Catching the wild yeast!

Oct. 14. 2014 -- The history of sourdough dates back to the dawn of modern records, some 6,000 years to the Egyptians, and the beginning of the leavening of bread and the brewing of beer and alcoholic beverages.

Sourdough has become highly popular all over the United States.  Old sourdough starters have two main origins in the States:  The Alaskan Gold Rush and the California Gold Rush.  Water is the base of the Alaskan starter; milk is the base of the California starter.  Old-time prospectors took their sourdough pot to bed at night so that their body heat would keep the mixture warm and working.  On long, cold journeys, they often wore it, thickened with flour, in a bag around their neck,

Sourdough is a nutritious food.  During the sourdough process, the sugar and starch convert lactic acid which gives it the sour odor and also creates usable protein,

I've been researching sourdough starter for the last three weeks.  It appears for every one who posts, there is a different "how-to," and many who try, fail--never to try again.  I have learned from all their posts and want to "try" for the sake of making a sourdough loaf of bread for many reasons.

Catching the Wild Yeast...

Recently, I tried making my own starter and it appeared to work well until the rising stage of the bread.  I baked it anyway just to see what the "crumb" of the sourdough bread looked like after baking.  It was just the way it should have turned out, but the dough did not rise properly (although it did rise some during baking) and, the bread was dense.  In the starter recipe, I used 1/4 cup all purpose flour, 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, and 1/2 cup bottled water, using half the amount to feed, each day over a 7 day period.  Those proportions affected the bread and it did not rise sufficiently.

This time, I'm doing it two ways:   First, I'll be making my own homemade starter again, just differently. changing to my new--Day 1, to:  1/4 cup bottled water (about 2.41 liquid oz) to 1/2 cup whole wheat flour.

Second way is to use an old-time recipe.  I want to re-create the wonderful tangy flavor in the old fashioned art of sourdough making by using a secret gold prospector's (miner's) recipe that we bought at a country auction about five decades ago in a small town in upstate New York, of all places...when I was a young teenager.  How it made it's way North, I will never know.  But, my guess is it came out of Alaska down through Canada and into New York State.  The recipe telling how to ferment a sourdough culture and make a loaf of bread from it, has just laid around in my old scrapbook while I worked outside the home until I had time to be at home to work with it.  Hopefully, the recipe will turn out a very unique, tasty, and delicious sourdough bread loaf.

October 15.  I'll start the first way today, and keep you posted, as I go.