Just one more truely delightful blessing

I tried a recipe for sourdough waffles that were 'meh'.

I'd be willing to try again.

like the raft of fables & tales of wisdom accompanying the Cast Iron cookery fans, 'sour dough' has a large & generally difficult to verify body of well intended speculation that guides, more or less.

Over the decades I've experimented with a variety of theories, and find personal satisfaction and delight requires a certain diligence and focus on desired results.

Like all theory, results is in the observed phenomena. Today I had perfect sourdough pancakes.

Given 'how really easy' nurturing a sour-dough starter is, given the outstanding results, plain pan cakes simply aren't worth the effort.

Just finished our Sunday morning ritual, sourdough hotcakes; in this case, blueberry sourdough hotcakes.

I've had a jug of sourdough for a long, long time.

quote:

I've had a jug of sourdough for a long, long time.

excellent
my own today (cakes, not starter jug) was augmented by a newly discovered treat of a commercial 'huckleberry-honey' bear found in specialty shop on the coast.

Here's one source for a touch of fact:
http://www.thekitchn.com/food-...t-is-sourdough-47960

My own starter is 4th generation (human generation) out of the Salmon River country on the Idaho-Montana border.

Starter requires a bit of care & understanding but will feed a family very well for decades.

My wife used to make them. Really delicious!

My late wife used to make them. Her sour dough was 4 generations old, and she guarded it with her life!! When we moved, the starter dough road in the car in a cooler, and was checked on frequently. Miss Patti made bread, and other items from this sour dough. It brings back very pleasant memories.

I thought this thread was about holsters....

No, don't like my pancakes sour.

quote:

Originally posted by chessiedog1:
No, don't like my pancakes sour.

Apparently, you've never actually had them

Yes! My dad would make sourdough pancakes for Sunday breakfast a couple times a month when we were kids. Normally served with spicy linguica sausage... so good!

I can't get enough of our homemade sour dough pancakes! "Regular" pancakes pale in comparison.

Using soda water for waffles is another fav family culinary trick.

Somebody post a recipe already!

quote:

Originally posted by rangemaster:
Somebody post a recipe already!

There's 2 basic ways for this:

1) buy a commercial 'sour dough starter kit';
2) get a starter from friend/family and learn how to feed it from them;

I've tried several commercial products over the years but was not satisfied.

Best tip: ask your buddy-group for a starter.

Recent experimentation with my own has also demonstrated 'what you feed the starter' really affects the quality/flavor of the dough.

A friend that went to cooking school long ago tells me the French refer to such as "le sponge"....and indeed, properly up & ready for use, there is ample spongy bulkiness to the dough.

A little reading is a delight and very informative, as nearly every sour dough source I've read really remind of the subtle intrusion of personal bias into the Rules of Sour Dough; not unlike the Rules of Cast Iron or the Rules of Caliber. My response is to pick a method that appeals, try it out, and modify as needed.

I tried the 'native air borne organism' route; it was not productive of what I wanted.

Hint on starter care: yes, you must feed/renew it with some regularity or it dies.

I keep a small glass jar refrigerated about half-full ready for the next assignment. If unused for more than a few weeks, there is a supernatant fluid forming above the solids that fall to the bottom, which becomes ever more dark as the environment needed to support the living sponge begins to deteriorate. Up to a point the starter can be recovered; past a certain point there is no salvage. Using/renewing my started at least weekly keeps it vigorous and delicious.

I regard 'the sponge' as a type of living colony similar to such foods as cultured buttermilk or even yogurt. The consistency of the sponge and the flavor of the pan cakes can be altered within a range, to produce a most enjoyable breakfast.

Proper sponge produces a pan cake of far more enjoyment than mere dough on a hot surface. YMMV.

I don't know that I've had sourdough pancakes, but we do make pancakes with milk kefir (Russian Oladi pancakes) which are probably very similar to sourdough pancakes. The kefir is homemade. We don't even make other types of pancakes anymore.

Best for the living organism to live in a crock pot--it needs to breathe and glass doesn't.

Best results by using at least weekly. If, for whatever reason, I don't take the jug out, bring it up to room temperature, feed it and mix up a batch for next day's use, it tends to decrease in activity and isn't as good until the next week.

If you know you're not going to use your sourdough for an extended period of time, just freeze your starter--also a good way to pass on a start to friends and family.

I've never heard of "generations" of sourdough starter. Yesterday, was our 34th wedding anniversary and I had my sourdough when I met my wife. I owe a lot to Chet, who gave me my starter. In addition to teaching me about sourdough, he also taught me to pack horses and mules and to shoe. If I didn't know how to shoe, I wouldn't have been hired on at the dude ranch where I met my wife.

Signewt seems to approach sourdough a bit more scientifically than I do. Chet once told me, "The secret of sourdough is 'don't measure nuthin'." Hence, all these years I've poured a mound of sugar into the jug when mixing up the night before use. The next day I pour a similar mound of sugar into the starter in the bowl, pour a small mound of baking soda into the palm of my left hand and toss that in the bowl. Add a smaller amount of salt from my hand, a jag of oil or melted butter, and a couple splashes of milk along with an egg (assuming one batch). That's it for hotcakes. NEVER put a metal spoon into your starter. Don't know if that's science or superstition, but I wouldn't think of doing it--cuz Chet said not to.

Internet search will show you several methods of getting your starter going; I assume they work.

p.s. I can give you closer approximations for my pinches, mounds, and splashes, if you're really interested.

TMats:

thanks for the tips, agree there is considerable variables between batches that work;

the 'generations' I refer to is not of the sourdough itself, but of the families from which it came. Significant to me at least, in the notion along the way someone managed to infuse some bacterial strain, that has survived many opportunities to have been ruined but somehow lived to fuel another batch. That your granny used is certainly a plus, but if her granny used the same batch, that's extra promising.

Great point about feeding the starter for overnight to use following day. And remember to put a share of that new batch into your container for the next batch, or the home Sourdough Tribe ends suddenly.

I've never used kefir as suggested above, but have tried the cultured buttermilk. IMHO 'le sponge' benefits from the actual changes to the flour/ingredients due to metabolic activity of the bacteria strain(s) than any mere flavor added to the mix.

The best sour dough cookery I've ever had personally, was hand built by 'Ed' our ancient elk camp buddy, who carried his starter in a cue-ball size wad of starter dough, sitting like a pearl in the top portion of his antique flour-bin tin. He'd mix up and mush the starter around in a little bowl-shaped depression in the top surface of contents of the flour tin, much like a stirring bowl. It's semi solid surface was the pure shape in the flour alone, left after taking so many meals out of that very tin.
My own granny had a similar flour tin, a round about large skillet diameter and maybe 24" tall or so. Handy enough to use & move about, yet large enough to have a decent flour stash on hand.
He used 'pinches' and 'mounds' and 'splashes' as well, demonstrating his skill and experience. His 'dinner biscuit' differed from his 'breakfast biscuit' differed from his 'pan cakes' differed from his 'fry dough' only by a bit of splashes and pinches, all mixed up by hand in his portable flour bowl.

quote:

Great point about feeding the starter for overnight to use following day. And remember to put a share of that new batch into your container for the next batch, or the home Sourdough Tribe ends suddenly.

I'm not clear on this point, Newt, because the "new batch" is mixed in my jug. I just remove what I need from the jug and pour it into say, a bowl. The remainder just stays in the jug (sourdough crock) and goes back into the refrigerator.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TMats,

quote:

I just remove what I need from the jug and pour it into say, a bowl. The remainder just stays in the jug (sourdough crock) and goes back into the refrigerator.

The wife takes the bulk of our starter the night before, and mixes up a 'new batch' letting it set out overnight. Her job is done except waiting for the pan cakes in the morning.

The next morning before adding in the other stuff, I take out a 1/2 cup & put back in our starter jar, where it works slowly for next time, usually next weekend. I add our little mix of particulars & cook up the pan cakes.

I'd never considered a crock jug, that sounds pretty handy along with being a bit more in line with my trace OCD traits. Photo/describe would be appreciated.

Will do