October 26, 2009 - 9:55am
How to Store Dry Active Yeast?
I bought a bag of dry active yeast from costco in a few weeks ago. After I opened the package, I put the dry active yeast in a plastic container then leave it in the room temperature. I was wondering if that is the right way to store dry active yeast?
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I store it in the refrigerator, I think I had the same question a couple of years ago and many people suggested this and it has worked fine. The costco yeast lasted me for a year and that includes giving a fourth o it to a neighbor.
Put in an airtight container, and put in fridge or freezer.
you can use directly from the container in your recipes. You do not have
to leave out or thaw.
BTW If you need Tupperware to store it in, ny wife sells it with money back
at http://tupperware.segalandassociates.com
Would the yeast go bad while I has left it in the room temperature for a few weeks? Should I still keep it?
Keep it. It will be fine, for that short period, as long as it was kept dry.
I believe that yeast is Red Star. I used to buy the same from a little country store down from some property I once owned. I could keep that in my fridge, in the original bag, for 2 years and it would still be active as always.
In fact, I sold that property 2 years ago and just finished with that last bag a month ago.
What about the fresh/cake yeast? Can it be freezed as well? How long can I freeze the fresh/cake yeast?
Under no circumstances freeze fresh compressed yeast! The water in the live yeast cells will freeze, creating crystals that destroy cell walls and kill the organism. Best to store fresh compressed yeast loosely wrapped in the refrigerator at 30-40F. It's a living organism -- or a colony of living organisms -- so allow it to breathe and get rid of excess moisture without drying out. I use fresh yeast almost exclusively and find that it will stay healthy for 2-3 months when stored this way.
As for dry yeast, either active dry or instant, it's still best not to freeze. Again, the cells are still living organisms, although their activity is severely reduced because of the drying, which gets out most, but not all, of the moisture. As with fresh, freezing causes crystallization of the remaining water, which destroys cell walls, further reducing the power of the yeast, which is only at about 40-50% of the fresh yeast equivalent under the best of circumstances. Keep it refrigerated in an airtight container and it should keep for over a year.
Stan Ginsberg
www.nybakers.com
I have my SAF Gold yeast in the freezer in a K.A. container. It is only about a year old and suddenly my breads are only rising half way recently. I'm going with your train of thought on this and will indeed treat my yeast as a living organism. I should have realized this myself... duh!
Thank you for your post.... ohhhh btw I love and use your flours all of the time. especially the Caputo Typo 00 (for pizza dough, pasta and some italian breads and your #1 (by far) NYB Craft Flour Type 550 for baguettes, broetchen, etc.... nothing in the US comes close.
I had the same experience with SAF Gold. But the regular ADY keeps for years frozen.