Subject: Re: A pint of yeast?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 1994 19:15:10 GMT

> I have some 18th century English recipes in a very cheap edition souvenir-type
> book with no references. They include a number of yeast raised items (Bath 
> Wiggs, for instance) that ask for a quarter-pint or a pint of "ale-yeast".
> 
> Any idea how to convert to fresh yeast?
> 
Yeast is alive. There is no direct conversion. Given time a small amount of 
yeast can be made to leaven an enormous amount of flour. Elizabeth David's
book, English Bread And Yeast Cookery, is a fantastic source of information
about ale-yeast and yeasts in general. She is also an advocate for using the 
smallest amount of yeast possible. Since yeast is not a chemical but rather 
a living creature quantities required are not linear. Two pounds of flour 
doesn't require twice the yeast that one pound of flour requires. 

Contemporary, especially contemporary American recipes, call for massive 
amounts of yeast. Elizabeth David suggests using 1/3 of a package of dried and 
1/3 of a cake of compressed yeast per pound of flour. This is contrast to many 
other authors who suggest 2 pachages of yeast per pound (3 1/2 cups flour)!

Any amount of yeast will work. I think the major substitution issue is that of 
flavor. The yeast sludge includes the bittering agents - like hops. So this 
pint of ale-yeast is not just a pint of yeast. 

On page 98 of her book on English breads Elizabeth David writes, "....cookery 
writers (early 19th century) repeatedly warned their readers to take care tht 
the barm they used to leaven their breads and cakes ws not itter, or stale, or 
too strongly flavored with hops; the quantities they specified were of 
necessity undertain and inconsistent because the barm itself varied from 
household to household, from one brewing, one month, one week, on day, even, 
to another. The manner of its use varied accordingly, and the old instrucitons 
strike modern readers as hopelessly haphazard and erratic...." 

She goes on to say that the yeast that rose to the top of the vat 
was more potent and 
better suited for bread making. It was known as "high yeast." A bottom 
sediment "was produced by the fermentation at low temperature of light beers 
and continental lagers. The slow action of this type of barm evidently 
resulted in  heavy, damp, sour bread." 

But. "Whichever kind of barm was to be used for bread, clearly the crucial 
point was the washing of the yeast in a effort to eliminate the bitter taste. 
All cookery writers of the 17th and 18th centuries made this point. Hanah 
Glassse, for example, left her pint and a half of 'good ale yest' - ' but take 
care that it be not bitter' - lying overnight in a gallon of water. In the 
morning the water was poured off. The yeast that was left was then stirred 
into a mixture of ....." 

Quoting from Miss Acton's Modern Cookery, 1845, 'The yeast bought from a public 
brewery is often so extremely bitter that it can only be rendered fit for use 
by frequent washings....'

My suggestion, if you can't get ale-yeast, is to at least add some hops to your 
dough (hop some of the water you add). Not so much it is too bitter to eat, but 
enough so that you taste a hint of brewery.

-- 
William Rubel                     Phone: 1 (408) 425-5978
126 Otis Street                   Fax:   1 (408) 426-1161
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
USA

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From: Gretchen Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 1994 16:17:00 -0400

> I suspect what they mean is the sludge left in the bottom of the brewing
> vessel after the wort has been drawn off.

Or maybe not.  This weekend, I picked up a a book called 'A Handbook of
Anglo-Saxon Cookery' which describes a method of making dried yeast from
ale-barm--essentially  you take the sludge from the bottom and either
swirl it on twigs and hang the twigs to dry, or spread it on a flat
surface and allow it to dry.  When dry you end up with yeast cakes.  

A look at the recipe might make it easier to do the proper conversions. 
For example, if you start with 5 points of flour, then 1/4 pint of yeast
might just be reasonable.  On the other hand, it's probably a bit much
for 3 cups of flour.

toodles, gretchen