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Make your own Baking Powder,   the Wild Yeast recipe is on the bottom.

1 scant pint flour
1 lb soda
1 lb very best cream of tarter

Sift eight times together and store in tightly closed plastic bag.

Baking soda and baking powder both help create a reaction that causes doughs to rise. This chemical reaction is dependent on the interaction of a base and an acid.

Baking soda is the common name for sodium bicarbonate, which is a base. When combined with an acid plus some moisture, such as buttermilk, the reaction releases carbon dioxide bubbles, causing dough to expand.

Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it also contains the acid necessary to produce the chemical reaction, usually in the form of cream of tartar. It only needs to be combined with moisture to begin working.

This chemical reaction has the effect of neutralizing the acid. So if you want the acid in your dough to retain its strength and flavor, such as when using buttermilk in pancakes, always use baking powder instead of baking soda. The only acid that will be neutralized will be the one contained in the baking powder, instead of the one in your dough that is working to create acidic flavors. On the other hand, if you want to reduce the acidity in your dough — say, when using a sourdough starter to make a sweeter dish — opt for baking soda.

Both baking soda and baking powder work quickly, so if you're making anything out of a batter or dough that relies on them for leavening, it's best to cook them right away. However, when working with whole grain doughs, it helps to let the dough rest for a while before use (so the whole grains will have a chance to absorb enough moisture). So if you're using a whole grain dough that also requires baking soda or baking powder, wait until after the dough has had a chance to rest for at least 15 minutes before adding the leavening agent.

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Wild Yeast Culture for Making Yeast Bread

Method One

As told by Maud Shurtz (born 1896)
contents © Al Durtschi

We kept our yeast culture in a gallon crock jar. When making bread, we used all the contents except about a cup. This gave us the `seed' to rebuild our culture. We did this by adding cool potato water, some mashed potatoes, a 1/4 cup of sugar and a cup of flour. We then gave it a stir, and set it in a warm place near the stove. When potatoes were cooked for dinner, we added the cooled potato water to the yeast culture. If all went well with our culture, the yeast was ready for the next bake day. If for some reason the yeast died, we carefully washed and sanitized the crock pot then went to the neighbor's place for another start.

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Method Two

As told by Rose Adamson (born 1915) contents © Al Durtschi

When making bread, my mother pulled a piece of dough off maybe the size of a cup and threw it in the flour bin. The day before she made bread again she went to the bin and got the bread dough which was now large and flat and quite hard. She put this in a bowl of warm potato water with some sugar and let it sit in a warm place. The next day when Mother was making bread she poured the now frothy yeast culture into the bread makings.

(Note from the author: In trying this out, it worked fairly well unless it was left in the flour bin too long. I found that if I left it more than a week the yeast culture died.)

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Method Three:

Yeast Cakes
By Bob Scott

• 1 pint fresh buttermilk

• corn meal

• 1 cake of yeast

• 1/2 cup of white flour and more corn meal

Bring the buttermilk to a boil then remove it from the stove. Stir and add corn meal until quite thick then cool. Soak yeast cake in warm water. Stir into above and let stand (rise) overnight. In the morning stir in the white flour and extra corn meal to make the dough very stiff. Roll out to thickness of boughten cakes and cut into squares and let dry.

Use like store bought yeast cakes.

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Notes on Yeast and Yeast Cultures:

• Yeast requires warmth to grow

• Yeast goes dormant at 63 degrees F (14C)

• It works best between 80-95 degrees F (24-35C)

• Yeast slows down above this until it dies at about 109 degrees F (46C) Yeast cultures are fragile and are easily contaminated and killed by bacteria

• Keep all wooden or plastic spoons, and everything that is added to the pot as sterile as possible

• Do not use metal as your yeast culture pot (this includes the stirring utensil) - use a ceramic or plastic container

• Place a loose fitting lid on top to allow the carbon dioxide to escape

• Yeast changes sugar and simple starches into carbon dioxide and Ethel alcohol

• It is possible for the yeast to kill itself by the alcohol it produces. For bakers yeast this happens at about 12 percent alcohol content. To prevent this from happening you must keep an eye on it. When it stops frothing it is either out of food or is nearing it's toxicity level. Add more water and carbohydrates and if your crock is already full, dump some of it out.

Final Note: Don't expect your yeast culture to act like dried high potency yeast. It will act much more like a sour dough recipe and may take several hours to raise.