Sourdough
Sourdough has been around for thousands of years. Before the invention of yeast, this was a natural yeast to make the bread rise. The starter recipe is pretty simple. You take 2 cups of flour, 2 cups lukewarm water, add 1 teaspoon of sugar or a half of a small potato, mix it up, cover with a thin cloth and done. Now there are a few basic rules you must abide by. You cannot use any metal, bowl, spoon etc. The best vessel is a ceramic crock with a wooden spoon. You can also use a glass vessel and a plastic spoon. Ceramic works best and if you have a lid even better. Especially during warmer months you will want to store it in the fridge if you do not use it every day or 2. You can speed up the process of the sponge being ready by adding 1 package of yeast to the mixture, not necessary but it will give you a usable product sooner. Once you have mixed it all together, set in a warmish place and cover with a thin dish towel or cloth. Every day for 5 days, take out one cup of mixture (sponge) and add back in 1 cup of flour and one cup of lukewarm water and stir it in to the existing mixture. When cleaning the crock and wooden spoon never use soap, just rinse well with water.
As it starts to ferment into sourdough it will bubble and rise, once it starts to smell like sourdough it is ready to use. If you do not use it every day or 2 you will need to store it in the fridge with a lid on it. If you use a jar, do not screw the lid on tight as it is a living thing so will need some air. Take it out the day before you want to use it, let it warm up then stir and feed, which means add more flour and water. When it sits for a while it will get a liquor on the top that looks clear to a tint of green, you simply stir this back into the mixture and it should bubble up a little.
We will be adding more recipes soon, but you can add this to breads, pancakes, corn bread, biscuits, hush puppies, doughnuts. It’s not endless what you can add it to but there is a lot of different things that will benefit from it.
I have added in photos from a cookbook from Northern Arizona Ranches with a couple sourdough starters and a couple recipes. The story on Wayne Word is spot on, I know because he is my neighbor and have talked with him a lot. A few years back he was at one of the chuck wagon cook offs that we were participating in looking for a wagon cook for the ORO. I talked with him about the job but I was living out of state at the time and just was bad timing but always thought it would have been a great experience. We will get a story on Wayne soon. He was born at Phantom Ranch, not many people can say that.
Good luck with your starter and let us know how it comes out and what you use it in. If you tend it lovingly it will virtually last forever, there are starters out there that are hundreds of years old that have been past down through the ages. Having a good sourdough is a badge of honor for some folks so take care of it. The old wagon cooks used to take it to bed with them to protect it from the cold, critters and the other cowboys. If he lost his starter there were no biscuits for the meals and he was in big trouble with the lot if he did not make biscuits at every meal.
We always look for cookbooks that are from Arizona and this is a good one with lots of stories and funny quotes. Pictured is our crock and sponge. We keep about 4 cups ready, that is plenty for most recipes, but if you have a big crowd you may want to bump it up to 6-8 cups, you don’t want to use it all, always keep a cup to add to. Enjoy and good luck.
