OTish - wild yeast ...

[Jethro_uk]

SWMBO was commenting on someone on her support group bemoaning a lack of yeast in these locked down times, and thus being unable to make bread.

SWMBOs solution was to note there are breads that don't use yeast - ISTR Jewish cuisine uses unleavened bread.

My suggestion was to make up some dough, and leave it outside to catch some wild yeast ... pretty much how it's imagined our ancestors discovered how to make bread (and beer :) ).

Is my vague memory it's best to do it near a fruit tree correct ?

I know I could google, but since no of us are going anywhere soon ...

[Bob Eager]

SWMBO made a sourdough starter last week.

First batch of bread from it seems fine.

[Jethro_uk]

Digging further, seems to be easy as pie.

One to bear in mind :)

[Richard]

One lives and learns:

[Jethro_uk]

There are some things that really can't be unlearned ...

[Mark]

Irish Soda Bread?

[The Natural Philosopher]

A sourdough starter is just a matter of mixing flour and water and letting it 'go off'

No need for any specail measures

[The Natural Philosopher]

Or make 'wraps' - unleavened flour tortillas...

[polygonum_on_google]

Otherwise use some beer - anything that has live yeast in it. (Not pasteurised keg.) Like Worthington's White Shield or many others.

If you only have a small amount of yeast, as in what you can flush out of a bottle, do a slow rise. There is a fabulous depth of flavour from dough that has been left overnight in the refrigerator before knocking down.

[Alan J. Wylie]

Jason on Boing Boing has posted a few blog entries recently

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

Surely letting wild yeast in is a little random you may end up with all sorts of organisms living in it, not all good. Brian

[jkn]

I think the point is, that the wild yeasts that thrive on the starter mix (flour & water), are the ones you actually want. Even so:

The starter/levain/poolish (every artisan location seems to have its own name) gets better and better as time goes on ... you can buy bits of a poolish that are decades old, or even older, and have prized properties of flavour etc. It's an interesting art...

HTH Jon N

[tabbypurr]

another option not mentioned: some fruit are quite yeasty. I thought at least some stupormarkets still had yeast.

[Steve Walker]

Some Belgian Beers (Lambic IIRC) are made without yeast, but are left for a period, open to the atmosphere, in brewing attics that have tiles deliberately designed to let the outside air flow through, thus relying upon wild yeasts.

SteveW

[Jethro_uk]

Well, following "The Clever Carrots" guide, I have a nice jug full of slowly bubbling starter ... lack of bread flour is now the problem. But I did manage to bag a bag of *plain* flour from our corner shop ...

Hoping to make pizza dough for Sunday - seems a bit more kneading is required ? Maybe use half my starter ?

[Chris Hogg]

Yes, I was looking for strong flour and yeast, yesterday. Shelves absolutely bare. What is it with people? Loo paper sandwiches, anyone?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Id use yeast for that. It takes ages to get a sourdough to work - about

24 hours.

Wheat flour varies in gluten content: lack of gluten makes it crumbly. 'strong' flours from 'hard' wheat are better for bread, but any will work. You may be able to add gluten.

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

I managed to get I think 'pizza' flour. I actually wanted normal flour since I am pretty much not using flour at all die to diabetes worries.

[Andy Burns]

I think hardly any flour has been replenished on the shelves since the panic buying started, I did manage to get one bag of strong wholemeal, but haven't seen any strong white, I'm down to my last 500g

[Jethro_uk]

Well we'll be out shopping on Saturday, so there's a last chance to getteh proper stuff. Otherwise we've enough to experiment :)

I also found a bread dough mix (dated 2018) that would do the trick. It's "golden seeded" and I bought it to experiment with and then sort of lost heart. But this might be it's chance to shine :)

Whatever I end up making cannot be less like bread than the mini "Baker St" loaf I picked up at the same time ...