation seed culture, we cultured traditional "Inaniwa udon" dough in 5% or 10% saline medium. The concentration of halotolerant yeast obtained in the saline cultures exceeded 10⁶ colony forming units(CFU)/ml. However, the number of lactic acid bacteria was as low as 10⁴ CFU/ml, which differed from that of conventional fermented seed cultures. Hyphopichia burtonii, a halotolerant yeast, was predominant in 5% and 10% saline cultures.Addition of this saline culture to the bread dough promoted dough expansion, increased the specific volume of the bread (from~3 cm³/g to~4 cm³/g), and decreased the hardness of the bread compared to the control. Additionally, the 5% saline culture was found to be a better fermentation seed culture than the 10% saline culture.