Biologist Is Surprised To See Yeast Being Hoarded, Decides To Teach People How To Make It At Home
COVID-19 has managed to bring out the best in us as millions donate their money, time, and efforts to helping those in need. It also brings out the worst in some as they continue to ridiculously hoard things.
And while hoarding toilet paper and non-perishables at least seems somewhat logical, people are greatly surprised to see yeast, of all things, vanish from store shelves due to the hoarding pandemic.
Never fear, as not all heroes wear capes and one such hero took to Twitter to help people manage this crisis by simply teaching them how to make yeast from things that many of us are sure to have at home.
Apparently, some people are hoarding more than just toilet paper and non-perishables
Image credits: WordRidden (not the actual photo)
Biologist and yeast expert Sudeep Agarwala recently went to Twitter to share a simple and straightforward life-hack with people who love bread and want to make some at home, but don’t have the yeast to do it.
Sudeep’s recipe for yeast includes dried fruit, flour, and water. Oh, and, of course, time and patience.
Fresh fruit works too, but it’s best to not wash it prior. Since now is the worst time to not wash things, do it at your own risk, or substitute with things you’ve grown yourself and trust not to wash.
Read on for the instructions on how to make your own yeast.
In response to the shortage of yeast, biologist Sudeep Agarwala tweeted a simple DYI at home recipe for it
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
All that Sudeep’s recipe actually needs is dried fruit, flour, water, and a little bit of patience
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Now, this ain’t your average recipe: Sudeep detailed the process in a playful and enthusiastic way
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
So here’s a quick rundown:
Take the fruit, toss it in a jar, and add 30 to 40 milliliters (2–3 tablespoons) of water to the mix. Stir it to see it become a little bit cloudy, which is the yeast.
Then, add the same amount of flour to make loose, wet dough. No need to get fancy as old flour works just fine, and white flour, according to Sudeep, works best. Non-organic and gluten-rich flour does the job too.
Keep the mix warm—not hot, not cold, but warm. 12 hours later, you should see bubbles, which are caused by the yeast inside the mix.
24–48 hours later, the paste should loosen up, at which point you need to take a small bit of this mix and add it to 30–40 milliliters of water. Add flour and repeat the process. This time around, it should come to life and the bubbles should appear faster.
If at first you don’t succeed, there is always next time
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Sudeep also gave some tips on what else you can use to make your own yeast, including beer and wine
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Sudeep also encourages people to be creative: use old bread or bread crumbs or maybe use a bit of ale or wine dregs and add them to some flour and water.
The yeast expert’s tweets have since then gone viral, garnering over 26,000 retweets and 114,000 likes with that much recognition on a number of other social media.
Heaps of people came to thank Sudeep for this life-hack and a good handful of them also tweeted questions on some of the nuances of making yeast, which were not left unanswered.
Many people came with their follow-up questions which Sudeep answered with a passion
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Link to The Fresh Loaf
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Image credits: shoelaces3
Another way to make bread without yeast is to use beer. Beer and wine has natural yeast in it from the fermentation process, but beer has more than wine. There are recipes online. Takes but a few minutes to mix..no rising time. Bread good enough for sandwiches and toasting. You can also add cheese, garlic and onions to it to make bread ideal for spaghetti dinners, seafood...etc,
Soda bread uses a reaction between baking soda and some form of acid. Vinegar or buttermilk are the most common in western countries..
Load More Replies...This story was the yeast expected one. This is my yeast-favourite photo-essay on here. I can't stand this in the yeast. (OK, I gotta million bad dad-jokes...) -dr M
So basically what he's describing here, is how to make a sourdough starter...
Without the fruit right? That's what I thought as well. Actually made my first starter today because I'm also running low on yeast. Fingers crossed it works :)
Load More Replies...I have one of these starters sitting in my kitchen because of this post!
The Boudin bakery (boudinbakery.com) in San Francisco claims that the bread that they bake today has, as a sour starter, a direct descendant of the same yeast that was brought over from France during the Gold Rush in 1849. In theory, it can be real thing. -Dr M
Load More Replies...Or just make sourdough and don't worry about yeast at all - it'll take care of it for you.
A far easier recipe is to forego the fruit skins and simply use flour, water, and sugar. Basic sourdough. Been done for a very long time. There's yeast in the very air we breathe and that's how it's done.
But as he explained... There's lots of yeast on dried fruits, making it easier and faster to grow a starter.
Load More Replies...but how much dried fruit is ideal? 4 raisins? 8 dates? 1 and a half apricots? there's nothing anywhere about how much fruit to use...
Just a couple of things. If you are making bread and already have yeast, save a piece of the yeast dough in fridge to use as the starter for your next loaf. Give the starter plenty of time to inoculate your new batch. BTW, this is called in #charcuterie slopping. Oh, and i wouldn't use a potato when you decide to do this, that way leads to botulism. I use wild yeast all the time. I also use beer yeasts to make bread as my brother has the last Home Brew shop in NYC. (In Brooklyn.)
Serious question: will this turn into prison hooch? Asking for a friend.
Homeschooling parents: this is your wake-up call! You now have your science experiments for the middle-schoolers! -Dr M, former 7th grade biology teacher & retired professor
Even for an elementary schooler. I'm tempted to get my 4 year old into this.
Load More Replies...One can also use a piece of bread to make new bread without yeast.
No thanks, I will stick to my organic einkorn flour and water. The simplest and most beneficial for my health.
and here l went and BOUGHT a container of yeast just yesterday..could have saved some money..
makes me think of sourdough french bread from San Francisco and how I forgot to pick up a loaf last time I was there
No need to even go that far with the fruit. Just start with flour and water and start your own sour dough starter. Recipes are all over the net.
When i was a kid, my grandmother would keep some "alive" yeast in the fridge. In cases when she forgot to leave some when baking, she would just ask somebody to share because her sisters and neighbours and pretty much any friend had some stashed away. It is quite special to wake up on Sunday to the smell of freshly baked bread.
So, I'm really curious about the old bread thing. If I add some crusts/chunks of sourdough (or other bread) to a flour and water mix will I effectively get a starter? Or is this something else?
I still don't know how much of the fruit to begin with. Please help!
Great post! A friend just mentioned yesterday the stores were out of yeast - terrible and yet encouraging that people are baking! Here's an even easier method! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8jbrE-BB9U
The hoarding is awful for so many reasons. Most of these people don't ordinarily bake and are the sort of people who fart in cars without opening some windows first. We need to encourage these people to make homemade hair conditioner using their flour hoard and a little water. 'trust me you don't wanna bake bread, make some conditioner, thats it, rub it all in and leave it set and then comb it through once it's dry, trust me!'
I think i can also help, the old Slavic way of making yeast for bread is to simply do this : take some beer, mix some sugar and regular fine flour, and leave on counter or in the oven overnight. (Just keep it away from sunlight and cats)
The "I know Belgian beers use wild yeast" is quite off. It's only the gueuze/lambic beers from around Brussels that do not put in the yeast themselves so theoretically have wild yeast (an open process, yeast will introduce itself)... However after a few hundred years of making beer in that one location the whole building and environment is saturated with exactly one type of yeast... luckily, otherwise it would taste different one day to the next. Occasionally a batch is contaminated with another & gets thrown out.
Would this work, given more steps, to make yeast for a bread machine? My machine has a reservoir on the top in which dry yeast is added. If I follow the steps that Sudeep Agarwala lists and then dry the yeast, could I use that in the bread machine?
You can use a starter like this in a bread machine but it must be in its fresh, active form. You can dry the starter for easier storage but you can't use it in its dry form, you must revive it first which takes a few days.
Load More Replies...This is awesome! It's possible to make bread without adding yeast, I believe, you just need to be very patient. You mix the ingredients and put them in a greased bowl in a warm spot. Cover the bowl with a breathable towel (cotton or hemp or...). The dough will pick up the bacteria in the air and will rise. It takes several days before the dough is ready to be kneaded and baked.
It picks up the yeast that's in the air, not bacteria.
Load More Replies...I will show you a few ways how to make money and also if you are interested i can show you a method I found that has free training to make $500 to $1000 daily just email me at marietyson24@ gmail.com
oh dear I mixed the fruit in with the flour and water, straight away, and sealed the jar, should I ditch and start again.
No thanks, I will stick to my organic einkorn flour, which is actually good and full of nutrients for my body. Just einkorn which is VERY low gluten and filtered water. Go To Jovial foods website and see the video step by step
You can start a sourdough starter with our fruit just use flour, next day divide it in half add same amount of new flour and water, do this for six days should start seeing bubbles. Add enough flour and water to volume of 1-1/2 cups. Put in fridge and feed one a week the older it gets the better it is. Thats the way its been done for, oh I don't know the past 5000 years. While you are making sour dough starter, you can try and learn how to butcher, clean and cut up those chicks you hoarded.
I kick off a new starter with a teaspoon of wild flower honey, up and running very quickly.
Another way to make bread without yeast is to use beer. Beer and wine has natural yeast in it from the fermentation process, but beer has more than wine. There are recipes online. Takes but a few minutes to mix..no rising time. Bread good enough for sandwiches and toasting. You can also add cheese, garlic and onions to it to make bread ideal for spaghetti dinners, seafood...etc,
Soda bread uses a reaction between baking soda and some form of acid. Vinegar or buttermilk are the most common in western countries..
Load More Replies...This story was the yeast expected one. This is my yeast-favourite photo-essay on here. I can't stand this in the yeast. (OK, I gotta million bad dad-jokes...) -dr M
So basically what he's describing here, is how to make a sourdough starter...
Without the fruit right? That's what I thought as well. Actually made my first starter today because I'm also running low on yeast. Fingers crossed it works :)
Load More Replies...I have one of these starters sitting in my kitchen because of this post!
The Boudin bakery (boudinbakery.com) in San Francisco claims that the bread that they bake today has, as a sour starter, a direct descendant of the same yeast that was brought over from France during the Gold Rush in 1849. In theory, it can be real thing. -Dr M
Load More Replies...Or just make sourdough and don't worry about yeast at all - it'll take care of it for you.
A far easier recipe is to forego the fruit skins and simply use flour, water, and sugar. Basic sourdough. Been done for a very long time. There's yeast in the very air we breathe and that's how it's done.
But as he explained... There's lots of yeast on dried fruits, making it easier and faster to grow a starter.
Load More Replies...but how much dried fruit is ideal? 4 raisins? 8 dates? 1 and a half apricots? there's nothing anywhere about how much fruit to use...
Just a couple of things. If you are making bread and already have yeast, save a piece of the yeast dough in fridge to use as the starter for your next loaf. Give the starter plenty of time to inoculate your new batch. BTW, this is called in #charcuterie slopping. Oh, and i wouldn't use a potato when you decide to do this, that way leads to botulism. I use wild yeast all the time. I also use beer yeasts to make bread as my brother has the last Home Brew shop in NYC. (In Brooklyn.)
Serious question: will this turn into prison hooch? Asking for a friend.
Homeschooling parents: this is your wake-up call! You now have your science experiments for the middle-schoolers! -Dr M, former 7th grade biology teacher & retired professor
Even for an elementary schooler. I'm tempted to get my 4 year old into this.
Load More Replies...One can also use a piece of bread to make new bread without yeast.
No thanks, I will stick to my organic einkorn flour and water. The simplest and most beneficial for my health.
and here l went and BOUGHT a container of yeast just yesterday..could have saved some money..
makes me think of sourdough french bread from San Francisco and how I forgot to pick up a loaf last time I was there
No need to even go that far with the fruit. Just start with flour and water and start your own sour dough starter. Recipes are all over the net.
When i was a kid, my grandmother would keep some "alive" yeast in the fridge. In cases when she forgot to leave some when baking, she would just ask somebody to share because her sisters and neighbours and pretty much any friend had some stashed away. It is quite special to wake up on Sunday to the smell of freshly baked bread.
So, I'm really curious about the old bread thing. If I add some crusts/chunks of sourdough (or other bread) to a flour and water mix will I effectively get a starter? Or is this something else?
I still don't know how much of the fruit to begin with. Please help!
Great post! A friend just mentioned yesterday the stores were out of yeast - terrible and yet encouraging that people are baking! Here's an even easier method! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8jbrE-BB9U
The hoarding is awful for so many reasons. Most of these people don't ordinarily bake and are the sort of people who fart in cars without opening some windows first. We need to encourage these people to make homemade hair conditioner using their flour hoard and a little water. 'trust me you don't wanna bake bread, make some conditioner, thats it, rub it all in and leave it set and then comb it through once it's dry, trust me!'
I think i can also help, the old Slavic way of making yeast for bread is to simply do this : take some beer, mix some sugar and regular fine flour, and leave on counter or in the oven overnight. (Just keep it away from sunlight and cats)
The "I know Belgian beers use wild yeast" is quite off. It's only the gueuze/lambic beers from around Brussels that do not put in the yeast themselves so theoretically have wild yeast (an open process, yeast will introduce itself)... However after a few hundred years of making beer in that one location the whole building and environment is saturated with exactly one type of yeast... luckily, otherwise it would taste different one day to the next. Occasionally a batch is contaminated with another & gets thrown out.
Would this work, given more steps, to make yeast for a bread machine? My machine has a reservoir on the top in which dry yeast is added. If I follow the steps that Sudeep Agarwala lists and then dry the yeast, could I use that in the bread machine?
You can use a starter like this in a bread machine but it must be in its fresh, active form. You can dry the starter for easier storage but you can't use it in its dry form, you must revive it first which takes a few days.
Load More Replies...This is awesome! It's possible to make bread without adding yeast, I believe, you just need to be very patient. You mix the ingredients and put them in a greased bowl in a warm spot. Cover the bowl with a breathable towel (cotton or hemp or...). The dough will pick up the bacteria in the air and will rise. It takes several days before the dough is ready to be kneaded and baked.
It picks up the yeast that's in the air, not bacteria.
Load More Replies...I will show you a few ways how to make money and also if you are interested i can show you a method I found that has free training to make $500 to $1000 daily just email me at marietyson24@ gmail.com
oh dear I mixed the fruit in with the flour and water, straight away, and sealed the jar, should I ditch and start again.
No thanks, I will stick to my organic einkorn flour, which is actually good and full of nutrients for my body. Just einkorn which is VERY low gluten and filtered water. Go To Jovial foods website and see the video step by step
You can start a sourdough starter with our fruit just use flour, next day divide it in half add same amount of new flour and water, do this for six days should start seeing bubbles. Add enough flour and water to volume of 1-1/2 cups. Put in fridge and feed one a week the older it gets the better it is. Thats the way its been done for, oh I don't know the past 5000 years. While you are making sour dough starter, you can try and learn how to butcher, clean and cut up those chicks you hoarded.
I kick off a new starter with a teaspoon of wild flower honey, up and running very quickly.
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