The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

re: yeast conversion from fresh to dry and calculator fun

ejm's picture
ejm

re: yeast conversion from fresh to dry and calculator fun

This is mostly for amusement's sake.

Every so often, I want to make a recipe that calls for fresh yeast and I don't have fresh yeast. Of course, I have nothing against using fresh yeast. It's just not that easily found around here. Instead, I use the active dry yeast we always have on hand. (Why do I always choose active dry yeast? Because that’s what my mother always uses.)

In the past and quite recently, I have gone through various books and the internet looking for this conversion information. Here are some of the various formulae I have come across in my travels:

for every cup of flour in the recipe, use either of

    3 grams compressed fresh yeast
    2 grams active dry yeast
    1 gram instant active dry yeast

-Maggie Glezer, "Artisan Baking Across America"

_____________________________

Substitute twice as much (by weight) fresh yeast for the amount of dry yeast called for in the recipe.

-Daniel Leader, "Local Breads"

_____________________________

1 g fresh = 0.5 g active dry = 0.4 g instant

-Susan (Wild Yeast), wildyeastblog.com

_____________________________

2+1/2 tsp (one package) active dry yeast = 18 gm cake fresh yeast

-Carol Field, "The Italian Baker"

_____________________________

A .6-oz [17gm] cube of cake yeast is roughly equivalent to 1½ to 2 tsp. instant yeast or 2 to 2¼ tsp. active dry yeast.

-Sydny Carter, Yeast: The Basics, allrecipes.com

_____________________________

One .6 ounce [17 grams] cake is equivalent to 1 envelope [.25 ounce/7 grams] of dry yeast.

-Fleischmann's Yeast FAQ, breadworld.com

_____________________________

yeast, compressed . . . . 1 cake, 3/5 oz . . . . 1 package active dry yeast

-Irma S. Rombauer, Know your ingredients, Joy of Cooking

_____________________________

1 packed tablespoon of fresh or cake yeast=21 grams which=2-1/2 [8gm] teaspoons active dry (so for 100 grams fresh yeast use 1/4 cup + 1/2 teaspoon or 40 grams active dry)

-Rose Levy Beranbaum, realbakingwithrose.com

_____________________________

If you are substituting active dry yeast for instant yeast in a recipe, [...] add about 20 percent more yeast to the recipe than what is called for. [...] If you encounter a recipe that uses fresh yeast, divide the weight by 3 to calculate the proper amount of instant yeast to use.

-Yeast FAQ, thefreshloaf.com

_____________________________

Some years ago, with mixed up logic, I managed to work out the following formula. Remarkably, the bread I made rose beautifully.

2½ tsp (8gm) active dry yeast = 50gm fresh yeast

-me, my house

Depending on whose formula I use, to replace 50gm fresh yeast, I should use anywhere from 8 to 32.5 gm active dry yeast. (I think I have the arithmetic right with the various formulae: 32.5gm, 25gm, 22.5gm, 20gm, 17.5-20gm, 17gm, 8.3 OR 8gm active dry in place of 50 gm fresh yeast)

So. After all these contortions? I've decided that I'll use the higher amount of active dry to replace fresh yeast if there's lots of sugar in the recipe, but the lower amount if there's little sugar in the recipe.

-Elizabeth

Here is a nifty javascript that one of my sisters created after hearing about this:

edit: Ooops!!! I hit "save" by mistake. I MEANT to hit "preview". I think I've finished fixing things now. Have fun with the conversion chart!

 

Also may be of interest:

Comments

Jaydot's picture
Jaydot

Thanks for posting this - although it's all still rather confusing :).
I have a recipe with a lot of sugar that uses 20 gr of fresh yeast. I have Instant, so I'd have to use about 9 gr of that?

ejm's picture
ejm

I would think that 9gm of instant yeast in place of 20gm fresh would be fine. I might use a little less than that though. The javascript conversion chart (this is a link) suggests to use anywhere from 3.2 to 13 grams.

It IS a little confusing. But all that it really says to me is that we can be flexible when measuring the ingredients for bread making (I know. This goes against what a lot of people say) . As long as the yeast is viable, it's likely to make the bread rise.

Using less yeast rather than more might simply slow the rise down.

-Elizabeth

Jaydot's picture
Jaydot

Actually, I totally agree with your observation about flexibility :). The more I read and the more I experiment (admittedly I haven't been experimenting very long), the more I come to the conclusion that it's all going to make bread - and then you tweak until you get the bread you wanted to achieve!

Thanks for responding. I'll go with the 9 gr and see where it gets me...