[Sca-cooks] Leven: yeast or sourdough?

[Daniel Myers]

> -------- Original Message --------
> From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
> 
> Recipes frequently don't say--and if they do refer to yeast, 
> especially in a translation, the word might actually mean sourdough. 
> I gather that sourdough, technically, is not yeast but a different 
> organism with similar effects, but even assuming that's right, there 
> is no reason to expect people in period to know.
> 
> Our working assumption is that "berme" means yeast from beer residue 
> and that otherwise the leven is beer yeast in beer drinking areas, 
> sourdough in areas that don't drink beer, including the Islamic 
> world. But I don't think we have any really solid evidence on the 
> subject--does anyone else?

While most of the recipes I've seen either call for "yeast" or "barm",
there are some that specifically call for "ale yeast" or "beer yeast". 
The following three are good examples:

19 - To make bisket bread, otherwise called French bisket. Take halfe a
peck of fine flower, two ounces of coriander seeds, one ounce of anni
seeds, the white of foure eggs, half a pinte of Ale-yeast, and as much
water as will make it up into stiffe paste; your water must be but bloud
warm: then bake it in a longroll as big as your thigh: let it stay in
the oven but one houre, and wne it is a day old pare it and slice it
overthwart: then sugar it over with fine powdred sugar, and so dry it in
an oven again: and being dry, take it out, and sugar it again: then box
it, and so may keep it all the yeere.  [Delights for Ladies (England,
1609)]

BOUCHET. To make six sixths of bouchet, take six pints of fine sweet
honey, and put it in a cauldron on the fire and boil it, and stir
continually until it starts to grow, and you see that it is producing
bubbles like small globules which burst, and as they burst emit a little
smoke which is sort of dark: and then stir, and then add seven sixths of
water and boil until it reduces to six sixths again, and keep stirring.
And then put it in a tub to cool until it is just warm; and then strain
it through a cloth bag, and then put it in a cask and add one chopine
(half-litre) of beer-yeast, for it is this which makes it the most
piquant, (and if you use bread yeast, however much you like the taste,
the colour will be insipid), and cover it well and warmly to work. And
if you want to make it very good, add an ounce of ginger, long pepper,
grains of Paradise and cloves in equal amounts, except for the cloves of
which there should be less, and put them in a cloth bag and throw in.
And after two or three days, if the bouchet smells spicy enough and is
strong enough, take out the spice-bag and squeeze it and put it in the
next barrel you make. And thus you will be able to use these same spices
three or four times.  [Le Menagier de Paris (France, 1393)]

To mak rostand tak and mak a stiff bater of egg and pured floure sugur a
goodelle and alitill yest of new ale and set it by the fier or els in a
pot with boillinge watur that it may take alitile heet when it riseth
swinge it to gedur and let it fall agayne and let the ovene be heet and
clene swept and put the floure in an ovone to bak that it ryse as
frenche bred then tak it out and cut away the cruste about the brod of a
noble and mak a hole and raise it all about under the cruste and longe
and ouer thwart as thyk as thou may with a knyf and so doun to the botom
hole the crust all about set on the crust aboue and set them in the
ovene till they be somdele dried and serue it furthe.  [A Noble Boke off
Cookry (England, 1468)]


Also, the following recipe calls for "new berme" - while not
conclusively yeast, I'd think that "new" would be an unlikely term for
sourdough starter.

To rost eggs in lent tak and blowe out the mete at the end of the egg
and washe the shelles with warme water then tak thik mylk of almonds and
set it to the fyere till it be at the boiling then put it in a canvas
and let the water run out and kep all that hangethe in the clothe and
gadur it to gedure in a dyshe put it to whyt sugure and colour the tone
half with saffron and put ther in a litill newe berme and pouderd
guinger and canelle and put som of the whit in the eggshell and in the
mydl put in of the yallow to be the yolk and fill it up with whyt then
set it in the fyere to rost and to xl eggs tak a lb of almond and a
quarter gyngyure and canelle.  [A Noble Boke off Cookry (England, 1468)]

- Doc