[Sca-cooks] Use of Yeast

[Terry Decker]

First, yeast in this context is not derived from the dregs of anything.  The 
recipes are English and from the late 16th Century so the yeast in question 
will be ale barm, the scum found on the top of an active ale pot.  The 
particular yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae AKA baker's or brewer's yeast, 
so you can fake this with some bread yeast, malt extract and water or 
dissolve a little baker's yeast in water then add a bottle of unhopped ale 
(I like Dundee's).  I haven't tried faking it with powdered barley malt, but 
I will one of these days.

In Elizabethan England, ale barm would be be provided from a family's ale 
pot, a manor's ale house or purchased from a brewster.  Neither recipe 
specifies whether this is "cleaned" yeast, where the barm is washed to 
remove impurities.

Bear

-----Original Message----- 

When digging up recipes for rock fish, I found some that called for yeast.
Here are two examples:

To seeth Roches, Flounders, or Eeles.
MAke ye good broth with newe Yeast, put therein Uergious, Salt, Parsley, a
litle Time, and not so much Rosemarie and pepper. So set it on the fyre and
boyle it, & when it is wel boyled, put in Roches, Flounders, Eles, and a
quantitie of sweet Butter.
- The good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin

A Pyke sauce for a Pyke, Breme, Perche, Roche, Carpe, Eles, Floykes and al
maner of brouke fyshe.
Take a posye of Rosemary and time and bynde them together, and put in also
a quantitye of perselye not bounde, and put into the caudron of water,
salte and yeste, and the herbes, and lette them boyle a pretye whyle, then
putte in the fysshe and a good quantitye of butter, and let them boyle a
good season, and you shall have good Pyke sauce....
- A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye

What are we talking about here? Is this dregs from a wine or ale barrel or
is it bread yeast in sugar water? Any ideas?

Guillaume
<guillaumedep at gmail.com>