Integrative Assignment I

Integrative Assignment I – Ciabatta

Ciabatta baked in class, showing the large holes and airy texture

1. Assumption
   Up until this course I didn’t know what made different kinds of bread different. I could recognize differences in texture and taste, but I didn’t know what properties of the bread or methods of preparation created these differences.

2. Dish (5 pts)
   Ciabatta is a type of Italian bread. It is a fairly flat, rectangular loaf of white bread, with a crisp, floury outside and a soft, airy inside due to its large bubbles.

3. Chemical analysis (12 pts)
   The holes in bread are formed when gas bubbles become caught in the dough. In ciabatta, this gas comes from yeast. When yeast respires glucose, found in the bread dough, it forms CO₂. In ciabatta, once the ingredients are combined into the biga, it is allowed to sit for hours, allowing the yeast lots of time to respire and form CO₂, and forming bubbles in the biga, and subsequently the bread itself. Additionally, when the bread is baked, the high moisture content of the dough creates steam that also becomes trapped in the dough, enlarging these pockets of gas.
   The formation of bubbles is reliant upon the production of gas, but also requires a strong gluten matrix in the dough to trap the air in large pockets. The formation of a strong gluten matrix requires flour that contains glutenin and gliadin, water, and mechanical kneading. Ciabatta has all of these components, allowing for the creation of a gluten matrix that is strong enough to be inflated like a balloon by the various gasses present in the bread.

4. Cultural analysis (12 pts)
   Ciabatta’s clearly traceable roots only date back to the 1980’s, when Arnaldo Cavallari created and copyrighted “Ciabatta Polesano” as a response to the French baguette’s monopoly on the Italian sandwich market. This bread was named for its slipper-like appearance and the region of Italy where Cavallari worked; it was later renamed to Ciabatta Italiana. However, ciabatta has likely been around for much longer in various forms. Cavallari himself says, “There is no question of that recipe having existed before,” but maintains that anyone questioning his copyright would need to provide proof (The secret life of ciabatta).

5. Integration (6 pts)
   Ciabatta was created to compete with the French baguette, and its texture matches that of the baguette. Both are yeasted breads, with large holes and an airy texture, as well as a crisp, floured exterior. Though the baking processes differ slightly, the resulting breads are quite similar, differing mostly in shape. Ciabatta’s simplicity and chemical similarity to the French baguette make it a viable substitute that could be easily produced, which served to revitalize the sandwich market and economy in Italy.Works Cited
   “The Secret Life of Ciabatta.” The Guardian, 26 Nov. 2017, www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/apr/30/features11.g24