I was reading a 1901 cookbook today and found a recipe for what sounds like sourdough starter. "Boil two ounces of the best hops in four quarts of water for half an hour, then strain and let stand until lukewarm. Put in an earthen bowl, add half a cup each of salt and brown sugar.... etc., etc..." The recipe concludes by saying "this hops yeast ferments itself and does not need the aid of other yeast....will keep for up to two months and can be used to make excellent bread." Anyone heard of this?
Hops to make bread yeast?
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I have a problem with this for two reasons:
1) Two ounces of hops is waaaaaaaaaay too much. I have a starter and if I put two ounces in there every loaf I made would taste like nothing but hops
2) If you boil ANYTHING for half an hour any wild yeast living on it will die.
I'd recommend getting a sourdough starter kit from a grocery store. It came with wild yeast and nutrients. All I had to do was stir it into 3 cups bread flour and 3 cups warm water.
I feed my starter each day with 1/2 cup bread flour and 1/2 cup warm water, or the equivalent of whatever I take out that day for making bread.
1) Two ounces of hops is waaaaaaaaaay too much. I have a starter and if I put two ounces in there every loaf I made would taste like nothing but hops
2) If you boil ANYTHING for half an hour any wild yeast living on it will die.
I'd recommend getting a sourdough starter kit from a grocery store. It came with wild yeast and nutrients. All I had to do was stir it into 3 cups bread flour and 3 cups warm water.
I feed my starter each day with 1/2 cup bread flour and 1/2 cup warm water, or the equivalent of whatever I take out that day for making bread.
JeepDiver
Well-Known Member
Not 100% sure but I think there used to be a bread yeast brand called Hops
Still wouldn't make any sense to boil it.
BBL_Brewer
Well-Known Member
Still, you wouldn't boil yeast.
brewingmeister
Well-Known Member
Where is this recipe from? Is wild yeast from the hops supposed to start start the fermentation? After boiling it doesn't seem like that is going to work.
As much as I love hops, I agree 2 oz of pellets would be a bit much for a batch of bread. 2 oz of fresh hops would make more sense.
As much as I love hops, I agree 2 oz of pellets would be a bit much for a batch of bread. 2 oz of fresh hops would make more sense.
Thanks, Reno, but I have a sourdough starter. Have had it for years. I understand how to feed and perpetuate the thing. My question was has anyone tried or heard of what was depicted in this 1901 cookbook? Some person who wrote a book 100 years ago recommended this and I was wondering if anyone had tried it. (To save space I only gave a small portion of the recipe. I may make it, wait the two months recommended, and see how a loaf turns out)
That's still a ton, IMHO.
But added them to the starter would mean every single loaf you make from said starter would be hoppy. Sourdough starters, if fed and tended to, can last indefinitely.
Oh my bad.... there I go, making assumptions....
brewingmeister
Well-Known Member
Now I'm making assumptions...I was thinking this was to get it going and not something that would be done for every feeding or batch.
I could type the whole recipe if anyone was interested. Boiling is to eliminate any existing yeast. Shredded potatoes are then added to the hops water. After two months--or when fermentation is complete--it can be made into yeast cakes or used in the liquid form (about a quarter cup of liquid yeast per loaf of bread). There's another yeast cake recipe in this old book that calls for a "double handful" of hops. I would assume that to be cones, and since I've got an abundance of them from last year's vines I'm going to give it a try. The book says this recipe "has been given the warrant of experienced housekeepers." If it was tasty in1901 maybe we'll think so as well.
KavDaven
Well-Known Member
Creating a sourdough starter entails giving rise to the yeast found in rye. You add a ratio or water to rye and then over the course of week subtract roughly half the mix and add more water and some bread flour. Eventually you'll lots of yeasty bubbles.
There is yeast in hops. I imagine there many varieties of yeast in various plants but you wouldn't necessarily want to brew beer or make bread with them.
With hops, its not the yeast that old time homesteaders were after. They boiled the hops to make tea. They added this tea as they would have in place of the water for making a bread starter. They were trying to harvest the qualities of the hops that most people like for their beer, flavor and aroma. Perhaps, the herbalist was even going for pulling certain qualities out of the hops for medicinal purposes as well.
Regardless, they were not attempting to make bread with hop yeast. They wanted hoppy yeast starters. You can make yeast starters with acidic juice like pineapple or other teas like earl grey.
You can read more on The Fresh Loaf.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/
There is yeast in hops. I imagine there many varieties of yeast in various plants but you wouldn't necessarily want to brew beer or make bread with them.
With hops, its not the yeast that old time homesteaders were after. They boiled the hops to make tea. They added this tea as they would have in place of the water for making a bread starter. They were trying to harvest the qualities of the hops that most people like for their beer, flavor and aroma. Perhaps, the herbalist was even going for pulling certain qualities out of the hops for medicinal purposes as well.
Regardless, they were not attempting to make bread with hop yeast. They wanted hoppy yeast starters. You can make yeast starters with acidic juice like pineapple or other teas like earl grey.
You can read more on The Fresh Loaf.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/
KavDaven
Well-Known Member
OP got me thinking about a hoppy bread. So, I used some spent grains and left over hops from a recent brew.
The grains are English Roasted Barley, English Black Malt, Weyerman Carafa III, and Briess Caramel 120.
The hops are Willamette and Cascade.
I made a 185 gram tea of the hops, one tbsp. Then added the tea to butter, buttermilk and the grains, 3 tbsp. Added one cup of flour and 3g of bread yeast to this wet mix for a proof or poolish. In just an hour, I got crazy bubbles and the smell of chocolate and flowers. Crazy. The bread tastes great, regular whole wheat bread with just a hint of mocha, maybe. The smell reminds me of hops/flowers which I find odd in bread. But a pleasant variation after all. I'll definitely do this again.
The grains are English Roasted Barley, English Black Malt, Weyerman Carafa III, and Briess Caramel 120.
The hops are Willamette and Cascade.
I made a 185 gram tea of the hops, one tbsp. Then added the tea to butter, buttermilk and the grains, 3 tbsp. Added one cup of flour and 3g of bread yeast to this wet mix for a proof or poolish. In just an hour, I got crazy bubbles and the smell of chocolate and flowers. Crazy. The bread tastes great, regular whole wheat bread with just a hint of mocha, maybe. The smell reminds me of hops/flowers which I find odd in bread. But a pleasant variation after all. I'll definitely do this again.
