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Make Your Own Yeast
Here are 3 ways to make your own yeast.
1. Make a thin batter of flour and lukewarm water. Let it stand in a warm place until it ferments and is full of bubbles. 2 cups of this liquid yeast is equal to 1 cup of old yeast. Yeast is good when it is foamy and full of beads, has a brisk pungent odor and has a snap and *vim. It is bad when it has an acid odor, is watery and has a thin film on top.
*Vim: Lively
2. 1 cup + 1/2 cup flour
6 tpsp. oil
6 tbsp water
6 tbsp honey
Place 1 cup of the flour,the oil,water and honey in a bowl. Mix well and knead, adding a little more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers. Let rest at least 2 days in a very warm place. Add remaining 1/2 cup of flour and knead again; let rest another 2 days. Your starter is ready to use.
3. Witch Yeast
1 cup mashed potato
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
Stir together in a quart glass jar, cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place (80-85 degrees) for two days or until it ferments, bubbles up and smells pleasantly sour. Use, or seal and refrigerate. Can be used in white bread or in other sourdough recipes if you choose.
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That's great info. Thanks!
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keep in mind that these are both methods for spontaneous fermentation by wild yeasts, and as often as not, sour bacteria will already be present. while this is not generally as dangerous as it sounds, it does tend to produce sourdoughs and they can sometimes be overbearing.
even with a monoculture of S. cerveceae, it is hard to keep batch to batch dough starters from souring. it's a real skill.
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Good information Dutchess.
@Canid - what steps can be taken to prevent the bacteria that causes souring?
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Thank's for the recipes Dutchess.
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use monocultures of yeast [store bought, or somebody else's home made] and isolate on a solid medium until clean, then make your starter from that.
a good source of Sachromycese cerveceae culture is the skin of grapes, apples, etc, washed in mild soap water [that white powdery stuff often present on the skin is the yeast, and it grows in the skin tissue aswell. the stuff on the outside is always sharing it's habitation with other organisms, but the stuff in the skin itself is more likely to be clean.
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other than that, just try the spontaneous in many batches and use the one that works well/tastes good. when you do that, take a small portion from the batch to make your next starter, but be sure to be clean whenever you handle the dough so it takes longer to introduce Lactobacillus, etc into it.
this involves things like washing your hands before making the bread, and washing all surfaces.
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