1811. To Make Yeast without a Ferment

1811.    To Make Yeast without a Ferment. Boil 1/4 peck malt in 3 pints water; pour off 2 pints, and keep it in a warm place for 30 hours; add 4 pints of a similar decoction, stir it well in, again ferment, and repeat this addition of 4 pints until a sufficient quantity of yeast is obtained; 10 pints will yield yeast sufficient for a brewing of 40 gallons; it is preferable to brewers' yeast, particularly when used for raising dough.

1812. To Make Good Yeast without Ferment

1812.    To Make Good Yeast without Ferment. Put 2 ounces best hops into 9 pints cold water; boil 1/2 hour, strain while hot, and add 2 ounces fine table salt and 1/2 pound sugar. When the mixture becomes blood-warm, put 1 pound sifted flour into a large basin, make a well in the centre with the' hand, add the liquor by degrees, stirring with a spoon until the whole is thoroughly incorporated. Let it stand for 2 days in a warm place, stirring it 3 or 4 times a day; then boil and mash finely 3 pounds good potatoes, and mix them in. After standing 1 day more, there should be a heavy dark scum on the surface. Stir it thoroughly, strain through a sieve or cullender, put it into a stone jar, cork and tie down firmly, and keep in a cool cellar. This is a self-fermenting yeast, improves by keeping if not left uncorked, and will not make sour bread.

1813. To Make Yeast with a Ferment

1813.    To Make Yeast with a Ferment. Mix 2 quarts water with wheat flour, to the consistence of thick gruel; boil it gently for 1/2 hour, and when almost cold, stir into it 1/2 pound sugar and 4 spoonfuls good yeast. Put the whole in a large jug or earthen vessel, with a narrow top, and place it before the fire, so that it may, by a moderate heat, ferment. The fermentation will throw up a thin liquor, which pour off and throw away; keep the remainder for use (in a cool place) in a bottle, or jug tied over. The same quantity of this as of common yeast will suffice to bake or brew with. 4 spoonfuls of this yeast will make a fresh quantity as before, and the stock may be always kept up, by fermenting the new with the remainder of the former quantity.

1814. Patent Yeast

1814.    Patent Yeast. Simmer 6 ounces hops in 3 gallons water for 3 hours ; strain it, and in 10 minutes stir in 1/2 peck ground malt. Next re-boil the hops in water, and add the liquor to the mash already made, which must be well stirred up, covered over, and left for 4 hours; then drain off the wort, and when cooled down to 90° Fahr., set it to work with 1 pint yeast (patent is best); after standing for 20 to 24 hours, take off the scum, strain it through a coarse hair sieve, and it is ready for use. 1 pint is said to be enough for 1 bushel of bread.

1815. To Preserve Yeast

1815.     To Preserve Yeast. Ordinary beer yeast may be kept fresh and fit for use for several months, by placing it in a close canvas bag, and gently squeezing out the moisture in a screw press till the remaining matter becomes as stiff as clay, in which state it must be preserved in close vessels.