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Ripening Bread and its Effects
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Published 2025
When you make one of the tomato gravies that South Philadelphia is famous for, you have to chill it and store it in the refrigerator overnight so that, in the vernacular, the flavors can marry. And though you should not store a wild yeast bread in the refrigerator, the idea of an extended rest period after baking brings out the bread’s flavor profile in a similar way.
It’s taken a long time to build the flavor profile of your Culture. When you elaborate on that flavor by building a Levain, and then building a main dough, you’re using time to create complexity in the bread’s flavor profile. Once it’s baked, cool your bread fully and then give it additional time so its flavor can emerge.