How to Test Yeast With Vinegar

Plan ahead, then bake away! Ensure your ingredients are fresh.

Making certain your yeast is still active before going through the process of making bread can spare you disappointment and save wasted, sometimes expensive, ingredients. If the yeast is good, combining it with vinegar will cause bubbling within 10 minutes. Even if your recipe doesn't call for vinegar, you can test the yeast this way and use the testing mixture in the bread.

Things You'll Need

• Vinegar
• Yeast
• Sugar
• Water

Instructions

1. Place the yeast you plan to use in a medium sized glass measuring cup large enough to hold the water called for in the recipe.

2. Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. If the recipe calls for sugar, be sure to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe by this amount.

3. Add the amount of water called for by the bread recipe minus one tablespoon. To increase the rising potential of the yeast, use warm water.

4. Put a tablespoon of vinegar in the mixture and then stir everything to dissolve the yeast and the sugar.

5. Watch the yeast. If it is still active, the mixture should bubble and foam within 10 minutes. If it does you can continue making your recipe, adding this mixture in place of the yeast and water.

Tips & Warnings

• Vinegar tends to add height to bread. Like sugar, vinegar gives the yeast greater leavening power. Testing with the combination of sugar and vinegar ensures the potency of your yeast.

• You can run the test with a tiny bit of yeast if you are using a jar of yeast instead of a packet. Then you do not have to use the mixture in your bread if you don't want to.

• If you have multiple packets of yeast on hand, test only the packet you will be using in the recipe. One of several packets could have an undetected puncture, which would alter its effectiveness.

References

• Wise Bread: 254 Uses for Vinegar and Counting
• What's Cooking in America: How to Use Yeast in Bread Making

Resources

• Orbitals: A Comparison of Leavening Agents