[Sca-cooks] Wild Yeast (longish and somewhat OOP) : was 'rich yeasted cake'

[Olwen the Odd]

How does one get the real sour sourbread?  I really like the bite of a good sourdough bread.

Olwen


> 
> I don't like referring to the starter yeast I use as 'sourdough' because mine is not 'sour'. I've tried 'sourdough' starter (think San Francisco Sourdough Bread), but my family does not care for the taste so I don't make it.
> 
> The starter I use is a part of the culture (in both senses) carried across the plains in covered wagons (for more information google 'Oregon Trail Starter'). It has been growing in a continuous way since 1850 (at least). Anybody who wants a dry batch can either get it online or let me know and I will make up a batch, dry it and send it. Lots of folks have started their own quite successfully from scratch, and I have done some of that too (instructions are available online, just google 'sourdough starter' for more links than you ever thought possible on the subject). I have also used ale barm from experiments in brewing (though not lately). I have contemplated growing some starter from packaged ale yeast without the ale making process (hmn ... I will be passing by the brew shop on my way to the VA tomorrow .....). 
> 
> Some folks feed theirs with potato water (that water left after boiling potatoes). Some just add water and flour (what I do). I have not fed mine on malt syrup yet but I plan to give it a try.
> 
> I've never completely lost the batch but if ever I do I have several friends locally whom I have corrupted into the bread making fanatics and so I guess I just never worried about it.
> 
> I keep my starter in a jar in the fridge and have let it be idle for MONTHS in summer (yes ... I am a BAD yeast mommy). When the starter has been dormant for a while it takes a little longer to bring it back to life is all. Of course this time of year when I am baking bread a lot, I often overwork the poor little yeastiebeasties and the starter sits bubbling away happily on the counter above the heater vent that serves the kitchen.
> 
> The most difficult part of using that vent as my source of gentle heat is when I set up a chair in front of the heat vent (old house ... vent is on the wall about 20 inches up) the cat thinks it is a nice warm place for kitty naps and is quite indignant when she is evicted in preference to the chair with the bowl with the risings in it.
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> Cheers
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> Malkin
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> Jo (Georgia L.) Foster
> 
> Never knock on Death's door.
> Ring the doorbell and run ... he hates that.
> 
> I don't want to set the world on fire, I'm just trying to light a candle.
> 
> 
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