Frische Hefe

On Saturday, in preparation for the long weekend, A and I hit the BIG German grocery store, "Real" (not pronounced real, pronounced, ree-al). Usually we just walk down the street to the little market, Wasgau, but seeing as we had to prep for a long weekend, we went with big. Every Sunday, everything is closed, including the grocery stores. This, I do not mind. Not knowing, however, can make for a hungry Sunday. Usually, we just buy enough to feed ourselves for Sunday, but Monday was a holiday (yes, you guessed it, everything was closed), so we had to buy 2.5 days worth of groceries. I know some people buy groceries for days and days in advance, but not the German Rapaljes. We go to the grocery store every day and buy what we need for that night at dinner depending on what we're craving. It is probably not the most cost efficient way to grocery shop, but this is how we roll. Anyways, back to the story.

So, we planned out meals for Saturday night THROUGH Tuesday morning. One of those nights, we were making homemade pizzas (1. goat cheese + carmelized onion 2. pepperocini thingy) and I like to make homemade pizza dough (of course in Germany you have to because there is no pillsbury). So we need yeast. And I conveniently left my iPhone in the car so we have no translator. Sweet. So we endlessly search the baking aisles for yeast. Can't find it. So I decide to ask a stocker lady. I ask her if she speaks English, no (of course not). So then I said, auf Deutsch, do you know where the 'yeast' is? I said it all except for the yeast part. She had no idea what I was talking about. So again, auf Deutsch, you know, fur brot, and give the hand motions for rising bread. Nope. Clueless. So I walk off. New idea, I decide to go look at the ingredients in the already made bread. Scan them all. I've decided 'Hefe' means yeast. Yes, I was correct. Go down the baking aisle and tucked away in a very HIGH spot is this box labeled Hefe and you can't see what's inside. Reach my hand in. YEAST! I have it! Plain ol packets of yeast. Success. I find A who is still searching for yeast. Success. We go on with our business, get everything else (no veggies mind you, they are ecoli-ed out) and stop by the yogurt. Well, there's my stocker lady again, so I told her, in German, we found it, it was Hefe, and in English it's called Yeast. Oh ok she's impressed. And then she picks something off the cold shelf, looks like a miniature stick of butter, and says, auf Deutsch, this is frische hefe (fresh yeast). HMMMMM. OK. So, we decide to buy that too. We were curious. And it was only 10 euro cents (which I am CONSTANTLY told by A is not that same as just cents ahahahah - don't get either of us started there!), so we get it. A has guessed it is just regular looking yeast packed together. I mean, it feels like butter, so I disagree, but whatever. We get home. Open it. And this is what we find:





This looks like a little mini stick of light brown butter. Not what we were expecting. We read the package and it says, auf Deutsch, sufficient for 500 - 5000g of flour. Um, that's a big difference. How much do we use? How do we use it? No idea. So we put it back in the fridge and use the regular stuff. It worked fine and our pizza crust was awesome. But what exactly IS that frische hefe? I still have no idea. Good thing is was only 10 cents.

Since then, I have walked to the grocery store once more, by myself. And I decided to look up the things I didn't know how to say in German. I successfully found sage (salbei) and leave in hair conditioner (I think...). It just cracks me up how going to the grocery story can be such an adventure.