Growing baking yeast

[tortoise]

Has anyone grown yeast? I'd imagine it starts with the culture "active live yeast" and put in the right environment to grow. Like vinegar or yogurt...

I think I will give it a try when I get some free time.

 

[patandchickens]

Basically, culturing baking-type yeasts at home comes down to making-and-maintaining a sourdough starter. Sourdough starter (culture) consists of various wild yeasts (etc) though, not the same stuff as in the Fleischmann's packets.

So, really what you're wanting to do is to get a good sourdough cuture going... which however does *not* start with Fleischmanns-type packaged bakers yeast.

(Even if you start with packaged bakers yeast and have the best possible luck, you will still *end up with* a sourdough culture, since unless you have a lab-quality setup [.aminar flow hood, etc] to ensure sterility of operations, your culture WILL be colonized by wild yeasts and bacteria, and so will end up as a probably-inferior version of a sourdough starter ANYhow)

(e.t.a. - the reason vinegar, and to a lesser extent yogurt, organisms are easier to culture on for long periods of time is that their environment is fairly hostile to other microorganisms, so they have a vast advantage and few competitors, and thus a much easier time remaining the dominant organisms in the culture. Whereas, anything bakers yeast can be cultured in, a gajillion OTHER things, many more-vigorous than bakers yeast, are ALSO very happy to live and grow in)

Pat

 

[FarmerDenise]

I have come across these recipes for making baking yeast, but have not tried them.

Homemade Yeast From Milk
4 cups lukewarm milk
2 tsp salt
2 tbs and 2 tsp flour
After blending ingedients, let set for 1 hour then add to batter for 2 loaves of bread or a double recipe of biscuits.

Potato Yeast Cakes
2 medium white potatoes
4 cups water
1/2 cup flour
1 compressed yeast cake
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup honey

Cook potatoes in water to soft doneness, drain water into a container and mash. Mix potato water, cornmeal and honey, then add hot mashed potatoes. Let mixture cool until lukewarm then add enough water to make the entire batch measure 2 quarts. Let set at room temperature for 12-14 hours, then stir and add additional flour to make a stiff batter. Let rise until very light, then stiffen even more with new cornmeal. Pat into squares about 1/2" thick and cut into 2" cakes for drying. Turn cakes daily until hard and very dry. One cake will make 4 loaves of bread.

One 2" square of dry potato-yeast cake is equivalent to 2 teaspoons of packaged, powdered yeast. Using store-bought yeast for the first batch, future cakes can be made from your own storehouse, providing you always have one cake left to start it. Store in a paper or cloth bag in a cool, dry place or in a barrel of flour or cornmeal. It will not freeze in extreme cold or sour in heat although it may be slightly weakened by constant exposure to warm temperatures.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Here is another one from the same book.

Mrs. Lydia Maria Child in The American Frugal Housewife (1832) relates the following recipe for homemade yeast:

"When bread is nearly out, always think whether yeast is in readiness, for it takes a day and night to prepare it. One handful of hops, with two or three handsful of malt and rye bran, should be boiled 15 or 20 minutes in two quarts of water, then strained, hung on (in reference to a kettle hanging over the fire) to boil again, and thickened with half a pint of rye and water stirred up quite thick, and a little molasses: boil it a minute or two, and then take it off to cool. When just about lukewarm, put in a cupful of good lively yeast and set in a cool place in the summer, and a warm place in winter. If it is too warm when you put in the old yeast, all the spirit will be killed".

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I thought I would post it anyway.
This is from a great "homemade" book I found at the Goodwill outlet store. The title is: Survival Into The New Age by Edward Andrrews and Jacalyn Ward. published in 1986

 

[ORChick]

Mrs Beeton was Britain's Fanny Farmer (or was it the other way 'round? ). My copy is a facsimile first edition printed in the 1980's in Czechslovakia, of all places. It was a birthday present from my DH's aunt, who had no English, and was so pleased that she had found me something in my own language . I have never tried these recipes - yeast was always easier found than either hops or malt. Personally I will keep my sourdough starter lively and active for the day that I can no longer buy yeast - until then I buy it by the pound, and store it in the freezer.

From "Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management", first published in 1859 -

#1 - To make yeast for bread -

1 1/2 oz hops
3 qts water
1 lb of bruised malt
1/2 pint of yeast

Boil the hops in water for 20 minutes; let it stand for about 5 minutes, then add in 1 lb of bruised malt prepared as for brewing. Let the mixture stand covered till about lukewarm, then put in not quite 1/2 pint of yeast; keep it warm, and let it work 3 or 4 hours; then put it into small 1/2 pint bottles (ginger beer bottles are the best for the purpose), cork them well, and tie them down.The yeast is now ready for use; it will keep good for a few weeks, and one bottle will be found sufficient for 18 lbs of flour. ... The bottles of yeast require very careful opening, as it is generally exceedingly ripe.

#2 - Kirkleatham Yeast

2 oz. of hops
4 qts water
1/2 lb flour
1/2 pint of yeast

Boil the hops and water for 20 minutes; strain, and mix with the liquid1/2 lb of flour and not quite 1/2 pint of yeast. Bottle it up, and tie the corks down. When wanted for use, boil potatoes according to the quantity of bread to be made (about 3 lbs are sufficient for about 1 peck of flour); mash them, add to them 1/2 lb of flour, and mix about 1/2 pint of the yeast with them; let this mixture stand all day, and lay the bread to rise the night before it is wanted.
!/2 pint of this yeast is sufficient for a peck of flour, or rather more.

 

[tortoise]

Not sure what the hops are for?? We have hops growing in the yard. I could harvest some if it is needed?

We happened to have malt extract, so I mixed 1 T dry yeast with 1 T malt extract in 110 degrees water. I'm going to let it sit overnight.

I'm not going for a culture. I want to make yeast cakes to store. But I'll settle for a sourdough type culture if I have to!

 

[tortoise]

Wikipedia to the rescue:

"Hops has an antibiotic effect that favors the activity of brewer's yeast over less desirable microorganisms."

I also learned that hops are thought to help with anxiety and insomnia. Works similarly to valerian. Who knew?!

I guess I will be picking some hops soon.

Thank you! I definitely learned something new today!

 

[~gd]

Basically, culturing baking-type yeasts at home comes down to making-and-maintaining a sourdough starter. Sourdough starter (culture) consists of various wild yeasts (etc) though, not the same stuff as in the Fleischmann's packets.Sorry Pat but yeast does not produce sour dough, the sour is caused by bacteria of the same type that is used for lacto fermenting as in fermented pickles

So, really what you're wanting to do is to get a good sourdough cuture going... which however does *not* start with Fleischmanns-type packaged bakers yeast.

(Even if you start with packaged bakers yeast and have the best possible luck, you will still *end up with* a sourdough culture, since unless you have a lab-quality setup [.aminar flow hood, etc] to ensure sterility of operations, your culture WILL be colonized by wild yeasts and bacteria, and so will end up as a probably-inferior version of a sourdough starter ANYhow)Pat you must have worked in a lab to know about Laminar flow hoods, but all you really need is a air lock bubbler that lets the gas out but lets nothing back in to a closed system, that and a decent filter, I use paper coffee filters to harvest the yeast and then quick freeze the yeast cake produced. This yeast will be inferior to packaged yeast because a lot of the yeast will die in the freezer. So you must "proof" it for a longer period time before using it for baking but the type of yeast will remain the same and somewhere I have the microphotos to prove it.
all in all it is easier to preserve yeast strains on slants but you DO need a lab to do that. Yes Hops are used to preserve brewing yeast but do you really want a hoppy taste in your baked goods?~gd

(e.t.a. - the reason vinegar, and to a lesser extent yogurt, organisms are easier to culture on for long periods of time is that their environment is fairly hostile to other microorganisms, so they have a vast advantage and few competitors, and thus a much easier time remaining the dominant organisms in the culture. Whereas, anything bakers yeast can be cultured in, a gajillion OTHER things, many more-vigorous than bakers yeast, are ALSO very happy to live and grow in)

Pat

 

[i_am2bz]

I hope this isn't going too off-topic, but how long does yeast keep in the freezer? Is there a difference between the yeast in envelopes & the yeast in the jar?

 

[tortoise]

Yeast keeps pretty much forever in the freezer. But my jar in the freezer doesn't grow as much as I expect and my breads haven't been rising enough. So I want to grow some happy bubbly yeast, and grow extra to keep on hand for the next baking day.