2 hours ago, lindag said:I haven't seen compressed yeast in stores near me for many, many years.
My mother used to use it in her homemade breads back in the fifties and I swear that it gave the bread a heavenly, yeasty aroma that you don't get with the dried yeasts of today. I'd love to be able to try it for myself to see if it is true.
Fresh cake yeast is exactly the same organism that's in active dry and instant yeast. What's different is that in fresh yeast, a very high proportion of the organisms are dead. So to compensate, you use the yeast in a much higher proportion in any given recipe. The dead yeast don't contribute to leavening, but they taste like yeast ... hence the yeasty flavor and aroma.
Most artisan bread bakers consider yeast flavor a defect, so this isn't something you often see them striving for . If you do want yeast flavor in bread, a more predictable approach would be to use instant yeast (which is just yeast that's been dried in a way that keeps virtually all the organisms alive) for leavening, and that add brewer's yeast (inactive) for flavor.
