THERE IS NEVER A SHORTAGE OF YEAST
April 2, 2020 2:29 PM   Subscribe

 
OK, what about making our own flour?
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:37 PM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]


To make your own flour, you first have to invent the universe.
posted by a halcyon day at 2:43 PM on April 2, 2020 [16 favorites]


We should Tuck Frumpy yeasts into everything.
posted by The otter lady at 2:44 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


Isn't this just a sourdough starter?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:46 PM on April 2, 2020 [8 favorites]


OK, what about making our own flour?

My wife came home yesterday with a 50# bag of white flour from Costco, so perhaps supply is finally catching up with demand.
posted by sideshow at 2:49 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


EmpressCallipygos - sounds like one to me.

Good information, though.
posted by Foaf at 3:04 PM on April 2, 2020


Flour doesn't seem hard to get. *Berries*, on the other hand, have become unobtainium. The advantage of berries over flour in these times (for those of us with a mill) is that they have a much longer shelf life.
posted by Slothrup at 3:06 PM on April 2, 2020


So I can make my own hand yeastitizer real easy then, I guess!
posted by mwhybark at 3:11 PM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]


See also this ask me question: How to make more yeast from the 1 packet I have left.

I especially like the German recipe, because *of course* everyone has Weissbier at home.
posted by nat at 3:13 PM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]


yeah to being a brewer and having more yeast than I know what to do with. (Although it would be better to have yeast selected for baking!)
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:29 PM on April 2, 2020


It's not easy being a Yeastboy …
posted by scruss at 3:29 PM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]


It is day 17 of our quarantine and my husband has not only created a sourdough starter but has named it and is posting about its exploits on Facebook. Send help.
posted by merriment at 3:33 PM on April 2, 2020 [34 favorites]


Making your own yeast sounds like a fun project. After all you probably need a fun indoor project and that's why you're suddenly interested in baking (at least that's why I am). But we went on Nextdoor and found someone who was willing, eager actually, to give us a hunk of her 35-year-old starter. So we took a mile-long socially-distanced walk (yay exercise!) to pick it up from her porch.

(We've named it Bread Pitt.)
posted by sjswitzer at 3:34 PM on April 2, 2020 [14 favorites]


Ok, awkward question: do I keep the dried fruit in the mixture or should I strain it out before adding the flour?
posted by kalimac at 3:36 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


The "sour" in sourdough is waste from active, living yeast: acetic acid. Yeast eats the sugars in the flour and "poops out" carbon dioxide, and alcohol too. Eventually, acetic acid forms, which is what makes vinegar taste sour also. It's yeast poop that makes bread rise and makes beer foamy and full of that crazy booze.

/extremely simplistic explanation from a non-sciency person.

I've made sourdough bread and have wondered if you could get nearly the same flavor by making regular bread and just adding a tiny amount of white vinegar.
posted by SoberHighland at 3:49 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


I've done sourdough starters before, but they are very needy and I actually have less time now (having already been WFH for a telecommunications outfit with much increased demand), and also I don't like sourdough much especially the strong variant you pick up in the Bay Area. This is how I ended up ordering a case of yeast.
posted by tavella at 3:51 PM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]


My wife came home yesterday with a 50# bag of white flour from Costco

See, that’s still short term planning. If she was really planning for the long haul, she’d have brought home a universe.
posted by notoriety public at 3:53 PM on April 2, 2020 [5 favorites]


Yeast really is almost everywhere. You're breathing in yeast right now! I was in Sonoma Valley once and kept thinking about the clouds of microscopic organisms I was inhaling with each breath. Sure, yeast is everywhere. But in a place with that enormous quantity of squashed grapes laying around, there must be an even greater amount of it in the air.

Just now? You breathed in yeast again!
posted by SoberHighland at 3:57 PM on April 2, 2020 [7 favorites]


and also I don't like sourdough much especially the strong variant you pick up in the Bay Area.

When I moved to the Bay Area 30 years ago the sourdough thing was over the top and... not good. But recently I've been persuaded to try it again and it's much better. "Sourdough" doesn't have to be very sour at all. It's definitely a variable you have a lot of control over.
posted by sjswitzer at 4:00 PM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]


I've made sourdough bread and have wondered if you could get nearly the same flavor by making regular bread and just adding a tiny amount of white vinegar.

One of my local bread purveyors (a chain that banks on being somewhat "folksy") was selling a "sourdough" loaf. I bought one and let me tell you I'm pretty sure their sourdough was made by adding plain white vinegar to their regular white tank loaf. The crumb was fine and cake-like just like their tank loaves, and the taste... I have no idea how much vinegar they added but it was inedible.

I'm not saying don't do it. But maybe use apple cider vinegar and very very small amounts? Because damn. That was nasty.
posted by ninazer0 at 4:01 PM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]




My daughter started some and it’s doing well! We named it Bready White. We can never let it die.
posted by pearlybob at 4:18 PM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]


i've been making sourdough with a yeast culture that started off 6 months ago as a belgian saison strain from one of those packets you get at the brewing supply shop. I have serious doubts about whether the active yeast is still the same saison strain, but the sourdough is delicious.

i don't know what kind of deranged junk-sick dog would choose to eat 'white' bread given the existence of sourdough
posted by logicpunk at 4:22 PM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]


Just now? You breathed in yeast again!

*Gasp!*

*kaff*kaff*
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:38 PM on April 2, 2020


Cooks Illustrated's Almost No Knead Bread (their version of Bittman's version of Leahy's no-knead) replaces some of the water with beer and adds 1T of white vinegar. The recipe uses yeast, not starter, but the beer and vinegar add sourdough-ish flavor
posted by jindc at 5:02 PM on April 2, 2020


My wife came home yesterday with a 50# bag of white flour

It's the one thing I thought could never hurt us. The stay-puft sourdough man. [thunderous footsteps]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:16 PM on April 2, 2020 [2 favorites]


and also I don't like sourdough much especially the strong variant you pick up in the Bay Area.

It's not that strong if you use a fairly young starter, like right at the two week mark. I live in the Bay area and I just made sourdough from a wild yeast starter two days ago. It had just a light tangyness, not the over-the-top intensity that some people go for. It really just depends on the age of the starter. I dried a whole bunch of it for storage at that point rather than let it all get old and more sour in the fridge.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:58 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


You can also control the sourness by feeding schedule, I should add. I tend to just make new ones because I am lazy.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:03 PM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]


wondered if you could get nearly the same flavor by making regular bread and just adding a tiny amount of white vinegar.

I dunno, but I can confirm you can make an ersatz kombucha with soda water, ice tea and cider vinegar....
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:17 PM on April 2, 2020


When I moved to the Bay Area 30 years ago the sourdough thing was over the top and... not good. But recently I've been persuaded to try it again and it's much better.

It seems to be a general change there, according to this bbc bit that went up today.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200402-why-san-francisco-does-sourdough-best
Still, regardless of where it’s produced, Baker stresses that what really makes a good sourdough bread is this taste. “San Francisco sourdough as a bread style has a characteristically tangy flavour profile,” he said, “which is really due to the acetic acid (another acid that forms during fermentation).” Yet its flavour profile has more recently shifted to something much milder, with many bakers (Baker included) balancing the bread’s lactic acid sourness with the nuance and characteristics of the grains that are employed in that particular loaf.

“Rather than flavouring from fermentation,” said Baker, “the dominant force at work here is the grains from which each loaf of bread is made. Less of the acetic acid (think vinegar), and more of a sweet lactic acid-forward fermentation (think yogurt).”
I miss my local coffeeshop's breads. Another week and I'm going to have to figure out this baking stuff myself.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:46 PM on April 2, 2020


ersatz kombucha

Stay tuned! for the continued adventures of Ersatz Kombucha and her sidekick Scoby!!
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:56 PM on April 2, 2020 [5 favorites]


Yeah but we tried to make pizza last week, the yeast was old (like real old and I didn’t proof it because I was being hasty and so wasted about a pound of flour) and it turns out there has been a run on yeast in the stores?!?! The fuck?
So I made a Biga but just with flour water and a touch of sugar... now I’m thinking I shoulda thrown in some raisins? It does it’s thing, as a starter, though I haven’t tried to do pizza again yet, it’s on the list...
I did make cinnamon rolls last night with it but the recipe I have is a kinda soda-bread concoction.
But this is cool. Also, I didn’t know there were ‘yeast geneticists’. That is interesting
posted by From Bklyn at 9:57 PM on April 2, 2020


mmm my hands smell like fresh bread
posted by mwhybark at 11:26 PM on April 2, 2020


It is day 17 of our quarantine and my husband has not only created a sourdough starter but has named it and is posting about its exploits on Facebook

Mine is called Bobbles! Although they lack a social media presence.
posted by stillnocturnal at 4:06 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]


Several sourdough enthusiasts actually recommend people name their starters, as a way to sort of bond with it so you're more likely to remember to feed and maintain it.

...Me, I find the sourdough pancakes I make every week with the discard from feeding to be reminder enough.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:37 AM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]


Mine is Pierre, and he is only a week old but is growing up nicely.

However, I will try this process as well. Flour is in abundant supply in Metro Detroit, but yeast is not to be found. I started Pierre to compensate, but I'd rather not put all my yeast in one basket! Bread has has become a near daily product in our house.
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 5:23 AM on April 3, 2020


But we went on Nextdoor and found someone who was willing, eager actually, to give us a hunk of her 35-year-old starter. So we took a mile-long socially-distanced walk (yay exercise!) to pick it up from her porch

35 year old starter? Ooooooh man I wish I could find something like that. Bet that bread is delicious.
posted by azpenguin at 7:19 AM on April 3, 2020


I was very confused reading the article; it's just sourdough. I should have read the comments first. I was hoping it would produce something closer to commercial yeast. I also think using fruit to start your starter is more convoluted than just using flour and water.

I used up most of my starter making pizza dough today. It's rising in the fridge now. I'm being indulgent and using 00 flour.

Bread has become my bartering currency. I traded fresh baked bread for face masks (from my sewing friend) yesterday.
posted by shoesietart at 3:11 PM on April 3, 2020


I’ve had a SCOBY in a jar, sitting in my refrigerator for many years now in a little bath. It seems pretty happy and occasionally comes out for a refreshing vacation in tea and juice, but then goes back home, such as it is. It’s definitely way more talkative than I like.
posted by waving at 5:18 AM on April 4, 2020


"Sourdough" doesn't have to be very sour at all. It's definitely a variable you have a lot of control over.

An update on this: two days ago I wanted to make a non-sour loaf so I used about a tablespoon of starter, then added it to equal parts flour and water (by weight) to make a fresh levain. I let that ferment several hours in a warm place until it was nice and bubbly and then added that to my dough. The bread was hardly sour at all (and most of that was because I used whey that happened to be leftover from making ricotta instead of water in the final mix).
posted by sjswitzer at 12:04 PM on April 6, 2020 [2 favorites]


The Washington Post now has a long form version of the original tweet, including a recipe. It includes a useful safety warning: Young starters — before the yeast can really get its footing — are the most vulnerable to infection by the wrong sort of bacteria, including possibly E. coli. A pinkish or orange-ish tint may indicate bad bacteria. Discard and start again if you see this color change, or mold.
posted by fedward at 7:39 PM on April 7, 2020 [2 favorites]


Hey, I just want to tell the folks trash talking the original San Francisco-style sourdough (and you know who you are) to calm down. You are not obligated to like it, that just leaves more for the rest of us.
posted by Bella Donna at 5:45 AM on April 10, 2020 [2 favorites]



Stay tuned! for the continued adventures of Ersatz Kombucha and her sidekick Scoby!!


I miss Scody.
posted by notsnot at 5:48 PM on April 14, 2020


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