Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Yeast Cakes (William Cobbett's recipe). — To make yeast cakes — Provide seven pounds of Indian corn meal, three and a half pounds of rye flour, three ounces of hops, and one gallon of boiling water. Separate the hops by the hand, strew and boil them in the water for half an hour, then strain the Liquor into an earthen vessel, put in the rye flour while hot, stirring quickly as the fermentation commences. Next daj', when it is working, put in the Indian meal, stirring it well. Before all the meal is added, it will become a stiff dough. Knead it well, and roll it out as you would a pie-crust, to the thickness of half an inch. Cut it into cakes with a tumbler-glass, or anything else that will serve the purpose ; place these cakes on a board, and set them in the sun to dry. Turn them every day, sheltering from wet, until they become quite hard. Keep them in a bag or box perfectly free from damp. When you bake, take a couple of these yeast cakes, break them, and put them in hot water over night. Let the vessel containing them stand near the fire ; they will dissolve ; use the liquid for setting your sponge (as it is called), just as you would the yeast of beer. White pea meal, or barley flour, will do as well as Indian meal. Mr. Cobbett adds, that the very best bread he ever ate was lightened with these cakes. Yeast, Camp {sec Camp Yeast). Yeast, Connecticut (an American recipe). — Put a handful of hops in a bag, boil in two quarts of water with five pared potatoes; when done, sift the potatoes, put in them in a pan one table-spoonful of flour, half a cup- ful of sugar, half a cupful of salt, and pour on this the boiling hop-water. When sufficiently cool, add yeast enough to ferment it well, then put it in a jug, cork tight, and keep in a cool place. Yeast Dumpling (a German recipe). — Beat a quarter of a pound of butter to cream, add four or five eggs to it ; when well-mixed, pour in a cupful of milk and the same quantity of yeast, sugar, grated lemon-peel, and pounded cinnamon, with as much flour as will make it of a proper consistency. Make the dough into dumplings, and let them remain an hour in a warm place to rise, then boil them in boiling water. Serve with melted butter and sugar or a wine sauce. Yeast, Economical Preparation of. Thicken two quarts of water with four ounces of fine flour, boil it for half an hour, then sweeten it with three ounces of brown sugar; when almost cold, pour it, with four spoonfuls of baker's yeast, into an earthen jug deep enough for the fermentation to go on without running over. Place it for a day near the fire, then pour off the thin liquor from the top, shake the remainder, and close it up for use, first straining it through a sieve to preserve it sweet. Set it in a cool cellar, or hangit some depth in a well. Keep always some of this to make the next quantity of yeast that is wanted.