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Baking

Patent Yeast

A yeast-based cake made from hops, flour, yeast, and cornmeal, then dried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Patent Yeast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Put half a pound of fresh hops into a gallon of water and boil until reduced to two quarts.

  2. Strain the liquid.

  3. Make a thin batter by adding flour to the strained liquid.

  4. Add half a pint of good yeast to the batter.

  5. Allow the mixture to ferment until well fermented.

  6. Pour the fermented mixture into a bowl.

Shape and dry

  1. Work in cornmeal until the consistency is like biscuit dough.

  2. Set the dough to rise.

  3. When the dough is quite light, shape it into little cakes.

  4. Dry the cakes in the shade, turning them frequently.

  5. Keep the dried cakes securely from damp and dust.

Use brewer's yeast

  1. If using brewer's yeast, take one quart of it, add a quart of water, and proceed as before.

By Mary Randolph. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Fresh hops
Boiled in water to make the flavoring liquid that gives the cakes their bitter, aromatic character.
Yeast (in the method)
Ferments the batter, producing gas that leavens the dough so it becomes light.
Cornmeal (in the method)
Stiffens the fermented batter into a dough that holds its shape when formed into cakes.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the strained liquid into a batter that the yeast can ferment.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until quite light. Rising depends on yeast fermentation; if the dough is shaped before it is light, the cakes stay dense because the trapped gas has not built enough structure.

“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.

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