Hairy one, cake yeast is about 1/2 inch by 3inches by 1 1/2 inches, I bet to save money they put a little bit in a bowl, added a bit of sugar, flour and water and let it grow and multiply before making the bread. This will work but it takes hours, but since they had lots of time, not a problem. I vary the amount of yeast often by the time I have to wait fer it to rise. Recipes are not written in stone, a bit of knowledge of how things work are how new ones are made. When one uses a small amount of yeast, ya don't have to wory about yer bread taking over the kitchen or a State Historical Park.
FEB. Just eat the stuff I post, not that nasty fast food and ya should do fine. Thats about all I eat and I'm large, but not really fat. 6'2'' and about 225.
Couse if ya need an "Old West Diet" I can give ya one, but my Native American friends must forgive me.
Lakota Diet:
Eat plenty of buffalo meat, don't steal to much corn and beans from the Pawnee, don't trade fer any flour with the whites.
And they thought that low-carb guy was modern.