Pre-ferment

They all fall on a varying process and time spectrum, from a mature mother dough of many generations of age to a first-generation sponge based on a fresh batch of baker's yeast: There is no credible explanation for the origin of the term poolish.

A ferment is easy to make and usually consists of a simple mixture of wheat flour, water, and a leavening agent (typically yeast).

They both act to inhibit or slow yeast growth, as determined by time to proof or rise,[16] so they are not usually included and instead are added to the final dough.

After mixing it is allowed to ferment for a period of time, and then is added to the final dough as a substitute for or in addition to more yeast.

There are distinctly different brew types of pre-ferments designed for computer-controlled bakeries that use a rather different series of ingredients, including oxidizers, needed for continuous dough-production processes.

[19][20][21] When cooling a levain or sourdough pre-ferment, if the dough temperature drops below 10 °C (50 °F) it affects the culture and leads to the loss of a particular aroma in the baked bread.

This is about the point in time when some process similarities of yeast pre-ferments to sourdough or levain starters begins to diverge.