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Instant yeast, 1/12th teaspoon <-- how does one measure that kind of thing ? wouldn't it be easier and more accurate to use grams ?

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It's too small to use a normal gram-accurate kitchen scale; received wisdom is that one quarter-teaspoon of instant yeast is about a gram. So a third of a gram is a twelfth of a teaspoon.

Thanks for a prompt - I've now added a note in the text to this effect!

It's a lot less yeast than I usually use, but I also only let it rise for an hour or two, not overnight, so I suppose that accounts for it. Assuming for simplicity's sake that rising & proving time is directly proportional to yeast quantity; if you had a limitless supply of both yeast and time, would you suggest less yeast and longer rise, for better bread?

Lord, I'm not really qualified; I've only been baking for a few weeks. My justification for writing this was more that I thought I could put it in a style that a new audience would be receptive to, rather than any perceived expertise on my own part.

That said, received wisdom is that loooong, slow ferments give more flavourful loaves. That's usually achieved with tiny amounts of yeast and time in the fridge. But please, go ask the experts over on /r/breadit, you'll get a much more reliable answer there.

Speaking from experience, 1/12th of a teaspoon of instant yeast is below 1 gram. So you need specialized equipment to measure this. But you can estimate 1/12th teaspoon fairly accurately.

All yeast is different so you'll have to do some trial and error regardless. In general, too much yeast is better than not enough yeast. The most important thing is that you have a consistent way of measuring yeast amounts, whether by weight or volume. And always buy the exact same yeast.

> The most important thing is that you have a consistent way of measuring yeast amounts

Well, when sharing recipes, it certainly help if _we_ have a consistent way of measuring amounts. 1/12th teaspoon sounds very hard to actually measure in real life and some teaspoons have different sizes. Using grams (weight) or milliliters (volume) would make it much easier to replicate + it gets easier to multiply the recipe in your head.

So I agree, let's start using international measurements for recipes please!

In theory, this is fine. In reality, we need some of these other systems. Few folks have a couple of good scales (and yes, you need two: One for small amounts and one for the larger ones).

Luckily, bread making isn't that exact, especially for home kitchens.

> Few folks have a couple of good scales

I'm not sure I'd say "few" but my frame of reference is Europe. Most people I know have a tool which seems to be called "measuring spoon set" in English, which has the common volume-measurements. People who do baking with recipes usually have a scale that can resolve down to 1g, which seems to work out for most recipes.

Good to hear that bread making is not that exact though, so you could probably eyeball it in that case.

(just wanted to add that with one weight you can usually [imprecisely] weight both really small values and really big values by multiplying/dividing. Let's say you need 0.5g but your scale can only do down to 1g, so you can weight 1g and then just half it and now you have 0.5g. Same goes if you need 1kg when max is 100g, just do 100g and then multiply)

> (just wanted to add that with one weight you can usually [imprecisely] weight both really small values and really big values by multiplying/dividing. Let's say you need 0.5g but your scale can only do down to 1g, so you can weight 1g and then just half it and now you have 0.5g. Same goes if you need 1kg when max is 100g, just do 100g and then multiply)

Not with a 1gram-resolution scale - at best it's measured 1g +/- 0.5g, so after you halve it you have anything from 0.25g to 0.75g, +/- your own inaccuracy in halving such a small quantity. (I suppose you could count out each spore cluster!)

However, I really don't believe it's going to have a material affect on your homemade bread; that level of recipe precision just isn't important outside of commercial manufacturing.

"Europe" is a big place, though. I fully expected everyone to have kitchen scales when I moved here from the US, but honestly, folks around here use a measuring cup. Flour is measured in dl, salt in teaspoons (or parts of them). I think the standard teaspoon is 5ml and the Tablespoon is at 15ml.

I happen to have scales: The large volume scale was easy to find. The scale that would measure things like salt? not so easy to find and not cost effective at all.

I'm in Norway, by the way.

The amount of yeast will depend on the exact brand of yeast (and for perishable yeasts, its age). So recipe are more of a guideline and not a substitute for trial and error and knowing your yeast. Yeast isn't like sugar, it's a living organism rather than a simple molecule, so by weight measurements are not sufficient for reproducibility.

Hm, I wonder if that's local to your region? In the countries I've in in Europe, I've always followed the recipes exactly regarding all ingredients, including yeast, and made good stuff, even with different brands of yeast. Or simply my taste buds are terrible.

This is probably because most recipes specify more yeast than is truly required. Yeast is generally quite forgiving, you can use a lot more than required before experiencing side effects. It becomes less forgiving the longer you ferment your dough, if you are fermenting for several days then you can't get away with blasting the dough with yeast, in any case the problem isn't taste but the texture of the final product.

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