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Where can I find fresh yeast?

Richard Cornish
Richard Cornish

Yeasty treat: Russian blini made with fresh yeast.
Yeasty treat: Russian blini made with fresh yeast.Christopher Pearce

I find it hard to buy fresh yeast. E. Zwerus

I bake and I have given up looking for fresh yeast. There are delicatessens that sell gum-like blocks of compressed yeast but it's not a loss-leader that you'll find on special next to the bananas in the supermarket. I now use instant dried yeast. It comes in a 280-gram tin that keeps in the freezer. Instant yeast is made by drying and forming yeast slurry into tiny pellets. The yeast cells are alive but dormant, protected by a layer of dead yeast cells. When a recipe calls for 10 grams of fresh yeast I use half the amount of dried yeast.

Where in Sydney can I buy saffron milk caps? M. Woo

At this time of the year, every Saturday morning, there seems to be an exodus of hipsters heading out the M4 towards the Blue Mountains armed with wicker baskets and mushroom knives to forage the forests of Oberon. This scene is repeated in Melbourne, where the hipsters join old Italian couples around Daylesford. The saffron milk cap is also known as the pine mushroom - Lactarius deliciosus to mycologists - and is found at this time of the year growing near pine forests. The mushroom is the fruiting body and the fungus itself is like a sprawling spider web that taps into the pine tree roots and helps the pine tree find nutrients. In return the pine tree gives the fungus energy in the form of simple carbohydrates. In New Zealand, foresters deliberately infect young pines trees with L. deliciosus to not only improve the health of their trees but to get a secondary crop – mushrooms. Good fresh saffron milk caps will have an aroma of the forest, a tang of pine and a meaty texture. Younger mushrooms are more tender. In the wild they grow close to Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric, a poisonous fungus that when very mature resembles a saffron milk cap. Try FJ Galluzzo & Sons in Glebe or farmers' markets such as Orange Grove Market. In Melbourne they are being sold for about $25 per kilogram at farmers' markets and about $35 per kilogram at the Queen Victoria, Prahran and South Melbourne markets.

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Is there some magic formula for adding eggs to creamed butter and sugar when making a cake without the mixture curdling? N. Martin

Butter is an emulsion of water in fat, and you're trying to add more water to it in the form of egg. Go too fast and the mixture splits. Pretend you're making mayonnaise, another famous emulsion. When you make mayo you add a little oil into the egg, a little at a time. Traditionally, recipes suggest you add eggs slowly, one at a time. Do this and allow a good 30 seconds of mixing to incorporate each egg so the emulsion doesn't split. Or try gently whisking the eggs together and pour a little at a time into the creamed butter and eggs, just as you would when making mayo. Eggs should be at room temperature.

Letters

A few weeks back we responded to a reader who asked which single cooking technique her daughter should learn, as she was leaving home. We suggested roast chook, thanks to Stephanie Alexander and chicken stock, thanks to a Twitter poll. Thanks for all your other suggestions: cheese toastie; lentil soup (you'll always have vegetarian friends); stir-fry; casserole; and from one person, who may not have been serious – mince smoothie.

Send your vexing culinary conundrums to brainfood@richardcornish.com.au or tweet to @FoodCornish

Richard CornishRichard Cornish writes about food, drinks and producers for Good Food.

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