A treatise on the art of making good wholesome bread of wheat, oats, rye, barley and other farinaceous grains / Exhibiting the alimentary properties and chemical constitution of different kinds of bread corn, and of the various substitutes used for bread, in different parts of the world

by Friedrich Christian Accum

Economical Application of Yeast.

It frequently happens, in the summer season, that the brewers, in order to render their beer less liable to spoil, use more hops than usual; the consequence of which is, that the yeast becomes very bitter, and gives a disagreeable flavour to the bread. To obviate this inconvenience, Mr. Stone has recommended the following method of raising a bushel of flour with only a tea-spoonful of yeast.

Suppose a bushel of flour be put it into the kneading trough, then take about three quarters of a pint of warm water, and one tea-spoonful of yeast. Stir it in till it is thoroughly mixed with the water; and make a hole in the middle of the flour, large enough to contain two gallons of water. Pour in the yeast and add some of the flour until it is a thick liquid paste; strew some of the dry flour over it, and let it stand an hour. Then take a quart more of warm water, and pour it in: in about an hour it will be seen that the small quantity of yeast has raised the mixture so, that it will break through the dry flour placed over it; and when the warm water has been added, take a stick and stir in more flour until it is as thick as before; then shake again some dry flour over it, and leave it for two hours more, the mass will rise and break through the dry flour again; you may then add three quarts or a gallon of water, and stir in the flour, and make it into a soft paste, taking care to cover it with dry flour again, and in about three or four hours more the dough may be mixed up, and covered up warm; and in four or five hours more it may be made up into loaves, and put in the oven; and in this manner may be produced as light a bread as though a pint of yeast had been used. It does not take above a quarter of an hour more than the usual way of baking, for there is no time lost but that of adding the water at three or four times. The author of this method assures us that he constantly bakes in this way. In the morning, about six or seven o’clock, he puts the flour in the trough, and mixes up the spoonful of yeast with the warm water; in an hour’s time he adds more flour, in two hours, again more, and about noon makes up the dough, and about six in the evening it is put into the oven: he has always good bread.