Yeast Activity

[RCLake]

I started my floor today and thought I'd try a pizza, although in an oven. I'm using the FB dough recipe and am using a tipo OO flour by Milino, but not caputo. I'm not sure what the difference is.
After weighing out the water (at 100 degrees) I added the yeast. It was from a jar of Fleischmann's Bread Machine yeast - hightly active. It didn't seem to bubble as I expected. So I tried a bag of dry yeast to another batch of water and at least that bubbled some.
Could the yeast have gone bad or am I expecting to much.
I think I'll have more success at building a WFO than I will at cooking, but I'm going to try

[gjbingham]

Re: Yeast Activity

Yes, yeast goes bad after a time. I don't remember the numbers - something like 6 months or so (??), but the number of viable cells decreases over time.

[CanuckJim]

Re: Yeast Activity

RC,

Do yourself a favor: toss the yeast you have and buy fresh. Bread machine yeast is not what you want. Use either active dry yeast (ADY) or instant dry yeast (IDY). Buy is in one pound, vacuum sealed bricks (MUCH) cheaper. Once opened, transfer to an airtight container and store in the freezer. It'll be good for a year treated this way.

Jim

[RCLake]

Re: Yeast Activity

I knew I would get great advise by asking the experts here, now I need to go shopping for a one pound brick of active yeast here in Corsicana. Yah likely. Next trip to Dallas I'll pick it up with my Kaowool insulation. Thanks

[asudavew]

Re: Yeast Activity

Hit Sam's club.

I usually buy two big bricks there for about 4 bucks.

I leave one in the original package and the second one in a Ziploc.
I store both in the freezer.

My last purchase lasted over a year.


BTW - You can always add just a small pinch of sugar to the water.
That will let you know pretty quick whether your yeast is good or not.

have fun

dave

[Acoma]

Re: Yeast Activity

Good idea Chef. Sams Club? Never would have thought of that myself? Dr. Jim, how have you been able to get active yeast regenerated for so long? We are talking generational yeast here, right?

[Inishta]

Re: Yeast Activity

Buy it in one pound, vacuum sealed bricks (MUCH) cheaper. Once opened, transfer to an airtight container and store in the freezer. It'll be good for a year treated this way.

Jim

Hi CJ.......................does the yeast need to be portioned before putting in the freezer or just go in as is?

[gjbingham]

Re: Yeast Activity

to continue that question, if not portioned prior to freezing, how do you deal with the frozen block when you need to use it?

Thanks!

[CanuckJim]

Re: Yeast Activity

Guys,

I'm not talking about wild yeast culture here, which I store in the refrigerator and refresh at least once a week. Instead, we're dealing with granular commercial yeast, either ADY or IDY. The bulk packs are in a brick because they're vacuum sealed. Once the brick is opened, you'll see that the yeast is indeed granular and loose. I store it in the freezer, not the fridge. The granules do not adhere to each other, even when frozen, so measuring is easy. I don't measure out portions, therefore, just keep the IDY and ADY in separate airtight Lock N'Lock containers. Really, stored this way, you can expect a shelf life of a year.

Fleishman's yeast is the most common in North America, but you can get bricks of SAF Gold IDY (French) and Red Star from mail order places like King Arthur Flour. The prices are premium, but the performance is premium, too. Even so, we're not talking about a lot of money, either way.

Jim

[RCLake]

Re: Yeast Activity

I was reading the e-book on pizza making and yeast I was using was the instant yeast and then I switched to the active dry yeast. But the recipe in the ebook calls for 4 times the amount of yeast versus recipe in FB home page. That is 10 gr(2 tsp) versus 3gr(1/2 tsp). I'm going to try the higher amount and see if that works better and then I'll try Dave's trick with the sugar.
How much yeast do you use with 500 gr of flour?

[gjbingham]

Re: Yeast Activity

Thanks Jim,
Good explaination. I've seen the bricks. Someow, I thought they'd have a consistency of Tofu. (yuk!)

[CanuckJim]

Re: Yeast Activity

RC,

As a general rule of thumb, you use more ADY than IDY in a recipe because IDY is designed to have more active cells per measure than ADY, hence its "instant" designation. As well, if the dough will be retarded, less yeast (either kind) is used because of the long, slow, cold fermentation. I, too, have noticed the discrepancies in the yeast and salt measures in various places for Caputo pizza dough. My forte is bread, not pizza, so I'd hope the very active pizza guys would chime in so we can eliminate problems and correct the docs.

Jim

[Mojoe]

Re: Yeast Activity

From the Fleischmann's ADY packet: "Stir 1 envelope contents into 1/4 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees F). To proof (foam Yeast), stir in 1 teaspoon sugar; let stand 10 minutes. If mixture doubles in volume, yeast is active. For non dissolving recipes: If yeast is added directly to a portion of the flour and other dry ingredients, heat liquids to 120 to 130 degrees F."

I always thought adding sugar to yeast was punishable by death, guess I should read directions more often. Same holds true for adding more water than what is called for... no foam.

[dmun]

Re: Yeast Activity

I always thought adding sugar to yeast was punishable by death, guess I should read directions more often.

Yeasts love sugar like cats love tuna. If you want fast yeast action, give them sugar. If you want slower dough development, making them work to convert the complex carbohydrates in flour into the sugar they need, they will give you a bonus of complex flavors, as other things are happening at the same time as the long rise. Hence the cult of flour-salt-water-yeast only.

That said, on Christmas I made my old white bread recipe I've been making since I was a teenager, full of sugar and butter and milk. That blast of sweet buttery-yeasty odor when you cut it open isn't going to please any bread snobs, but it's sure good eating.

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Yeast Activity

That blast of sweet buttery-yeasty odor when you cut it open isn't going to please any bread snobs, but it's sure good eating.

There is room in my bread-snob-head for all kinds of bread...
At Thanksgiving, I made some of those potato-butter rolls from Bernard Clayton's book (I think they are called Lenora's rolls). They are a huge hit...
Drake