>From: Cindy Smith <cms@dragon.com>
>Subject: about yeast
>Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:09:58 -0400
>What I'm curious about is how people obtained yeast before the
>modern era when you can buy yeast in packages at the grocery store.
>Pretend I'm Amish and am not allowed to buy commercial yeast at the
>grocery store: How do I get yeast to make bread?
Hi Cindy,
Yeast grows naturally on grains, just like it does on grape skins -
commercial wine makers don't have to add yeast to their pressed grape
juice to ferment the wine, it's there already. Back in antiquity,
people found that if dough was left a while before being baked, it
sometimes became filled with bubbles, so their unleavened bread
became leavened. This kind of "wild yeast" bread is usually called
sourdough today, as the natural yeast culture is often accompanied by
a (harmless) bacterial culture that makes lactic acid, giving the
bread a characteristic sour flavour.
You can start your own sourdough culture very easily - take a
tablespoon of wholegrain flour (rye flour works best but wheat will
do) and mix thoroughly with a tablespoon of cooled boiled water
(boiling gets rid of any chlorine). Leave it for 12 hours in a
covered bowl in your kitchen. After 12 hours, add another tablespoon
each of the flour and water and mix thoroughly - the natural yeast
likes lots of air. Now, every 8-12 hours, feed the culture by
doubling the quantities of flour and water (so you add 2 tbsp, then
4, then 8, etc.) and mixing well to incorporate air. After a couple
of days, it should smell interesting and have lots of bubbles in it.
There's a full description of the process, and instructions for
making bread from your culture at my site
<http://www.breadsecrets.com/sourdough_starter_recipe.html>
Regards,
- guy