[Sca-cooks] Sourdough

[Etain1263 at aol.com]

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  Last year at Pennsic XXX, I did a bit of sourdough experimentation.  The
first week it was terribly hot..and I made a starter according to one of the
recipes in the florilegium.  I did use a bit of commercial yeast.   I had no
fire pit at the time...so I just fed and watered it for a week (with water I
brought from home!).  By the time I got my firepit dug (with a nifty little
round sidehole to put the dutch oven in)...I started making bread.  I found
out that you can't start in the am and expect to get bread for dinner and
still go to class!  It invariably blows up too high and collapses by the time
you want to bake it!  I did not have any trouble getting a nice sour starter,
though.  I just had it sitting, covered, on the table under the food tent. I
think I also wetted down a dish towel and draped it over during the hottest
part of the day.
     I found that makeing the bread the night before and letting it rise
during the relative cool of the night was a bit better.  I didn't have any
trouble baking it.  The dutch oven worked fine.  I ended up not doing much
else, though because there were few people in my encampment and I had to keep
tending the fire since I couldn't let it go out.  It was nice to make a
roaring fire for the evening..and then bank the coals to use to bake in the
am!  (It was a BIG firepit.  The neighbors thought I was digging a grave when
I started!  LOL)
  No experimentation this year..couldn't be there.  8(     I did have better
luck controlling the rising/baking with "regular" yeast doughs.

Etain