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Comment by zabil | Hacker News Reader

I live in London, it's been four weeks since I last saw a pack of flour on the store shelf. The demand is that high.

If you need it, mills are selling it directly. I bought a 16kg bag of strong white and another of strong wholemeal for delivery from Marriages (flour.co.uk) this morning — after a few hours of running a simple Bash script to poll occasionally and make a noise when the website no longer said ‘out of stock’. Shipton Mill are also delivering if you can get a slot.

For anyone looking for flour, here's a nice resource I found that lists local grains & flours. (It looks like they list a couple options in England. Truthfully though, I'm not sure how close they are to you).

https://challengerbreadware.com/where-to-buy-grains-flours/

-Do you have yeast? Over on the other side of the North Sea, we've got more flour than we know what to do with on the shelves, as there is no yeast to be had - haven't seen a yeast cube in a month! (good thing sourdough is a thing!)

Yes! I managed to find a block of yeast last week. But, I can't use it as I got no flour :(

We need to talk, then. :)

Get flour from Centralmilling company: https://centralmilling.com/store/

Order a 50 lb sack and you're good to go. They still have it in stock.

In Germany, I have flour, but no yeast

I made a sourdough starter. It is kind of working, but some parts are tasting odd. There was also mold buildup at the margin

> There was also mold buildup at the margin

Throw that bit away and give it more flour and water (I use a 70g flour/100g water ratio). It'll be fine.

You need to make sure that the culture is stable before you use it -- it should smell sour, but with no other foul smells. In the first week of a new starter, you shouldn't use it because the bacterial cultures are still fighting for dominance.

As for mould build-up, that isn't a good sign. It does happen and I know people who just scrape off the mould and move on with their lives but I'd personally start again from scratch.

It got better

The real problem is that I keep it in the fridge too long, when I do not need it

Send me an email message, I can ship you some. I've got a kilo of SAF red and gold yeast, I can ship you 50g (or anyone on HN, feel free).

Btw, you don't need much yeast - just use less than 0.5 grams, let the dough rise for 8 hours at room temp. You can save that dough and continue making more bread from the culture.

-That's most kind of you, I really appreciate it - however, I do have a sourdough starter available and can (and do!) make all the bread we need - I was just amused at /our/ supply chain having a flour surplus and no yeast, whereas in the UK it appeared to be the other way around...

For most of the past month there's been neither in the UK. No flour, no yeast. In the past week flour has been on the shelves and not disappearing immediately, so I think demand has more or less been satiated, but no sign of yeast anywhere.

Of course if you have baking soda and/or baking powder (depending on what you're making), there are a lot of quick breads, scones, biscuits, etc. that you can make without yeast. I'm doing both yeast and non-yeast baking. I do have a sourdough starter although I also have yeast which can make things a bit easier.

If your flour is unbleached it'll already have yeast in it. You can turn it into a starter with a bit of easy regular work: https://www.alieward.com/ologies/gastroegyptology

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