Potato Yeast
nearly a quart of yeastIngredients
Directions
Boil the potatoes until thoroughly soft, then skin and mash them until smooth.
Add enough hot water to achieve a mash consistency similar to good beer yeast.
Stir in 2 ounces of treacle for every pound of potatoes.
When the mixture is just warm, add 2 large tablespoons of yeast.
Keep the mixture warm until fermentation is complete, about 24 hours.
This will yield nearly a quart of yeast.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Mealy potatoes
- Provide starch that breaks down into sugars for the yeast to feed on.
- Treacle
- Adds sugar as food for the yeast, speeding up fermentation and adding flavour.
- Yeast
- Starts the fermentation that makes the mixture rise and become active.
The step that matters
Keep the mixture warm until fermentation is complete. Yeast works best at warm temperatures; if the mixture gets too cold, fermentation slows and may stall, so the yeast will be weak. Holding it warm for the full time lets the yeast multiply and fully ferment the sugars.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
More potato yeast recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.