Baking bread with natural ingredients

[There are many articles and videos available about capturing wild yeast for both bread making and alcoholic beverage making. Here's one that seemed reasonable]


Yeast has been used for fermentation and baking throughout history. In fact, it is likely one of the world’s first domesticated organisms. There are pictograms of ancient Egyptians making leavened bread and brewing beer that date back thousands of years! It probably seemed like magic back then. All you have to do is leave out flour and water and it creates this amazing substance that allows you to make things like leavened bread and fermented drinks such as beer and wine. It wasn’t until 1857 that Louis Pasteur discovered that yeast was actually a living organism.

Yeasts are very common in the environment, but they are most prolific around sugar. It naturally occurs on the skin of certain fruits and berries. For example, it is a natural yeast on the skins of grapes that allow for the fermentation that is necessary to create wine. The yeast you need to make bread and beer though, usually come right out of the air. See? Just like magic!

Now, of course, you can just go buy yeast in the store. This domesticated yeast is standardized and reliable, unlike wild yeast. However, if you want to see what kind of yeast you can cultivate at home just out of curiosity, then here is the way to do it.

[link to threefoothat.hubpages.com]

Last Edited by waterlily on 02/04/2014 04:28 PM