I took Charles's advice to try the yeast test again on the French yeast, but this time by adding sugar into the water to give the little creatures something to feast on. Sure enough:
That's how things were after not even twenty minutes of blooming. Conclusion: I was wrong to be so unfair to the French who, as we see above, came through in the end. Vive la Résistance!
EPILOGUE: half an hour later...
Vive la levure!
ReplyDeleteIt's always good to have live yeast for your bread.
Indeed. Suspecting the French yeast might still be good, my tentative conclusion notwithstanding, I did put it into the freezer last night. So that means that today's yeast came out of the freezer, and it performed admirably.
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