all these places need member ship which i dont have. I have heard that at Sams one can shop by paying 10% extra charges. has anyone tried it- does it work?
Because it costs 3 times as much - 2 lbs of yeast at either Sams or Costco was on the order of $4 to $5 last time I bought it ...
And yes, memberships are required - but well worth the cost in the savings on flour alone. 25 lb bag of bread flour runs $7.50. I have been using the Costco version of this flour for about 4 years now and it has always performed well. It comes out of ConAgra mills and the protein content varies depending on where you live - it was 11.6% protein in the Southeast where I was living and goes up from there as you move north. Comparable to King Arthur AP flour which, @ 11.7% protein, is for all intents and purposes bread flour. Northern supplies are 12% and up. To my knowledge none of it is bromated any more - you should check at your local Sams/Costco though because it depends on which mill it comes out of, and THAT depends on where you live.
But does not Costco only sell Fleischmann's whereas the poster is specifically interested in SAF Red? Also, isn't that 7.50 bread flour a bleached/bromated junk?
Costco sells either Red Star or SAF depending on what they last bought in job lots. Both are listed on their website currently, but the website unfortunately doesn't extend to showing what is available at a particular store to their retail (not wholesale) customers. Sam's in my area seems to be carrying Fleischmann's.
Regardless - yeast is yeast is yeast. My preference, personally, is for ADY. Some folks like instant. The brand doesn't matter.
True, it's Sam's Club that sells Fleischmann's, the only yeast I've ever seen in Costco is Red Star ADY. Perhaps yeast is yeast is yeast - but brand seems to matter for the OP.
Perhaps. But I pointed the OP towards Costco specifically, not Sams Club. It was Costco addresses I provided her. If there were a Costco near where I live now, I would go there rather than Sams myself, but this is unfortunately a WalMart town - 8 badly stocked Walmarts, only one small Target and no K-marts, a Sams Club, and no Costco for over 100 miles. I hate Walmart, LOL!
Regardless, Costco carries both Red Star (active dry) and SAF-Red (instant) yeasts, which of those they carry at her local Costco can be determined via a phone call. Both are manufactured by LeSaffre so there's no difference there. The only difference is whether you prefer instant over active dry yeast, and that's really of no moment other than perhaps modifying the amount of yeast used (some people don't bother and it all comes out fine anyway) or whether or not you "need" to rehydrate the yeast - again a step that people often skip with modern ADY.
The big difference between ADY and "instant" yeast in the past was particle size and the amount of active cells still present in the granules. If you look at modern ADY and "instant" yeast, today, there is very little if any difference in granule size. You cannot, of course, tell by looking at them what the difference in live cells would be, LOL!
In the past I developed a strong preference for ADY because instant often failed in recipes that required multiple rises or cold preferments. I suspect this is at least partly due to the fact that instant yeast requires 10F to 15F higher dough temps compared to ADY for proper fermentation. Some people seem to get away with using the instant yeast at will with no problems; however I'll stick to my ADY. Instant just doesn't offer me any advantage, and the requirement of higher dough temps for optimum fermentation just won't be met in my kitchen - if it were 15F warmer we'd be sweating, LOL!
Oh, geez, I just noticed the comment about "bleached bromated junk". Please take your flour snobbery elsewhere, LOL!
As stated above, to my knowledge none of the flour coming out of the Conagra mills and destined for Sams/Costco is bromated anymore, but IF YOU CARE ABOUT THAT (which I do NOT) you should check at your local Sams/Costco to make sure. If the flour has been bromated, it will be listed as an ingredient. I have checked with Conagra and have been assured that this flour is no longer bromated and hasn't been for some time, but that may have been just in the area I was living at the time - which basically included the entire supply of flour for the Eastern seaboard all the way down to Georgia/Florida and I'm-not-sure-exactly-how-far-west. I did check at the Costco near me at that time, and the flour was not bromated. So do check if this is of concern to you.
IF you care (about bromation), then do not ever eat any baked goods in any restaurant or from any grocery store or bakery, because nearly all the flour sold wholesale to commercial concerns or in bulk is still bromated.
Thank you very much, but I'll stick to the $7.50/25 lbs stuff. As I have said, I have been using it for 4 years (actually a lot longer than that, but lets stick to the last few years when I've been doing a LOT of baking) and it has always performed well. I can't tell the difference in flavor between it and KAF AP. If you prefer something else, that's fine - but that doesn't make all other flours junk. I happen to like KAF AP, but since it costs $5/5 lb bag and up where I live, I rarely buy it. I was buying it occasionally @$3.75/5 lb bag, but $5 is just too much to buy it but rarely. If I could get it in bulk, I would - but I can't, so why get my knickers in a knot over it?
I don't know why some people get so over wrought about flour. I know people who go to the extent of grinding their own from whole wheat berries, and even they don't get on their high horse about any alleged superiority of their preferences. If you like something, that's fine - but it's not the end-all and be-all of flour (or whatever the object of one's obsession is, LOL!). Personally I don't care for "fresh ground" flour, it's too much trouble and it is about as whole-grain as whole-grain gets - not to my taste. Objectively there's nothing wrong with it - its totally a subjective thing, and my subjective judgment is of course going to vary from someone else's subjective judgment.
If you don't prefer the bulk flours that are available affordably to most of us, or if you are fortunate enough to have the money to ignore concerns of economy, that is your prerogative. You can express that without belittling the tastes or necessity of others. That you choose not to do so is unfortunate.
I meant to say - Yeast is yeast is yeast - for a given TYPE of yeast. Obviously SAF Gold is not equivalent to SAF Red as they are different yeast strains intended for different purposes, one is for sweet breads (is more osmotolerant) and the other is more typically used for "regular" bread/pizza.
LeSaffre makes SAF, Red Star, and Fermipan yeasts; in the US the other main yeast supplier is Fleischmann's.
All of the SAF yeasts are some type of instant yeast. SAF Red is "normal" bread type instant yeast where SAF Gold, Blue, and Green are for sweet doughs. Red Star is an Active Dry Yeast. Red Star is also the label used by LeSaffre for their fresh yeast. The Fermipan label is used for an instant yeast that is equivalent to, if not exactly the same as, the SAF Red instant yeast - one type of which is packaged with a dough conditioner.
So Fleishchmann's ADY would be equivalent to Red Star ADY, and Fleischmann's instant would be equivalent to SAF Red or the plain Fermipan. ADY and instant can nearly always be substituted one for the other (excluding the instant types intended for sweet doughs). Typically it is suggested that you use about 3/4 instant when ADY is called for, and 1/3rd more when using ADY where instant is called for.
Sam's or BJ's usually has it. I visit your area a few times a year and I've bought it at either place.
There are 2 Costco's in or near Charlotte
Charlotte
500 Tyvola Road
Charlotte, NC 28217-3504
(704) 501-2403
Matthews
2125 Matthews Township Pkwy
Matthews, NC 28105-5766
(704) 321-7440
all these places need member ship which i dont have. I have heard that at Sams one can shop by paying 10% extra charges. has anyone tried it- does it work?
Pretty sure you can buy at all of the clubs with a guest pass, plus the extra 10%.
sells that in my neck of the woods for about $5 for a 1lb bag.
Why not just buy it from Amazon?
Because it costs 3 times as much - 2 lbs of yeast at either Sams or Costco was on the order of $4 to $5 last time I bought it ...
And yes, memberships are required - but well worth the cost in the savings on flour alone. 25 lb bag of bread flour runs $7.50. I have been using the Costco version of this flour for about 4 years now and it has always performed well. It comes out of ConAgra mills and the protein content varies depending on where you live - it was 11.6% protein in the Southeast where I was living and goes up from there as you move north. Comparable to King Arthur AP flour which, @ 11.7% protein, is for all intents and purposes bread flour. Northern supplies are 12% and up. To my knowledge none of it is bromated any more - you should check at your local Sams/Costco though because it depends on which mill it comes out of, and THAT depends on where you live.
But does not Costco only sell Fleischmann's whereas the poster is specifically interested in SAF Red? Also, isn't that 7.50 bread flour a bleached/bromated junk?
Costco sells either Red Star or SAF depending on what they last bought in job lots. Both are listed on their website currently, but the website unfortunately doesn't extend to showing what is available at a particular store to their retail (not wholesale) customers. Sam's in my area seems to be carrying Fleischmann's.
Regardless - yeast is yeast is yeast. My preference, personally, is for ADY. Some folks like instant. The brand doesn't matter.
True, it's Sam's Club that sells Fleischmann's, the only yeast I've ever seen in Costco is Red Star ADY. Perhaps yeast is yeast is yeast - but brand seems to matter for the OP.
Perhaps. But I pointed the OP towards Costco specifically, not Sams Club. It was Costco addresses I provided her. If there were a Costco near where I live now, I would go there rather than Sams myself, but this is unfortunately a WalMart town - 8 badly stocked Walmarts, only one small Target and no K-marts, a Sams Club, and no Costco for over 100 miles. I hate Walmart, LOL!
Regardless, Costco carries both Red Star (active dry) and SAF-Red (instant) yeasts, which of those they carry at her local Costco can be determined via a phone call. Both are manufactured by LeSaffre so there's no difference there. The only difference is whether you prefer instant over active dry yeast, and that's really of no moment other than perhaps modifying the amount of yeast used (some people don't bother and it all comes out fine anyway) or whether or not you "need" to rehydrate the yeast - again a step that people often skip with modern ADY.
The big difference between ADY and "instant" yeast in the past was particle size and the amount of active cells still present in the granules. If you look at modern ADY and "instant" yeast, today, there is very little if any difference in granule size. You cannot, of course, tell by looking at them what the difference in live cells would be, LOL!
In the past I developed a strong preference for ADY because instant often failed in recipes that required multiple rises or cold preferments. I suspect this is at least partly due to the fact that instant yeast requires 10F to 15F higher dough temps compared to ADY for proper fermentation. Some people seem to get away with using the instant yeast at will with no problems; however I'll stick to my ADY. Instant just doesn't offer me any advantage, and the requirement of higher dough temps for optimum fermentation just won't be met in my kitchen - if it were 15F warmer we'd be sweating, LOL!
Oh, geez, I just noticed the comment about "bleached bromated junk". Please take your flour snobbery elsewhere, LOL!
As stated above, to my knowledge none of the flour coming out of the Conagra mills and destined for Sams/Costco is bromated anymore, but IF YOU CARE ABOUT THAT (which I do NOT) you should check at your local Sams/Costco to make sure. If the flour has been bromated, it will be listed as an ingredient. I have checked with Conagra and have been assured that this flour is no longer bromated and hasn't been for some time, but that may have been just in the area I was living at the time - which basically included the entire supply of flour for the Eastern seaboard all the way down to Georgia/Florida and I'm-not-sure-exactly-how-far-west. I did check at the Costco near me at that time, and the flour was not bromated. So do check if this is of concern to you.
IF you care (about bromation), then do not ever eat any baked goods in any restaurant or from any grocery store or bakery, because nearly all the flour sold wholesale to commercial concerns or in bulk is still bromated.
Thank you very much, but I'll stick to the $7.50/25 lbs stuff. As I have said, I have been using it for 4 years (actually a lot longer than that, but lets stick to the last few years when I've been doing a LOT of baking) and it has always performed well. I can't tell the difference in flavor between it and KAF AP. If you prefer something else, that's fine - but that doesn't make all other flours junk. I happen to like KAF AP, but since it costs $5/5 lb bag and up where I live, I rarely buy it. I was buying it occasionally @$3.75/5 lb bag, but $5 is just too much to buy it but rarely. If I could get it in bulk, I would - but I can't, so why get my knickers in a knot over it?
I don't know why some people get so over wrought about flour. I know people who go to the extent of grinding their own from whole wheat berries, and even they don't get on their high horse about any alleged superiority of their preferences. If you like something, that's fine - but it's not the end-all and be-all of flour (or whatever the object of one's obsession is, LOL!). Personally I don't care for "fresh ground" flour, it's too much trouble and it is about as whole-grain as whole-grain gets - not to my taste. Objectively there's nothing wrong with it - its totally a subjective thing, and my subjective judgment is of course going to vary from someone else's subjective judgment.
If you don't prefer the bulk flours that are available affordably to most of us, or if you are fortunate enough to have the money to ignore concerns of economy, that is your prerogative. You can express that without belittling the tastes or necessity of others. That you choose not to do so is unfortunate.
I meant to say - Yeast is yeast is yeast - for a given TYPE of yeast. Obviously SAF Gold is not equivalent to SAF Red as they are different yeast strains intended for different purposes, one is for sweet breads (is more osmotolerant) and the other is more typically used for "regular" bread/pizza.
LeSaffre makes SAF, Red Star, and Fermipan yeasts; in the US the other main yeast supplier is Fleischmann's.
All of the SAF yeasts are some type of instant yeast. SAF Red is "normal" bread type instant yeast where SAF Gold, Blue, and Green are for sweet doughs. Red Star is an Active Dry Yeast. Red Star is also the label used by LeSaffre for their fresh yeast. The Fermipan label is used for an instant yeast that is equivalent to, if not exactly the same as, the SAF Red instant yeast - one type of which is packaged with a dough conditioner.
So Fleishchmann's ADY would be equivalent to Red Star ADY, and Fleischmann's instant would be equivalent to SAF Red or the plain Fermipan. ADY and instant can nearly always be substituted one for the other (excluding the instant types intended for sweet doughs). Typically it is suggested that you use about 3/4 instant when ADY is called for, and 1/3rd more when using ADY where instant is called for.