Disgusting Question: Bread made with vagina yeast?

[DrCube]

Title pretty much says it all. The gross hemisphere of my brain was thinking idly and wondered the titular question. Is it possible? Has it been done? Thanks for humoring my strange curiosity.

[QuercusMax]

They made beer that way: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=23562

Whether or not that's actually true is another story.

[Beware of Doug]

There's been beer.

[IceQube]

Cecil has you covered.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...-cooking-yeast

Edit: whoops, it isn't Cecil, but one of his slaves.
Edit 2: whoops, multiple slaves.

[Pyper]

Originally Posted by Beware of Doug

There's been beer.

Originally Posted by Supposed Vagina Beer Brewer

By adding a trace amount of my vaginal yeast to regular brewer's yeast, my "Original Pussy Beer" pays homage to beer's ancient creators from "the cradle of civilization."

It appears the beer in question was made with regular brewer's yeast, using only a "trace amount" of vaginal yeast. And even so, it sounds mighty suspicious. How did this woman even verify what she was adding to the beer was yeast? She doesn't provide any details.

[Ulfreida]

Brewer's yeast is spent, it is a byproduct of beer, not an instigator.

At least the kind you buy in stores.

[johnpost]

brewer's yeast is what a brewer uses to make beer, it is alive. also what a wine maker would use, though some difference from beer types.

nutritional yeast can contain spent brewer's yeast.

[Napier]

Just for the record, I don't think that's so disgusting or gross. Vaginas are nice places to visit!

[DrCube]

Originally Posted by Napier

Just for the record, I don't think that's so disgusting or gross. Vaginas are nice places to visit!

I agree, but unfortunately we're talking about infected vaginas here, which makes it a little more questionable.

[HoneyBadgerDC]

Originally Posted by DrCube

I agree, but unfortunately we're talking about infected vaginas here, which makes it a little more questionable.

The yeast is present in healthy clean vaginas. Just use your fresh bread water as a douche prior to mixing it with the bread. If the bread doesn't rise you may have to resort to commercial yeast but you need to give it a bit more time as it will not be as concentrated. If it turns green or moldy Try the lady down the street.

[Interconnected Series of Tubes]

I was going to wave my fists in the air and yell and be angry and go HEY CANDIDA ALBICANS IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT ORGANISM THAN BLAHBLAH but then I remembered a friend of mine's work.

Turns out vagina yeast can actually produce ethanol after all. So, there's that.

[lance strongarm]

Originally Posted by badger5149

The yeast is present in healthy clean vaginas.

And in healthy throats and noses and intestines. It's only a problem when it grows out of control.

[Mangetout]

The problem is going to be isolating it from all the other flora such as staphylococcus, etc, which are naturally present on the skin - I guess the way to do it would be to swab a sample onto agar and culture it there for a while, then pick out a sample from an identified colony, reculture etc until pure.

[lance strongarm]

Originally Posted by Mangetout

The problem is going to be isolating it from all the other flora such as staphylococcus, etc, which are naturally present on the skin - I guess the way to do it would be to swab a sample onto agar and culture it there for a while, then pick out a sample from an identified colony, reculture etc until pure.

Excellent point. You would likely end up with, at best, sourdough. Or much worse.

[ralph124c]

One time I made a batch of beer-the yeast that I added wasn't doing much..so I added some bread yeast.
Boy was that beer horrible (thin, sour, terrible).

[dracoi]

Originally Posted by lance strongarm

Excellent point. You would likely end up with, at best, sourdough. Or much worse.

Sourdough can be made using "wild yeast" - that is, just leave the wet dough out for exposure to the air, and let whatever lands on it culture it. I know for sure that fecal coliforms are in the air anywhere you have people or animals... probably, anything that can be found anywhere on or in a person is also in the air around us. And yet, I don't see recipes for these wild sourdoughs cautioning you about them going bad, etc. - even when starter cultures can be kept alive for months or years.

Perhaps someone who is an expert with microbiology can explain the exact mechanism, but it seems clear that the medium (flour, water, salt) favors just a few types of organisms that we actually want and these outcompete anything else that might mix in.

I hear that beer is not anywhere near so forgiving, though.

[lance strongarm]

Originally Posted by dracoi

Sourdough can be made using "wild yeast" - that is, just leave the wet dough out for exposure to the air, and let whatever lands on it culture it. I know for sure that fecal coliforms are in the air anywhere you have people or animals... probably, anything that can be found anywhere on or in a person is also in the air around us. And yet, I don't see recipes for these wild sourdoughs cautioning you about them going bad, etc. - even when starter cultures can be kept alive for months or years.

Depends on what you mean by "bad."

I find it interesting that things like beer, wine, some cheeses, vinegar and even bread, not to mention lots of weird foods throughout the world, are basically just spoiled foods that spoiled in a way that preserved them from worse spoilage and kept them palatable. And nobody really understood why or how it worked until the microscope was invented.

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by dracoi

Sourdough can be made using "wild yeast" - that is, just leave the wet dough out for exposure to the air, and let whatever lands on it culture it. I know for sure that fecal coliforms are in the air anywhere you have people or animals... probably, anything that can be found anywhere on or in a person is also in the air around us. And yet, I don't see recipes for these wild sourdoughs cautioning you about them going bad, etc. - even when starter cultures can be kept alive for months or years.

Perhaps someone who is an expert with microbiology can explain the exact mechanism, but it seems clear that the medium (flour, water, salt) favors just a few types of organisms that we actually want and these outcompete anything else that might mix in.

I've made sourdough cultures from wild-captured yeast; sometimes, they go foul and stinky at an early stage and you have to throw them out, but once you've got them on a roll, they tend to self-regulate - they typically comprise a collection of different strains of yeasts and bacteria (for example lactobacillus), which outcompete any incoming nasties by weight of numbers, and by their own tendency to acidify the mixture.

[lance strongarm]

Originally Posted by ralph124c

One time I made a batch of beer-the yeast that I added wasn't doing much..so I added some bread yeast.
Boy was that beer horrible (thin, sour, terrible).

I did some reading. Beer yeast is a strain designed to work slowly and bring out subtle flavors. Bread yeast is bred to work fast, but can produce yucky flavors that won't matter in bread. But will in beer, as you discovered.

[lance strongarm]

Originally Posted by Mangetout

I've made sourdough cultures from wild-captured yeast;

And we're back to the OP.

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by lance strongarm

And we're back to the OP.

Well, maybe not. I captured it just by leaving wet flour open to the air, but the chances are, I probably just nurtured yeasts that would have been in the flour all along (which may not be any of the same that flourish on the human body)

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by ralph124c

One time I made a batch of beer-the yeast that I added wasn't doing much..so I added some bread yeast.
Boy was that beer horrible (thin, sour, terrible).

Pretty much any mid-brew tinkering can do that. Even if you'd added the right kind of yeast at this stage, the end result would quite likely have been disappointing.
Similar things can happen if you decide to boost fermentation mid-way by adding more sugar. Basically, if it doesn't start well, it won't end well.

I think this is because there are distinct phases to the brewing process; for example, at the start, the yeast will be working aerobically and will be increasing the acidity of the wort - later on, it will be working anaerobically and will be producing alcohol - later still, it will start working on different sugars and will start to reabsorb or modify other chemicals in the mix, as it clumps together and settles out (there's quite a good overview of all this here)

Beer yeast strains certainly are distinct and different from bread yeast strains though - and this is precisely because they've been selected as good candidates for each type of process.

However, it's possible to make not-altogether-undrinkable beer using bakers yeast (I've actually done this, long ago) - it's never going to be as predictable and 'finished' a beer as when the right strains are used though.
I'm sure it should be possible to make fairly decent bread using beer yeast (Never tried this, but I probably will soon, as it's a really easy experiment).

I also managed to make a reasonably good loaf starting from yeast sediment left over from making a small batch of cider (which had been fermented only on yeasts naturally occurring on the apples) - details here.

[Superhal]

I asked this a while ago, and the answer is simple: it's not the same yeast they use to make risen bread.

However, theoretically, you could still make flatbread like tortillas using it, the pussy yeast just won't make the bread rise, so flatbreads should be unaffected.

So the answer is yes, you can make bread with pussy yeast (like adding raisins to make a raisin loaf), but not the same bread that is required to rise.

I would imagine vagina burritos would taste extra ironic.

I wonder if you would call them "vagina tacos" or is that an oxymoron.

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by Superhal

I asked this a while ago, and the answer is simple: it's not the same yeast they use to make risen bread.

However, theoretically, you could still make flatbread like tortillas using it, the pussy yeast just won't make the bread rise, so flatbreads should be unaffected.

It's a yeast that consumes starches and sugars and produces CO₂ (and ethanol) as a waste product. Assuming it's cultured successfully in the dough, it's going to produce some sort of rise - just probably not as dramatic as conventional bread yeasts.

[s0meguy]

I bet you could give it a distinctive taste at least, given the right additional ingredients.

[lance strongarm]

Originally Posted by Superhal

I wonder if you would call them "vagina tacos" or is that an oxymoron.

If they are tuna tacos then it's redundant.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

Originally Posted by Mangetout

it's going to produce some sort of rise

Isn't that what they always do?

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by Mangetout

I'm sure it should be possible to make fairly decent bread using beer yeast (Never tried this, but I probably will soon, as it's a really easy experiment).

I've got this experiment on the go right now - and it's looking good - a teaspoonful of dried ale yeast mixed with flour and water quickly formed a nice 'sponge' - I'm cultivating it a bit more and will bake a loaf with it tomorrow.

I'm afraid I won't be tackling the titular question in this thread though - it's just not something that tickles my fancy.

[Rysdad]

Originally Posted by ralph124c

One time I made a batch of beer-the yeast that I added wasn't doing much..so I added some bread yeast.
Boy was that beer horrible (thin, sour, terrible).

Done with fermentation; on to distillation...