[Sca-cooks] Barm yeast

[Terry Decker]

Sediment?  Whachoo wan sediment for?  Proper barm is taken from the top of 
an active ale pot where the top fermenting S. cerevisiae bubbles merrily 
along.  S. cerevisiae is the yeasty beast found in baker's yeast or brewer's 
yeast.  If you're doing beer, that is usually S. carlsbergensis (sic?) and 
is bottom fermenting.  It will work, but it is not the barm being discussed 
in the recipes.  There are some 18th and 19th Century recipes for washing 
sediment to extract yeast, so it may be that any malt liquor was fair game 
later on.

With a starter, you use about one cup for one to two pounds of flour, 
replacing one cup of the liqour in the recipe.  Using a barm, I would do the 
same, replacing one cup of water with one cup of barm for one to two pounds 
of flour.  The first rise may take anywhere from 2 to 12 hours, depending on 
the potency of the yeasty beasties.  The second rise will be faster.

With a very stiff starter (like the dough balls the French use), you would 
pull of a chunk weighing six to eight ounces and break it apart in the 
liquor to help scatter the yeast through the dough.  Again, roughly a cup 
for one to two pounds of flour.

You may want to modify the amount of starter you use as you get a feel for 
how your starter works.

Best of luck on the project.

Bear


> I have a starter made from beer barm. (flour, water & barm only).  Now 
> when a recipe calls for barm, (and it is a bread-type dish, would using my 
> starter be acceptable, or should I start with fresh barm?
>
> Has anyone worked out a ratio for how much "sediment" should be used to 
> how much flour?  How about starter?  I know it depends on how stiff your 
> starter is, how lively it is, so I'm guessing the answer is no.
>
> My starter is about the consistancy of pancake batter, sometimes cake 
> batter.  If you go to www.livejournal.com/users/beerbreadbaby I've got my 
> last usage recipes posted.
>
> Bear?  You out there?
>
> Vitha