Old dough

Old dough is a form of pre-ferment in which a small portion of dough from a previous day's baking is held back and then incorporated into a fresh batch of dough instead of adding baker's yeast. The yeast in the old dough then have a fresh supply of food and will reproduce and ferment.

French bakers sometimes refer to the old dough as the chef ('chief').

Want to find out more? Look at the chapter on pre-ferments in the book flour and water.

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