Converting yeast amounts from old recipes
This recipe for poppy seed rolls calls for 1 large yeast. How much yeast am I supposed to use? I usually see recipes measure it in teaspoons, but I can’t guess how much “large” is. I am also assuming this is active dry yeast, maybe it’s not and that’s the reason why the size is weird.
Best Answer
This is short for “1 large cake of yeast.” According to this investigation, cakes of yeast traditionally came in two sizes:
- Small, around 3/5 of an ounce
- Large, around 2 ounces
This similar recipe gives the substitution “1 large yeast or 3 envelopes dry yeast.”’
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What is the equivalent of 1 yeast cake?
1 cake of fresh yeast is approximately the same as 1 envelope/packet of active dry yeast. 1 packet usually equals about 2\xbc teaspoons, or \xbc ounce, or 7 grams of active dry yeast granules.What is the equivalent of dried yeast to fresh?
These two types of yeast are interchangeable in recipes, but remember that you need to use twice as much fresh yeast (by weight) than dry. Therefore, if a recipe asks for 7g dried yeast you will need to use 14g of fresh or compressed yeast and vice versa.What is the equivalent of 2 yeast cakes?
Yeast Conversion ChartFlourDry YeastFresh Cake Yeast**0-412/3 (1/3 of a 2oz cake)4-821 1/3 (2/3 of a 2oz cake)8-1232 (one 2oz cake)12-1642 1/3 (1 1/3 of a 2oz cake)2 more rowsWhat calculations can you do to substitute one type of yeast for another?
To substitute fresh yeast for active dry yeast: Use a ratio of roughly 2:1, i.e. use one small cake (0.6 ounce) of compressed fresh yeast in lieu of 1 packet (. 25 ounces) of active dry yeast.How to Convert Yeast Dough Recipes to be Made With Sourdough Starter
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Answer 2
A typical conversion I know of is to use 1/3 as much dry yeast as fresh yeast. If we take James McLeod's answer, then a "large" yeast should be replaced with roughly 18 g of dry yeast (close enough to 3 envelopes á 7 g) and a "small" yeast cake should be replaced by 0.2 ounces dry yeast, or 5.6 g yeast (most recipes will tolerate a full 7 g envelope).
I grew up in the 80s and 90s with 42 g cubes of fresh yeast, if you have a recipe for one of these, use 14 g dry to replace. Sadly, I don't know of any way to make sure whether a recipe refers to the sizes James McLeod's answer uses, or the 42 g size - you will have to take your best guess based on the time and place the recipe was written down.
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