Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I really really really want to try to make my own Tartex. My roommate gave me this recipe and said it was pretty similar. While it's delicious, it was pretty oily and didn't firm up to Tartex consistency.

When I look at the ingredients on their website (for the mushroom variety), it says the ingredients are: Yeast, water, mushrooms (16 %), palm kernel fat (non-hydrogenated), onions*, potato starch*, sea salt, yeast extract.
Great, seems easy enough, I'd assume it's fresh yeast, which I have in my fridge and need to use up.

But then I look at the ingredients in German: Nährhefe, Trinkwasser, Champignons* (16%), ungehärtetes pflanzliches Fett*, Zwiebeln*, Kartoffelstärke*, Meersalz, Hefeextrakt.
Everything is the same except for the yeast. I'm only just learning German now and I don't know much. But I believe Nährhefe is nutritional yeast, isn't it??

So what's the deal? Is it nooch based or yeast based?

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A4hrhefe

"Nährhefe ist eine durch Hitze inaktivierte Hefe, die einen relativ hohen Nährwert und vor allem einen hohen Gehalt an Vitamin B hat[1][2]. Sie wird u.a. als Nährhefeflocken (auch Edelhefeflocken genannt) oder als Pulver in Biosupermärkten von Europa und Nordamerika verkauft, und ist eine der typischen Zutaten der vegetarischen und veganen Küche."

ist eine durch Hitze inaktivierte hefe = is a through heat deactivated yeast. As yeast is active, Nahrhefe is nooch, not like (bakers)yeast.

Its nooch.

And holy ballz if you get a recipe, please share? Or come around to my house and feed me :) Bring croissants too.

I've heard of german recipes where people actually cook with fresh yeast, as in, they add it to e.g. stewed potatoes and cook it thoroughly. This will deactivate the yeast but probably produces a taste that is quite different from nooch flakes. Because fresh yeast has this creamyness and nice yeasty smell and those both will probably not go away even if you cook it.

So maybe the solution is actually to use fresh yeast and then to heat it properly? Also, you definitely need enough fat to make it creamy enough.

I didn't get a chance to work on this tonight. but maybe I'll give it a whirl tomorrow.
I feel like that recipe for the spread from fresh yeast that I mentioned first was on the right track. The flavor was off, but that could just be mostly because it was onion and marjoram flavored. I'll try heating the fresh yeast with water instead of coconut oil and sticking to the tartex ingredients as much as possible. It must be doable!

DO NOT EAT FRESH ACTIVE YEAST. It will survive in your digestive tract, which can and will cause digestive problems, and you'll probably get a lovely case of thrush. Active yeast is an ingredient, it is not food.

If you're going to use fresh yeast (as in not inert nutritional yeast), you'll have to pasteurise it through by cooking it.

I personally wonder if it's "Yeast Extract", like Marmite/Vegemite, etc. Tartex, from memory, does have quite a strong, similar but more complex/fattier flavour than yeast extract, but it does seem similar? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast_extract

Good luck!

Well, yeast extract is in there too as the last ingredient.

I don't know. My guess would be fresh yeast for the texture, but the taste seems like it would be more noochy. I asked my roommate to email them and see what they say (figured it'd be more clear in German). I don't know the exact wording of her email, but the response says something like "We use nutritional yeast. This is listed on our ingredients list on our website." So I'm thinking maybe she didn't fully explain our issue here.

This weekend's trial was yummy, though very much not tartex.

I never ever heard about that. But who knows. Fresh yeast is only ever used for bread.

Tofulish is right. What you want for your homemade tartex spread is nutritional yeast. (Nährhefe actually means nutritional yeast).
To make it creamy you just have to mix it with the water. Fresh yeast won't do much for the texture, the spread is creamy because it has a lot of fat. (The fresh yeast will just dissolve when mixed with water.)

And yes, yeast extract is the same as marmite. The probably use only a tiny amount, just for flavour/saltiness.

Listen to mihl, she is wise.
I could imagine something like some of the cheeze recipes texture-wise - the ones that are like sauces and then firm up a bit in the fridge.
Basically, I'd start out like making a very soft cheeze, then vary the ingredients according to my favourite flavours of tartex.

Thrush is usually caused by Candida albicans, which is quite different to Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast). One common example of people consuming fresh yeast is beer (of which many are unfiltered and unpasteurised).

Okay, Mihl has spoken! I'll try it out with nooch and see what happens.

Actually, it is not.

http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/581361157126919/Hefekartoffeln.html (German recipe)

I was quite surprised to discover it and it seems to be a very old and poor-people type of recipe but this does exist in cooking.

I just gave this a try using nooch. I had to make some substitutions, because I did not have the exact ingredients on hand:
4 T nooch, 6 T veg bouillon, 2 T ground dried shiitake mushrooms, 1 T coconut oil, 1/2 t onionpowder, 1 t cornstarch. I mixed all the ingredients in my smallest pot and heated it to boiling point on the stove.

It's cooling now, but I can already tell that it has quite a pungent nooch taste, not like the mild taste tartex has, and I didn't have marmite/yeast extract, which would have made for a still stronger taste I guess. It'll make quite a nice cheese substitute, but it's definitely not tartex. I'm very curious what your results are when you try this with fresh yeast.

Hmm, I just mixed a little unheated nooch with some water and oil, and that tastes much milder. Maybe the trick is to add the nooch to the other ingredients after they have cooled? Not sure if it really tasted like tartex though, I finished our can yesterday, so can't do a comparison test now (I don't trust my taste buds' memory).

Thanks for the link! I know similar recipes that call for nooch but I never heard about using fresh yeast before. Maybe I'll give it a try.

Yes, I haven't tried it out yet myself though I've meant to for the longest time. I imagine that yeast in any form will act as an umami ingredient, especially if used in such significant amounts. Using fresh yeast seems really intriguing because I like its pleasantly fermented, kind of alcoholy smell; it reminds me a little bit of miso.

I just looked on German cooking sites for recipes for a Tertex-like pate and found this which seems promising (Measurements only metric though and I will just keep using the butter, please just use a vergan version of buttery spread):

2 Onions
100 Butter/margarine (a little less than a stick, I think)
40 g fresh yeast
1 clove garlic
50g flour
250 ml broth (about 1 cup)
salt
spices (marjoram, thyme, allspice etc. - this is for a 'liverwurst' type of seasoning)

Instructions: chop onions finely, saute in butter, add yeast until all is well combined, add pressed garlic and borth, then add flour and cook until nice and thickened. Season with spices and let cool. When it is almost cooled down mix with 50g more butter and a little bit of vinegar.#
(it is supposed to turn out a little softer than tartex. Maybe it would help to decrease the amount of broth)

It sounds pretty close to the tartex ingredient list if you consider the butter being the fat and the flour as the eqivalent of the potatostarch stated in the ingredient list for tartex. I think, I'd puree the pate though to get rid of the onion pieces.

If anyone has success with this it could be a good base for experimenting with different tartex flavours.

eta the link to the original recipe for the German speaking folks:
http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/483131142384345/Falsche-Leberwurst.html

I detest having to squeeze tartex out of the tube (for some reason they don't sell the tubs here), so it'd be nice to figure out the recipe.


Did your bouillon have yeast extract in it?

Yes it did have yeast extract actually, the sixth ingredient in the list. I didn't think about that :-)

I gave it a shot last night. I sauteed onions and mushrooms in coconut oil, then added water and marmite, and ran it throught the food processor. After it cooled a bit, I added some cornstarch and put it back on the heat for a minute. Then I let it cool again and added the Nooch. Result: yummy mushroom spread, but not tartex!

I make my own tartex but am still tweaking the recipe. The yeast is NUTRITIONAL YEAST which is available from health food stores, or online.
Here's my recipe:
1 level Tbsp powdered mushroom (dried)
4 TBSP Nuttelex (a good quality, non-hydrogenated margarine)
1 Tbsp powdered onion
Dried herbs
1 tsp tomato paste
1/2 cup cooked potato
1/2 tsp Marmite (a thick, black yeast extract - very salty)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 TBSP water
Blend all ingredients thoroughly and refrigerate.
Makes a very smooth and delicious pate for crackers or toast. Happy eating!

Hi there,

I was looking for a Tartex recipe in English first and found your forum. Then I switched to German (lucky me) and found one, so I thought, I will share the recipe with you. Hope you will like it:

75 g soft Butter
25 g grinded sunsflower seeds (don't grind in the grinder, take a hand blender or Mr. Magic od. Krups Speedy), roast lightly before.
1 teaspoon Native Soblu-oil
Salt + Pepper
Pinch sweet Paprika powder
1/2 od. 1/4 small onion, not too much, finely diced
1 teaspoon parsley or basil, finely diced

Or this one with yeast:

Finely dice one onion and approx. 100g butter cup mushrooms. Fry them in 25g of butter or margarine. Add herbs, parsley, oregano (fresh or dried) and add another 25g of butter or margarine and let it melt.
Dissolve 20g fresh yeast in 250ml vegetable stock.
Add 4 Tablespoons to the mushrooms, stir, add the yeast stock and let it boil again.
If you want a fine paste you can use your hand blender. Fill the paste into a jar and cover it and keep it in the fridge.

Hope you like the recipes.

Kind regards

Prinz Jussuf