Fresh vs instant yeast - what I've learned

[Marcin's Kitchen]

I thought I'd share an experiment that I did with my 6yo to see if instant yeast are different than fresh yeast. We scaled down a pizza recipe to 100g of dough, made it twice - once with fresh and once with instant yeast. The amount in both cases was identical
- dough with fresh yeast rises faster than with identical amount of instant yeast
- fresh yeast continue to rise when dough is in the fridge, instant yeast go dormant
- we couldn't feel any taste difference between them
- ultimately it doesn't matter, yeast is a living organism and it will start multiplying until you have same quantity in both

We've documented this in a short video. I'm curious what are your experiences / beliefs if one type of yeast is better than the other? Maybe there's something we missed?

 

[retired baker]

I thought I'd share an experiment that I did with my 6yo to see if instant yeast are different than fresh yeast. We scaled down a pizza recipe to 100g of dough, made it twice - once with fresh and once with instant yeast. The amount in both cases was identical
- dough with fresh yeast rises faster than with identical amount of instant yeast
- fresh yeast continue to rise when dough is in the fridge, instant yeast go dormant
- we couldn't feel any taste difference between them
- ultimately it doesn't matter, yeast is a living organism and it will start multiplying until you have same quantity in both

We've documented this in a short video. I'm curious what are your experiences / beliefs if one type of yeast is better than the other? Maybe there's something we missed?

Interesting video.
I'm a retired baker and can shed some light.
For pizza it doesn't make much difference, use anything.
For croissants and viennoiserie in general fresh yeast is the only way to fly.
Dry yeast is ok for any sweet dough such as danish that you intend to freeze before baking.
Now I live in a very remote area near caribou, I can't find fresh yeast.
I want to make a croissant video, I have dry yeast but it would be a waste of ingredients.
The dry yeast I have is for homemade ginger ale.

 

[invisibleflash]

I remember the cake yeast from childhood. I manage a large Archive and part of it is vintage advertising. They used to run ads in the 1930s to eat live cake yeast for vitamins.

Can't buy any cake yeast here any more. Just the dry yeast. From what I recall the cake yeast gave more of a yeasty smell to the kitchen. But that was the 1960s, so memory may be distorted.

I'm here to develop more baking skills. Been baking bread since 2-98 year round with 2 bread machines. Had a number of backup machines, but the machines are pretty much shot now. The new machines they sell now are pretty junky. My machines were of the era of heavy cast metal baking pots. Anyway, the machines always injected some Teflon into the bread, so am going trad baking now.

When the corrosive virus hit and yeast was gone it made me more aware of baking. I've got a couple pounds of instant yeast now, but can always fall back on sourdough, which I am only half-ass at.

 

[invisibleflash]

Interesting video.
I'm a retired baker and can shed some light.
For pizza it doesn't make much difference, use anything.
For croissants and viennoiserie in general fresh yeast is the only way to fly.
Dry yeast is ok for any sweet dough such as danish that you intend to freeze before baking.
Now I live in a very remote area near caribou, I can't find fresh yeast.
I want to make a croissant video, I have dry yeast but it would be a waste of ingredients.
The dry yeast I have is for homemade ginger ale.

Yes, make lots of ginger beer. About 20 gallons a year. I use 1/4 ts instant yeast per half gallon. Thought it was crazy when I read the recipe, but it works great.