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Yeast Cultures
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* Method One
* Method Two
* Method Three
* Notes on Yeast and Yeast Cultures
Method One
As told by Maud Shurtz (born 1896)
contents © Al Durtschi
We kept our yeast culture in a gallon crock jar. When making bread, we used all the contents except about a cup. This gave us the `seed’ to rebuild our culture. We did this by adding cool potato water, some mashed potatoes, a 1/4 cup of sugar and a cup of flour. We then gave it a stir, and set it in a warm place near the stove. When potatoes were cooked for dinner, we added the cooled potato water to the yeast culture. If all went well with our culture, the yeast was ready for the next bake day. If for some reason the yeast died, we carefully washed and sanitized the crock pot then went to the neighbor’s place for another start.
Method Two
As told by Rose Adamson (born 1915)
contents © Al Durtschi
When making bread, my mother pulled a piece of dough off maybe the size of a cup and threw it in the flour bin. The day before she made bread again she went to the bin and got the bread dough which was now large and flat and quite hard. She put this in a bowl of warm potato water with some sugar and let it sit in a warm place. The next day when Mother was making bread she poured the now frothy yeast culture into the bread makings.
(Note from the author: In trying this out, it worked fairly well unless it was left in the flour bin too long. I found that if I left it more than a week the yeast culture died.)
Method Three:
Yeast Cakes
By Bob Scott
* 1 pint fresh buttermilk
* corn meal
* 1 cake of yeast
* 1/2 cup of white flour and more corn meal
Bring the buttermilk to a boil then remove it from the stove. Stir and add corn meal until quite thick then cool. Soak yeast cake in warm water. Stir into above and let stand (rise) overnight. In the morning stir in the white flour and extra corn meal to make the dough very stiff. Roll out to thickness of boughten cakes and cut into squares and let dry.
Use like store bought yeast cakes.
Notes on Yeast and Yeast Cultures:
* Yeast requires warmth to grow
* Yeast goes dormant at 63 degrees F (14C)
* It works best between 80-95 degrees F (24-35C)
* Yeast slows down above this until it dies at about 109 degrees F (46C) Yeast cultures are fragile and are easily contaminated and killed by bacteria
* Keep all wooden or plastic spoons, and everything that is added to the pot as sterile as possible
* Do not use metal as your yeast culture pot (this includes the stirring utensil) - use a ceramic or plastic container
* Place a loose fitting lid on top to allow the carbon dioxide to escape
* Yeast changes sugar and simple starches into carbon dioxide and Ethel alcohol
* It is possible for the yeast to kill itself by the alcohol it produces. For bakers yeast this happens at about 12 percent alcohol content. To prevent this from happening you must keep an eye on it. When it stops frothing it is either out of food or is nearing it’s toxicity level. Add more water and carbohydrates and if your crock is already full, dump some of it out.
Final Note: Don’t expect your yeast culture to act like dried high potency yeast. It will act much more like a sour dough recipe and may take several hours to raise.
Brewing your own beer is a good idea. Back in the days before microbreweries took off, I used to brew my own because the beer that was available in my area was just awful, flavorless crud. If you use a kit, it’ll cost you about half of what you pay in the supermarket. You’ll also avoid paying those beer taxes.
Another way to make sure you have plenty of yeast is to brew beer. You’ll have yeast coming out of your proverbial ears. I used to dump quarts of it when I was brewing.