Industrial uses

 

We prefer to limit our development to French disease (our origins) and we hope to help readers to discover a new culture.

First, let's present the Bread which is not a French speciality but which is so important to our French tradition. The manufacture of a bread starts with the baking of dough made up of flour (of corn or barley, according to the type of bread) and of water to which we add yeast of bakery to make it raise. This yeast is called Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, microscopic fungus which degrades sugar, alcohol and carbonic gas according to the fermentation process.

This yeast is also used in the wine and Champagne making process : starting from the grape gathered at the beginning of October, we obtain by pressing a juice or "moût". This juice is then sent in large fermentation tanks where it undergoes the first fermentation called "alcoholic fermentation" which requires both wild and cultivated yeasts (such as Saccharomyces). Then intervenes the malolactic fermentation which makes it possible to decrease the acidity and the aggressiveness of the wine. After those two fermentations, the wine is finally processed by each wine maker who try to mix all the characteristics of the different grapes. The wine is then mixed in a tank with a sown liquor of selected colony. It is then bottled, the bottles are lying in the cellars while a new alcoholic fermentation occurs to give foam. The wine must remain at least a year in bottles for the ordinary vintages, three years for the special vintages.During the aging process, different flavors appear and lead to a high quality wine.

Another speciality of France is the cheese: there are more than 400 French cheeses. For example, the "camembert" was born during the French Revolution. Marie Harel, farmer from the little town Camembert (Normandy), created it and the making process of nowadays is very similar to the one used in the past. Its current manufacture remains near to the past one. Milk is coagulated under the action of rennet: we obtain a gel which is drained off, draining is accompanied by an acidification due to the action of lactic bacteria introduced into milk at the same time of the addition of rennet. Then the curdled milk is covered with a thin layer of salt and "penicillium camemberti". The paste is subjected to a refining from four to five weeks which corresponds to a phase of enzymatic digestion: this phase is called enzymatic digestion where enzymes created by the existing microorganisms destroy the main elements of the curds. The main characteristics such as the aspect and texture change and the cheese develops savour and flavour characteristics.