I meant 25% of the total yeast used in the poolish for doughball #1.
#1: 0.50% yeast
#2: 0.18% yeast
#3: Do not have an exact number, was just trying to lay down a scenario.
Since all of your examples call for using commercial yeast, it is quite likely that all of the scenarios will produce the same or similar byproducts of fermentation but in different amounts, and possibly with some unique interactions (including with bacteria such as lactobacillus). The only way that I know of to be able to equate the three scenarios you listed is to conduct actual experiments. I am unaware of any mathematical algorithms that will give you the answers. FYI, preferments are used by bakers to do some of the heavy lifting and, as a result, shorten the dough production times. That way, when a baker shows up at work at 4:00 AM to make the dough, the preferment is there waiting for him. The production time is measured from the point the preferment is added to the mixer bowl, not when the preferment was made. The same or similar results from using a preferment might be achieved with the proper dough formulation with the right amount of yeast and a longer cold fermentation time.
If you are interested in achieving significantly better crust flavors without using any natural leavening system and only flour, water, yeast, salt and maybe some oil, and no sugar, then the only way I know how to do that is described in the thread at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3985.msg33251.html#msg33251
. Although I think that that thread is worthy of reading by those who are interested in the technical and science aspects of dough making, it is a long thread. To shorten the time for you to get up to speed, should you wish to do so, you might want to start with the post at Reply 20 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,11344.msg106401.html#msg106401
. As you will see from the links provided in that post, I was able to make doughs with up to 23 days of cold fermentation. There was no penalty in terms of oven spring, no observable gluten damage, excellent crust coloration (even without any added sugar), a natural sweetness in the crusts in some cases, and with excellent flavors (except for the 23-day old dough). The crust flavors were reminiscent of what I achieved before using natural leavening systems. There was a lot of mystery in what I did, and to this day I can't explain it, although member November did try to help explain what might have happened. All I know is what I did, and memorialized in my posts. I believe that Norma holds the forum record for length of cold fermentation (I believe it is 25 days) but in her case she was using a milk kefir. Most people are unlikely to have the patience to wait a few weeks to use their doughs, although we have some members, like Glutenboy and some of his acolytes, who apparently are willing to wait a week or two.
I agree with scott123 that not everyone will like the results of using a very long cold fermentation window. In my tests, I was using the Lehmann NY style dough formulation, which is essentially a commercial formulation for making a NY "street" style pizza. But what I did with my long fermentation methods was to make the pizzas more like "artisan" pizzas. So, those who favor a classic NY "street" style pizza might not be satisfied with a more artisan style. Since you addressed your original post to Tom Lehmann, I thought that you might be interested in what he had to say when a member over at the PMQ Think Tank once asked Tom what was the longest cold fermentation period he was aware of. You can read the questions posed to Tom and his reply at Reply 99 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8341.msg75183/topicseen.html#msg75183
. I might add that I had independently conducted my own research of posts at the PMQTT to see what was most common in terms of fermentation windows and, like scott123 mentioned, three days of cold fermentation was pretty much the max for a basic dough. I had seen as high as five days, but that was rare. If Tom responds to your opening post, I don't think he will be recommending that you go out weeks of cold fermentation. He might suggest using a natural leavening system, or maybe a preferment of some sort, or maybe adding other items to the dough along the lines that you mentioned.
Since yeast quantity was mentioned, I might add that yeast itself can impart flavor to a finished crust. However, according to Prof. Calvel, you need about 2% fresh yeast. He never said in his book (The Taste of Bread
) what amounts of dry yeast might be equivalent, but I would estimate around 0.70% for IDY and an equivalent amount for ADY. However, at those levels of yeast, whether fresh or dry, you will not be able to achieve a long fermentation window. Some people also use dead yeast for flavor purposes but that is not something that I have seen members on this forum do.
If you rule out using a long fermentation window, there are indeed things that you can do with your dough to increase the final crust flavors. The possibilities are legion. To assist you in this regard, you might want to read the PMQTT thread at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?p=22750#p22750
. That thread is one of the most popular ever, from a page view standpoint, at the PMQTT. Also, if you use the forum's search features, you will be able to find discussions of any ingredient you might want to add to a dough, along with discussions of preferments and natural leavening system.