Where's the yeast???
 

It seems there's a run now on active dry yeast for bread baking....all our local stores, Amazon (in small quantities) and even Fleischmann's are out. Does anyone know a source? Thank you!

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/sear...query%5D=yeast

My favorite place for all things baking

Thank you, tallchick.......why didn't I think of them! But, sadly they are also out. :-(

I managed to snag 3 strips of yeast (9 packets) during a target run.....but that was about a week ago....I looked for it...didn't see any then way on the bottom shelve there was a box that said "quick rise yeast"...yikes...it was a whole box....then I noted it said "remove" for display...ahhh….someone had just thrown the box on the shelve....so I opened the display window and took three of the strips which rang up just fine.....if you don't have any luck finding some....you could look up "making sour-dough starter from scratch". there are some recipes on the web....it takes a few days....but does work...also, I have made "Irish soda bread"...also tastes good but doesn't call for yeast...I do think it calls for baking soda...but I haven't made that for a while...

Yikes! I checked Bob's Red Mill and they are out too.

Was going to suggest the sourdough thing too. I used a "Herman" for a long time, a sweet dough starter. Here's the no yeast version of starter:
https://www.cooks.com/recipe/h90zw19...hip-bread.html

I baked weekly with my starter for a couple of years until we went low carb, I kept it in a heavy plastic ice cream container with a lid on top of my dishes in my cabinet year round. You do need to feed it and use it.

The plain Herman rolls and such are very much hot breads, they don't store well but they start getting fancy when you put in stuff like pudding mix! For recipes just search with the term Herman.

time to make a sourdough starter.

~ c

I prefer to make no-knead bread that bakes in a dutch oven for a beautiful rustic loaf. Not sure if/how I could substitute starter in that particular recipe

Thanks for all the responses so far.

Here is the one I have used with great success. Once stared it’s easy to keep and maintain and makes amazing bread.

https://breadtopia.com/make-your-own-sourdough-starter/

If your wanting a wealth of info on all things bread this is my go to site.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/

I do Keto and no longer make bread, and did toss my sourdough starter a while back, but may have to get back into it, if only to share with my neighbors.

The starter is just live yeast you keep as a pet! You may have to change any liquids you add into your bread but I did all my bread by feel and how it was acting that day.

I think most places don't bother with the yeast in the dairy section any more, was always super hard to keep it current and not moldy but look there too next time you go to the store. Used to be in a box of cubes by the eggs or margarine, kept cool.

I'm not super happy with this site and my virus scanners but it's not so bad...
https://cnz.to/tips-tricks/convertin...dough-starter/

The King Arthur site is good but maybe not the best "how to convert my starter into product".
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/reci...starter-recipe
A lot of their recipes also add fresh yeast... I'd maybe only do one proofing with just starter. I think that would be fine for the type of bread you are describing.

I did start my Herman from that recipe before with no yeast. I messed with Herman about every 3 days, stirring or feeding or cooking or just looking in on it. Depending on how much starter you use means how much your feed it. For Herman once I got it going, I just fed it equal amounts of flour, sugar, and milk on a semi regular basis depending on the temperature and how much I was cooking. You do want to have at least as much available space in your container as you do product, sometimes it froths up pretty intensively!

Getting flour is almost a difficult as finding the yeast around here! Sourdough starter is on my list right now!

It's been scarce here too at one of the large grocery stores. Another one had some last week and I was able to purchase a couple of packs.

I just bought some yeast from King Arthur site. They say it's in stock & seems to be a reasonable price. I think yeast is about $2.25 for a pack of 3 at Walmart (when they have it). Will take around 7 days to get to me. I'm anxious to try it. I bought the SAF Red Instant yeast. Has anyone tried this? It had great reviews. They also have a Sourdough starter package that I was tempted to buy but decided against it. It's a milder flavor than the American sourdough and reviews said it was quite a bit of work to make.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/sear...ct&query=yeast

Have faith - grocery trucks are running I suspect it’s ordered.
I bought a bread maker at a garage sale about 8-9 months ago. Since then I noticed stores don’t stock as much flour anymore.

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A friend and coworker makes hamb bun size rolls weekly for her DH for his sandwiches weekly. I decided to give it a try yesterday. I had made pulled pork Sunday, and forgot to get bulkie rolls. So in a good faith attempt to stay out of stores, I made dinner roll dough in my bread machine. When the children were still home, I made all our bread weekly, so glad I no longer need to keep up with that, and DH and I have transitioned to home made bread is more a treat. I have been making a loaf weekly since this virus in an attempt to avoid grocery stores for now.
When the children were home and I was making everything from scratch and doing massive amounts of canning, I was apart of a co-op and got my staple baking needs and spices from them. Associated Grocers of NE, their website list their retail stores and links to the stores, you may be able to order and have some yeast shipped. Another idea is searching for a co-op in your area.
I just Googled, finding a local co-op, a website coopdirectory.org came up and it's a state by state directory as well as the distributors. They may even offer curb side pick up as many small businesses are doing. Hope this helps.

Why is the yeast in short supply? Did everyone decide to make bread?

Same reason that people are buying toilet paper. Fear of a break in the supply chain. Last time I checked the bread aisle, it was empty, so many people are now venturing into homemade bread. Sadly, rather than a restock of basics, I see restocks of soda and junk food; heathy foods, not so much.

I keep a huge container of the SAF instant yeast and you use it the same way as regular yeast except you don’t have to proof it. Once it’s opened I store it in the freezer in a plastic container with a screw on lid.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...qfDqMS427e-lbC

Yeast was gone, flour was almost cleaned out Tuesday. There were sour dough starter packets on the very top shelf, but I didn’t buy any. I have regular yeast & flour at home.

Thanks for the tip that yeast is available again. I was able to place an order last night along with flour and a pie pan. I might as well learn how to make pie crust too.

Good luck on the pie crust, Rhonda K, never had the knack myself. My mom can make a great crust, me not so much. Pretty much I don't do well on things that are rolled out. Maybe I over work it? Ingredients too warm? Don't know what my problems are. Pretty much too thick or too thin and never just right and certainly not flakey layers. And then the attention to baking that a minute or two can make either way. I can make an ok oil crust if I have to, but admit to buying prepared crusts.

Back when I used to get whole chickens and save the bones for stock I would take the chicken fat from the stock to make chicken pot pie crust. Make the stock/cook the chicken for the pot pie to further enhance the stock. Remove and chill overnight, lifting off the fat cap the next day. Hopefully you get nice crisp fat layer but sometimes it's just sludgy... For the pot I had, 3 whole (raw) chicken carcasses was the right amount for the pot, simmer until the bones fall apart, there's a place in the back that should fall in half and your stock should jell well -- you want it to be jelly or it isn't really stock yet. I'd take home the whole chicken, butcher it, wrap that central carcass in a plastic bag and freeze it until I had three. I don't know if there are economic advantages to buying whole chickens anymore (they used to be cheaper per pound if you broke out the pieced rate) and you could tell how good a bird was because you can see the whole thing. When you just get one right leg in a bag you don't know what the rest of the bird looked like!

Iceblossom,

Chicken pie is a favorite here. I will be making one this weekend---all homemade except the pie crust. LOL!

My sister actually found some yesterday and we were both delighted. A friend of mine bought me over some she had in her freezer the other day. A friend also found bread at the store a couple days ago so I have not yet had to bake any of my own breads.

Oh chicken pot pie night was a big deal, only happened about once a month because it coincided with the stock making to get the chicken fat. The way the chicken fat reacts you use an oil dough recipe and build the sides and bottom pretty thick, I usually did scraps/strips across the top.

My favorite is sort of an Asian variation, broccoli florets, chicken, water chestnuts, onion with a thin gravy made with corn starch... but standard good old American-style with frozen vegies or a can of Veg-All (that is still around, isn't it?) and a good solid gravy is equally delightful!

All this time I didn't know you could/should store yeast packets in the freezer! That would save me re-buying when I bake infrequently...thanks everyone!

I picked up the yeast because I am a elderly high risk person and I also only have the little freezer that comes with my little refrigerator...I live in a 1940's house which used to have huge flour and sugar bins in the kitchen but I had removed when I remodeled my tiny kitchen...put in a dishwasher.....anyway....I thought I can make homemade bread when my storebought bread runs out....I also picked up a box of bisquick...will be doing it soon!

I just ordered some from King Arthur

Hey there bakers...I do bread baking & was down to my last recipe's worth...searched all over for a week to find yeast.
Today I was by a small corner market which I know carries a lot of Middle Eastern & Mediterranean foods as well as fresh produce & in asking for yeast they said they had lots "but it's from Turkey" --- (!)
Everything on the package is in Turkish - I was so grateful they showed me where it was & pointed it out.
I'm going to try and attach a picture -- it's a global brand"Pakmaya."
It really is true, little mom & pop stores are the best.

OK well I can't figure out how to attach the pic. Google 'Turkish yeast' -- what I purchased was the red package.

Yes, I've used that SAF yeast. I keep it in a tupperware. I also found a little dab of my Oregon Trail Sourdough starter that was dried and then sent through the mail. I think I"ll fire that up.

I have a sour dough starter in my fridge...and a 3# bag of yeast leftover from our specialty food and bakery that we sold last year. I ordered a bag from one of my vendors just before leaving the business behind. I’ll have to test it’s activity with some warm water and a bit of sugar. However, getting my hands on flour has been a challenge.

A little off topic, but baking related at least. I really love having my dried Saco Cultured Buttermilk Blend in the back of the fridge. With it so empty now, the chef is smiling back at me.
http://www.sacopantry.com/buttermilk/

It's a dried buttermilk and shelf stable until you open it (after that in fridge) so all you need is some extra liquid to add it to your baking (I usually put it in with the dry ingredients, not make it into buttermilk first). The pancake recipe on the package works just fine and is convenient but I forget now what it is to make waffles instead, been low carb too long when I can't remember how to make waffles!

I can find yeast, but I have not been able to find flour for the last 3 weeks.

Yay, lo and behold I found Fleischmann's active dry yeast in the jar this morning at our little grocery store 1 mile from home. Only 2 jars of regular and 1 for bread machines. Sometimes these handy small places are great resources. But, flour to be found!

Lavender, Congrats on finding yeast. I ordered flour on line. It will take a few days to ship though so may not work for you.

Iceblossom, That is the same product I use for banana bread that calls for buttermilk.

I went out today on my shopping expedition, forgot to check flour/yeast at Safeway. Safeway still low on a lot of things, no cottage cheese but lots of other dairy and the were stocking eggs when I got there so got 2 dozen -- hubby does a lot of omelets and stuff. They did have fresh chicken in stock but limit 2. The rest of the meat cases were sparsely filled, but that's better than empty. Cleaning supplies mostly gone still, they did have about 8 small containers of hand sanitizers.

There are signs that "As an extra precaution" measure, no self serve anything. So they have bagels in six packs and individual donuts prepacked into baggies/containers. My store has a chicken wing counter thing, empty at this time but apparently will be prepackaged quantities only.

I chatted with a few of the regular employees, they are holding up but under a lot of stress, those that are working are working a lot of hours to make up for those that aren't. They say that people are actually maybe behaving a little better now than they were at first.

At my bargain market where I buy my veggies (Saars for those in the area) there was lots of yeast! Fleishmann, Red Star, Store brand, in packets and jars, regular and fast acting. But there was no wheat flour except for one last (over priced for that store) whole wheat of some sort. There were still some specialty flours in the Bob's Red Mill display.

Check out those recipes for beer bread!

I am using bulk packaged yeast bought at Sam's that is over 8 years old. It stays in my freezer in an airtight container. I think it is SAF but yeast is yeast no matter the brand or rise. I sprinkle the cold yeast in warm water and let bubble before putting in flour.
The settlers going across country would soak pieces of linen in the family sourdough starter and let it dry before heading out in the wagons. They would reconstitute the dried out starter on the long journey as needed. I tried that and it does work to get a starter going. I keep some dried pieces of muslin soaked starter in my freezer too. Why not?

what selfish people we have turned out to be -- can you really imagine anyone using a case of TP amd 10 -- 10 pound bags of flour?? I saw a woman yesterday at the store cleaning out the shelf of flour. When I asked her what she was going to do with all that -- she said "I might need it"

i have plenty send my a snail mail address, i can send you enough for 10 loaves.