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I have my grandmother's recipe for cookies, from the 50s or 60s, it calls for a 5 cent cake of yeast. How many ounces is a 5 cent yeast cake?

Jerry Stratton
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Joan
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  • Does this answer your question? [Converting yeast amounts from old recipes](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/96421/converting-yeast-amounts-from-old-recipes) – moscafj Dec 20 '22 at 12:00
  • The 5-cent is likely a distractor...it's just a cake of yeast, and we already have a question on this for you to refer to. – moscafj Dec 20 '22 at 12:00
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    @moscafj I am not sure it's a distractor. As the other question notes, there used to be two sizes - so I interpret it as a descriptor of the cake's size. – rumtscho Dec 20 '22 at 12:08
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    I think the question would be easier to answer if you gave the amounts of flour and liquids and asked how much yeast this might require. Also, the tme the dough is supposed to raise is helpful – Eulenfuchswiesel Dec 20 '22 at 13:22
  • @rumtscho fair point...one could look at the recipe, look at the conversion for "small" and "large" cake, and make an educated guess (see @eulenfuchswiesel). Alternately, if the is a 5-cent cake, it is probably safe to assume it is the smallest...would there be a 3-cent cake? ...a 1-cent cake? ... Probably not. – moscafj Dec 20 '22 at 13:41
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    @moscafj I don't see how it is safe to assume it's the smallest. Historical inflation is tricky, especially since inflation indices don't take into account the relative rate of change between different types of goods. In any case, there were times where one cent was enough money to purchase something - and maybe the 50s were such a time for yeast. As for the recipe, it is interesting to see - but since these are cookies, and in western baking, it is not typical to make cookies from a yeast dough, I doubt that we will be able to reverse-engineer from typical ratios. – rumtscho Dec 20 '22 at 14:07
  • @rumtscho in 1937 (only data I could find) a cake of yeast cost 3 cents in Morris county NJ. https://www.mclib.info/Research/Local-History-Genealogy/Historic-Prices/Historic-Prices-1937 If it were me, I would use conversion for small cake of yeast. – moscafj Dec 20 '22 at 14:54
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    While the older question is certainly *related*, I don't think it answers this question, because we don't know whether 5 cents for yeast was a lot or a little. More details about the recipe would definitely help. – Marti Dec 20 '22 at 15:33
  • Related: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/91903/how-much-is-1-2-cents-worth-of-yeast-in-an-old-recipe – Roddy of the Frozen Peas Dec 20 '22 at 17:40
  • @moscafj yet your link doesn’t specify whether the 3 cents is for a large or small cake? – Stephie Dec 22 '22 at 07:30
  • @Stephie..again, I am making an assumption that there is not a lower priced yeast. Yes, I realize it is a leap for some. As you point out in your answer, "it is reasonably likely." Given the lack of any other information, as I stated much earlier, this is what I would go with. If I didn't think it was a duplicate, I would have answered along the lines of what you posted. – moscafj Dec 22 '22 at 11:11

1 Answers1

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As elaborated here, there were two standard sizes of fresh yeast common in the US, small with 3/5 oz, and large with 2 oz.

Without further sources we can not be sure whether the “5 cents” is truly the smaller size as discussed (although it’s reasonably likely).

What I would recommend is that you make your dough with the smaller amount for one very simple reason: Yeast is a living organism, so if you add too little, you simply need to wait a bit longer until it has multiplied enough to give your dough the desired lift. Add too much initially, and you run the risk of an overpowering yeast taste and a dough that goes into overly risen faster than you can shape and bake the cookies.

This also means that you should judge the ripeness of your dough not based on time, but based on visual clues (e.g. “until doubled”), which hopefully should be included in your recipe anyway, because environmental parameters (especially temperature) can and will influence the necessary rise time.

Stephie
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  • Cake yeast has moisture and dry yeast is dry. A small cake of yeast is the amount for a loaf of bread and usually weighs 0.6 ounces. An envelope of active dry yeast is also the amount for a loaf of bread and weighs about 0.25 ounces, or about one-third as much as a small cake of yeast. Newer forms of dry yeast are more active and less might be needed for a cookie recipe. – David Smith Jan 10 '23 at 18:22
  • My Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook, 1923, has numerous recipes for cookies made with sour milk and soda and others made with milk and baking powder. I was unable to find a single cookie made with yeast. I suspect that your recipe makes what would be called a cake by most people, and legally a cake in the UK, where tax laws distinguish cakes from biscuits. – David Smith Jan 10 '23 at 18:38