Temperature is the variable I spent the most time getting wrong. Recipes state fermentation times without giving the corresponding kitchen temperature, which makes the time almost meaningless. In a 20 °C kitchen, bulk fermentation might take eight hours. In a 26 °C kitchen on a warm afternoon, the same dough might be done in four.

Once I started recording kitchen temperature alongside fermentation results, the patterns became predictable. That is the whole point of measuring. The Q10 rule in the panel below is the underlying biology explaining why the numbers behave as they do.

Cold retarding — placing the shaped loaf in the fridge overnight — exploits this directly. Yeast activity slows more sharply than bacterial activity at low temperatures, so the loaf develops flavour without over-proofing. One of the most reliable techniques in the process.