Food and drink, Recipes
How and from what do yeast do
Yeasts are living organisms that have long been cultivated by humans and used to make food and drinks. If you ask what yeast do, then it will be impossible to answer in one word. The fact is that they existed on earth before the birth of human civilization.
Unique microorganisms
Yeasts are living microorganisms that are able to feed and reproduce. They are very sensitive to temperature changes and food composition.
Yeast fungi exist in nature everywhere. They feed on biological raw materials, and in the process of metabolism, that is fermentation, produce new chemical compounds. The number of these microorganisms in nature is so great that if you compare it with the number of grains of sand in the seas and on land, yeast spores will be many times larger. Needless to say, there are a lot of varieties of yeasts. Some are good for our health, others are harmful. All living yeast intensively secrete carbon dioxide and alcohol fractions.
Types of mycetes used in the production of bread dough
In the food industry, and in our case in the baking industry, only some kinds are used, namely those that, when eating a nutritious substrate, release a large amount of carbon dioxide. It is thanks to the bubbles of this gas that the bread turns porous. Its quality is even determined by how the loaf behaves, if you squeeze it before connecting the opposite sides and release. If it straightens to its original state - this means that the bread is quality.
Bakery yeast and leaven
From what make yeast for bread baking, every baker knows. Talk about cereal yeast is best to begin with a story about leaven. It is mentioned in ancient books numbering an age of several millennia. Leaven and baker's yeast are the same. Bread leaven is a product, the attitude to which has always been especially careful. All actions with her were surrounded by many signs and rituals. The products from which they made the original leaven were chosen especially carefully. The most successful stored and cultivated, passing from generation to generation.
Quality bread is a guarantee of good health
The fact is that different types of fungi exist under different conditions. And even if the yeast dough produced on the same raw material turns out to be very tasty, this does not mean that this sourdough will show itself similarly at the next use. There is always a possibility that the original fungus culture was replaced by a new one. It is not visible to the naked eye, but the next batch of bread can be tasteless and even harmful to health. It is not by chance that in the old days one of the ways to destroy an enemy tribe or another community was this. The scout penetrated into the camp of the enemy and spoiled the leaven, because it was believed that bread and water are the most important food for a person. The quality of these two products depends on health and life. What are yeast fungi doing with the product? They change its appearance, consistency, composition and properties. In order to understand the mechanism of their work, it is necessary to understand how and what makes baker's yeast.
Leaven of hops
Take one glass of hop cones, pour two glasses of water and put on fire. Cook until the fluid volume is reduced by half. Cool to 37-40 degrees and strain. In a hop, put one or two tablespoons of sugar and half a glass of flour. Cover with gauze. This is necessary for the yeast to receive oxygen, otherwise they will die. Place the container in a dry, warm place away from direct sunlight and drafts. In two days you will grow a culture of baker's yeast, the same leaven, which, taking a little, you can repeatedly use in bakery. Usually 1 kg of flour requires 50 to 100 g of starter.
Unusually delicious turns bread on the leaven of barley malt with honey and hops. Malt is flour, ground from sprouted and dried grains. Its microbiological composition is fundamentally different from the composition of flour from ground grain.
The secret of tasty beer is malt, hops and yeast
Hops and barley malt are what make brewer's yeast. The process of brewing is extremely simple. Whole barley grain is soaked for germination. Rye grain is also what make yeast for beer. However, due to the specific taste, barley is more often used. To germinate it is necessary. Unrooted grain yeast does not like - it has a lot of starch and little sugar. When the embryo is activated, i.e. germination, the amino acid-amylase present in it is activated in the grain. Amylase and hydrolyses starch into digestible sugar for mushrooms. The sprouted grain, called malt, for some time is kept at rest to ensure the most complete fermentation, then grind, mix with water and cook with the addition of cones of hops. The wort turns out to be an excellent food for brewer's yeast.
The uneasy art of a baker
In the old days, before the appearance of electric ovens and refrigerators, the process of making bread and preserving leaven was almost a mystery. The sourdough was not lent, and when they made bread (this process took at least two days), they tried not to make noise, not to slam the doors and flaps. They watched the spell to keep it on time and to not let it sour. Failure to comply with these conditions is fraught with the development of another yeast culture, because different yeast needs different temperatures, density and composition of the nutrient substrate. Useful yeast can be replaced by harmful ones. It was believed that a bad person's bread is always tasteless. Bread tried to buy only from a certain master.
Yeast - the source of vitamins necessary for health
Yeast thus ferment the bread base, that it changes in chemical composition. Good bread consists only of flour, water and sourdough, in which there is an insignificant amount of sugar to feed the yeast. Pleasant taste of bread is the result of fermentation of flour by yeast. Yeast enriches bread with vitamins of group B and vitamin D. When baked in a Russian oven, most of the nutrients are preserved. It is unclear whether this was known in the old days, but the furnace temperature had three characteristics - before, after and during baking. The soft, uniform heat during the preparation of the loaves was below the boiling point of the water. With a very high heat, the product burns from the outside and does not get baked inside.
Sugar, water, air and temperature of 30-50 degrees - the optimal medium for saccharomycetes
Since yeasts are living organisms, they are, by and large, not made, but grown from the usual yeast fungi used in making bread - saccharomycetes, that is, bacteria that feed on sweet - sugar, sucrose, fructose, etc. At factories For the feed of baking yeast, waste of beet pulp is used - molasses. Sugar beet - this is what raw yeast is made from domestic enterprises.
Molasses
Yeast mushrooms grow very quickly on this product. Molasses, it is also called black molasses, is a thick, viscous liquid of very dark color. On one ton of substrate grows up to 750 kg of yeast. Molasses from beets or sugar cane are what make yeast bread baking pressed, and also instant. At present, with large volumes of production and high demand for ready-made yeast, these are the most common bases for the cultivation of saccharomycetes. However, these fungi can grow well on other vegetable raw materials, rich in natural sugars. If you use a starchy substrate - potatoes or grains, it should be fermented.
Safety of a modern product for raising the test
Thus, it is obvious: what makes yeast bakeries in modern industries, does not present any harm to health. With the proper storage and use of modern dry fast-acting yeast, you can not be afraid that they will develop new, harmful crops, because in food production only those yeasts that are well researched for resistance to various transformations are used. Moreover, they are much safer than the "wet" starter prepared at home. In dry yeast, metabolic processes are in a static state. Metabolism begins only with the addition of sugar and liquid - water or milk.
Having dealt with what makes yeast for baking bread, it is necessary to decide what to give preference - raw pressed or dry instant (instant).
Pressed
Yeast mass grown on molasses is separated, that is, strained. Water is added to the yeast and separated again. As a result of several procedures, the yeast mass acquires a grayish color and a viscous consistency. The vacuum cleaner removes excess moisture. This process is called sublimation. The resulting gray, plastic, clay-like substance is cooled, divided into portions, formed into briquettes, packed in waxed paper and goes on sale. Store this product in the refrigerator at a temperature of minus 2 degrees Celsius and humidity around 72-75%. Shelf life - 12 days. In retail, such yeast can not always be found in our time. In this case, I would like to know what the pressed yeast is made of, if they are such a rare commodity. After all, we are very often inclined to think that the products that decorated store shelves about 20 years ago were much better than the current ones. It is possible that this is so, but not with respect to yeast.
It turns out that those are not the things from which yeast is baked pressed, but that they are extremely inconvenient to operate. To maintain the necessary humidity and temperature in the conditions of dry cold of a modern household refrigerator is extremely difficult. The period of 12 days also limits the housewife. Usually baking from a yeast test is done on weekends. The whole bundle of compressed yeast for one time too much. For a family of 4 people, even with invited guests, half the pack is more than enough, and until the next weekend such yeasts can not be kept active.
Dry
Dry yeast has long and firmly taken place in our kitchens. I must say that despite modern electronic technologies used by the producers of this product, dry yeast was known even in the pre-Christian times, when the yeast was dried to preserve it when transported for a long distance. What dry yeast is made of is no different from what the pressed ones are made of. It is the same sweet syrup and, in fact, the sugar candies themselves.
The process of their manufacture is longer, because the grown and partially dehydrated yeast should be dried and turned into granules. There are three types of dry yeast. These are dry active yeast, dry active instant and instant active instant soluble instant. Sugar molasses and saccharomycetes are what quick yeast are made of. Only the technology of dehydration differs. If for conventional dry yeast the low-temperature drying is used according to the technology of the Russian stove, then the instant solids are dried in vacuum by the sublimation method. With the first method of drying, a product with a rather weak vital activity is obtained. Despite the fact that the life of such yeasts is 12 months, they hardly reach the end, so significantly losing the ability to ferment baking, that they can be advised to buy only at the beginning of the declared shelf life. Therefore, when reading the accompanying inscription on the package, carefully study not only information about what makes baker's yeast, the composition of the product, its caloric content, the name of the manufacturer, but also the date of manufacture of the yeast, and the duration of their action.
Emulsifiers and antioxidants
If you are against adding emulsifiers and antioxidants to the product, then use compressed yeast or leaven. However, do not forget that in them the presence of microflora and chemical elements that are unhelpful to health is possible. Emulsifiers are added to the raw yeast mass before drying. The whole thick mass is poured on the pallet in the vacuum chamber. It creates a vibration, it divides the dried substrate into small fractions, which are then packaged in sealed bags. The emulsifier and the antioxidant are added to the yeast to prevent unwanted growth of the fungi and against their adherence before they are used in the test. It is not necessary to think that these supplements are included in the composition in order to harm our health. This opinion is deeply mistaken and very much gives amateurism and "courtyard competence" in the issues of molecular chemistry. Sometimes you can even hear this: "Everyone knows perfectly what yeast is made of. The composition of good yeast is only sugar and nothing more! "However, even in pressed yeast pour vegetable oil so that they do not begin to multiply actively before they enter the sweet solution. By asking what dry yeast is made of (the composition is described on the package), you can see that the product contains natural yeast, emulsifier E 491, antioxidant E 320, starch or rehydrate. Those cases where dry yeast includes only yeast and nothing else, only say that the manufacturer did not give full information about the composition of its product, and not on the absence of stabilizing and disinfecting impurities. People with a sense of humor say that fear of eating can kill much faster than the food itself. This applies to food additives.
Cooking bread from dough, mixed with instant instant yeast, is a pleasure. Very quickly proved to be the rapidly soluble yeast "Saf-moment". Knowing what the yeast "Saf-Moment" is made from, and this is indicated on the label, you have much more confidence in the manufacturer than if he had not written that a regulate had been introduced to control the moisture level in the yeast mass. These yeast can not be dissolved in sweet milk or sugar syrup. They will perfectly raise the dough if you pour them directly into the flour or mix them in a ready-made dough.
Ode to Saccharomycetes and Vacuum
What to prefer - yeast or leaven, everyone decides for himself. However, what yeast is made of, we sorted it out. On sugar molasses, it is very difficult, or rather impossible to grow, not sugar, but any mushrooms that are dangerous to health. Alcohol and carbon dioxide released by these small workers destroy the pathogenic microflora, and vacuum distillation and hermetically sealed packaging ensure the absence of unsanitary impurities. Sourdough is a good thing, but is it possible to cook it as sterile?
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