Bread Yeast Question

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snowbeast

Assistant Cook
Joined
Jul 1, 2016
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Location
Cathkin Valley/Winterton
A couple days ago I was watching the food channel and there was an interview with an artisan baker - he claimed his yeast was over 10 years old.
He stored it in a jar and kept topping it up.

I was too busy looking after my daughter to pay careful attention.
Does any member know of a way or at least a link that I could do the same.

I have cultivated beer yeast before, but never baking.

Thank you kindly,

Snowbeast :chef:
 
A couple days ago I was watching the food channel and there was an interview with an artisan baker - he claimed his yeast was over 10 years old.
He stored it in a jar and kept topping it up.

I was too busy looking after my daughter to pay careful attention.
Does any member know of a way or at least a link that I could do the same.

I have cultivated beer yeast before, but never baking.

Thank you kindly,

Snowbeast :chef:
Perhaps he was taking about a sourdough starter of some sort?
 
The oldest sourdough we have in my friendship group is 250 years old. Sourdoughs can go on for ever. Sadly mine sourdough has died and starting a new seams not to work.

All you need if flour and water and time.
 
This is as my friends have said, a sourdough sarter. Mine is from a cullture that has been active since 1847. Mine comes from the same source, and has been active for ten years now.

If you would like a great sourdogh starter I would suggest the Carl Griffith 1847 strain. If you send them $5 for postage and maintenance there are people that have as a testament to Mr. Griffith, have been preserving his starter for years.

the friends of Carl Griffith have a website here:

Carl Griffith 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Page

A sourdough starter is different than normal yeast, in that it is a start to a dough making process. The yeast in it is something that can last for decades and centuries, just involves being fed a mix of 2/3 flour to 1/3 water once a week, the yeast will live. It does tend to adapt itself to your local yeast and bacterial situation. When I moved to Oklahoma, and when I moved back to PA in both cases it took the yeasties a month to adjust, they made bread, it just wasn't as good as it normally was.

I keep mine in a porcelain pot from King Arthur Flour, feed it once a week or so. Mine has been alive now for 16 years.

Commercial yeast is asleep, and dies after a while, a sourdough starter is a living colony of yeast. Thus it refreshes itself. It does take some maintenance, and has to be fed about once a week or so (you can fudge this). If you want to start a starter, helps to have a dedicated, not airtight container you will use for it.

You want to pull it out once a week, feed it, and let it go back to sleep, if you aren't using it. Use it often and you are just talking of replenishment.

TBS
 
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Thank you! That sounds exactly like what I was watching.
I'm not too clued up on baking as I've just started the journey.
As I'm moving into a very rural area I'm teaching myself quickly to bake so I always have bread.
 
I picked up a copy of "Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza" by Ken Forkish from the local library. I thought it gave an excellent explanation of bread making for the home baker. If I was serious about making bread I would purchase a copy for reference. I just dabble in making bread, mostly dutch oven bread.
 
I picked up a copy of "Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza" by Ken Forkish from the local library. I thought it gave an excellent explanation of bread making for the home baker. If I was serious about making bread I would purchase a copy for reference. I just dabble in making bread, mostly dutch oven bread.

Excellent book tenspeed, I recommend it. I also would recommend for bread one of my go too books on ALL things cooking. Darina Allen's "Forgotton Skills of Cooking" to wit:

Forgotten Skills of Cooking: The Time-Honored Ways Are the Best--Over 700 Recipes Show You Why by Darina Allen, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble®

It has an excellent chapter on breads and baking, including the best description I have seen on making your own sourdough starter, and maintaining it.

The Allen book also has quite a few other things to its credit. The chapter on tripe alone is worth buying it, and makes my Beloved Wife EXTREMELY NERVOUS when I start to look at. Poor wife, she is more often the victim then the beneficiary of my culinary adventurism.

I'm still not allowed to go to Chinatown unsupervised after the Jellyfish incident of 2009. In my defense the Jellyfish were on sale, and I got an excellent price for them. I mean can I be faulted for not knowing how to prepare jellyfish? Do you know how to prepare them?

Of course my sourdough starter has a name. Sean Charles McYeastington. If he were a person he would be a staid solid Englishman, prone to wearing tweed blazers with worn elbows perhaps with a touch of chalkdust about him. Takes his tea at four pm precisely he does. One lump of sugar, which he feels rather guilty about and no cream.
 
I'm still not allowed to go to Chinatown unsupervised after the Jellyfish incident of 2009. In my defense the Jellyfish were on sale, and I got an excellent price for them. I mean can I be faulted for not knowing how to prepare jellyfish? Do you know how to prepare them?

.

I'm just about ready to try braving a geoduck next time we go to the big Oriental market and they have really fresh looking ones.

I've never been good about keeping starters alive. We get tired of the sour dough bread or the Friendship bread or whatever after I've made it sevearl times and then I forget about the starter and it dies.
 
I'm just about ready to try braving a geoduck next time we go to the big Oriental market and they have really fresh looking ones.

I've never been good about keeping starters alive. We get tired of the sour dough bread or the Friendship bread or whatever after I've made it sevearl times and then I forget about the starter and it dies.

The Chinatown market in Philly are a cornucopia of aspirational ingredients I probably shouldn't buy.

I think I just eventually reached a place with my starter that I would just hate to let it die. And having it around, anything bread or flour based gets a hit of sourdough starter, from muffins to scones.

Can see just not being that into it. Completely understand, it does take not a daily, but definitely a once every two week commitment.

I will say when we moved back to Pennsylvania from Oklahoma, I overfed the sourdough, and it was hot in the truck. Darn thing went crazy overflowed his container, and mucked up the entire cooler I was using to carry spices and kitchen stuff. took two weeks of feeding before it was happy again. Darn Mr. McYeastington.
 
Here's a link to one of my favorite cooking sites - Artisan Bread Baking by Barry Harmon. He lists all of his books on the linked page, but look over the whole site and see what all he includes. It's not the most polished or glitzy web art, but his breads and techniques are excellent.

Back to the yeast discussion... I buy active dry yeast and keep it in the freezer. The jar in there now is about 18 months old and still was perfect for the ciabata loaves I made for the town historical society bake sale fundraiser 2 weeks ago.
 
The Chinatown market in Philly are a cornucopia of aspirational ingredients I probably shouldn't buy.

I will say when we moved back to Pennsylvania from Oklahoma, I overfed the sourdough, and it was hot in the truck. Darn thing went crazy overflowed his container, and mucked up the entire cooler I was using to carry spices and kitchen stuff. took two weeks of feeding before it was happy again. Darn Mr. McYeastington.

I hope you mean inspirational instead of aspirational. Really don't want to choke on food and end up with pneumonia. ;)

The mess sucks, probably about like the mess we had to clean up when Craig had to hit the brakes hard to avoid squishing an iggy when we were going to DD's house and had a big pot of baked beans that were only covered with foil sitting on the folded down seats in the back of the car so we'd have enough room for everything. Not fun!
 
The Chinatown market in Philly are a cornucopia of aspirational ingredients I probably shouldn't buy.

I think I just eventually reached a place with my starter that I would just hate to let it die. And having it around, anything bread or flour based gets a hit of sourdough starter, from muffins to scones.

Can see just not being that into it. Completely understand, it does take not a daily, but definitely a once every two week commitment.

I will say when we moved back to Pennsylvania from Oklahoma, I overfed the sourdough, and it was hot in the truck. Darn thing went crazy overflowed his container, and mucked up the entire cooler I was using to carry spices and kitchen stuff. took two weeks of feeding before it was happy again. Darn Mr. McYeastington.
you are too funny :LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
Sourdough, can go on for a long time. Commercial yeast going for 10 years? I would be curious to know how if it's true?

I purchased instant yeast when I lived in an apartment, which was at least 8 years ago. I just finished it and it still worked fine. I keep it in the fridge in a plastic container with a rubber gasket seal to keep moisture out.

It takes a while to use up 2 pounds of yeast!
 
I keep my yeast in its original foil bag, inside a zip sandwich bag. As the yeast is depleted I fold over the containers and tighten with an elastic.

Mine is at least 5 years old, just recently thou I've been using it a lot and went from half full to almost empty now in 8 months.

I also do not distinguish between instant, fast acting and/or whatever they name it... I just use it and so far as I'm concerned it/they all are the same in the end product.

Was very tasty and now looks fantastic sitting on my hips.
 
I hope you mean inspirational instead of aspirational. Really don't want to choke on food and end up with pneumonia. ;)!

Totally agree with you.

'Aspirational ingredients I probably should not buy'... meaning that should you buy them you will likely aspirate on them.

When someone aspirates, a foreign object, such as food or water, enters the person's airway resulting in coughing or gagging... blah blah blah...
 
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