Tonight's dinner - authentic sourdough flapjacks

[Gunner3456]

Served with genuine maple syrup (Costco) and real butter and a cold glass of milk.

Nothing's as sweet and tender as sourdough. It "feeds" on the flour and consumes the gluten...

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[Mutoman]

Thems some fancy servin' ware for all them flapjacks.

 

[Silver Fox]

Dang I am hungry!

SF-

 

[Gunner3456]

Thems some fancy servin' ware for all them flapjacks.

Hah. Talk to my wife about that. We have 30 place settings of that, no kidding. We also have a ton of serving dishes in it.

I don't really care for it and she loves it. Guess who won, LOL. Naw, I don't care. I don't choose her dishes and she doesn't choose my guns and ammo.

 

[Trlsmn]

Nice dinner! and nice dinnerware!

 

[Gunner3456]

Nice dinner! and nice dinnerware!

Thanks. Wife's in The Dalles visiting the kids this week and I'm on my own. I still have to use her ("our") dishes. No choice.

 

[Trlsmn]

Thanks. Wife's in The Dalles visiting the kids this week and I'm on my own. I still have to use her ("our") dishes. No choice.

I hear you! Us guys can eat soup out of old margarine tubs and be just as happy! Women will never understand.

 

[Bello425]

Where's the meat? I've never heard of sourdough pancakes. Mix or from scratch?

 

[Gunner3456]

Where's the meat? I've never heard of sourdough pancakes. Mix or from scratch?

I didn't take the time to cook meat. This was the first time in a couple of years that I made sourdough so I was kind of engrossed in it. I've had this starter and used it off and on since the early '70's.

You make it from scratch with sourdough starter which is a type (special strain) of yeast. You put the starter (live culture) in with flour and water and let it work. The sourdough "eats" the flour and softens it, and causes it to rise or bubble up in the case of pancake batter. Once that's ready, you add the salt, sugar, oil, egg, milk, baking soda, etc. and stir it and cook them on the griddle. They are the most tender, sweetest pancakes I've ever eaten.

You can also of course make anything from bread to coffee cake with sourdough, depending on how you use it.

You can also make "survival" bread with it using just the starter, flour and water. If you have some salt and sugar, so much the better.

This stuff traveled with the wagon trains. It came from old Europe. It was in the colonies. The trappers, mountain men, and the 49's all used it. It was in the cabins of the early settlers.

This is the real deal.

 

[jordanka16]

I love sourdough, I have 2 different kinds of starter on hand for making different types of bread. If Gunner3456 doesn't mind I can post my recipe for making a sourdough starter for you guys, unless he has one of his own to post that is.

 

[Gunner3456]

I love sourdough, I have 2 different kinds of starter on hand for making different types of bread. If Gunner3456 doesn't mind I can post my recipe for making a sourdough starter for you guys, unless he has one of his own to post that is.

I don't mind at all. That confuses me though. Sourdough starter is yeast. There are thousands of varieties of yeast and each imparts its own flavor and behavior to the batch. The particular strain which was prevalent in the Old West and even before that in the Colonies, and which came from the Old World Europe has been preserved and passed down by thousands of people for hundreds of years. You don't make it, you get a jag of it from someone and inoculate your own flour and water mix with it, let it grow, and preserve it perpetually for your own use.

It softens the flour by consuming the gluten, and causes it to rise, and gives a mild but distinctive flavor.

I'm a bit befuddled as to how you can "make" that. ?? The modern starter that's made from store-bought yeast which people have served me doesn't come close in action or flavor.

I would be happy to share my starter with anyone who truly wants to use it and who will promise to keep it going and to share it with others. I think it's the ultimate survival food for anyone who has wheat, and I think wheat is the ultimate survival food.

You can make bread with just the starter, flour, and water. If you have some sugar and/or salt that's even better but you don't need it for sustenance. This is what the trappers and the mountain men and the gold rush camps and the colonies and the "little house on the prairie" used. This is what's been used for hundreds or maybe thousands of years before there was refrigeration or a corner grocery store.

$.02

 

[jordanka16]

You can make it, you just mix flour and water and leave it sitting out, you just need the correct proportions of water to flour is all, and using the correct flour helps get a strong culture.

4.8 oz of whole-rye flour 100%
6 oz of water 125%
.2 oz of honey 3.3%

Mix everything well, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in a 75 to 80 degree area for 24 hours.


In 24 hours you need to "feed" the culture by mixing some of the initial mix with new flour and water.

5.5 oz of the initial mix 111%
1.2 oz of whole rye flour 50%
1.2 oz of AP or bread flour, UNBLEACHED! 50%
3 oz of water 125%

You need to do this twice on day 2, once every 12 hours. And make sure it's covered with plastic and left in a warm area. After 48 hours the mix should have a definite sourdough smell to it, it should smell pleasant and twangy.


At this point you need to feed it every 24 hours for about 5 days using this mix.

5.5 oz of initial mix 111%
2.4 oz AP or bread flour 50%
3 oz of water 125%


after a week of this procedure you can use the mix to make bread. You also do not need to keep so much of it, as the large amount we've been using is only to ensure it gets off to a good start, you can cut the amounts in half, keep in SEALED in a jar in the fridge, and feed it about once a week. I've got a good basic sourdough bread recipe I can post too, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

The neat thing about making your own culture is that it will have a distinct taste depending on where you live. Since there are thousands of strains of yeast, as Gunner said, every starter tastes a little different depending on what particular strain calls it home. I'd also love to get some of your culture Gunner, maybe we could trade

 

[Gunner3456]

So instead of using store bought yeast (which is at best a poor sourdough,) you're depending on the luck of the draw to get yeast spores out of the air with no idea what strain (and therefore flavor and behavior) you're getting, depending on "where you live" and also the time of year? Sorry, but no thanks.

The culture I have is a known and time tested culture. It also will keep for a year in a refrigerator without feeding and it will keep longer than that in a freezer. It needs to be freshened before use, of course. If left out at room temp it needs to be freshened (a small amount put into fresh flour and water) about once a month or before use.

It can also be dried for storage or shipping. Just pour a thin slurry of it (flour, water, active starter well established) on cookie sheets and let it dry. Crumble and store in paper envelopes. It will keep for a year at room temp and will reactivate when put into flour and water. I use 1 1/4 cups flour with 1 cup of 90 degree water and the starter. It takes 48 - 72 hours for it to initially grow into a cup or two of starter and after that just 12 hours to make a new batch for cooking from that starter.

 

[jordanka16]

It isn't the "luck of the draw", this is the way bakers start a culture. I don't know where you got your culture from, but odds are this is probably how it was done originally.

 

[Cougfan2]

I've always thought of the folks on this forum as relatively uncultured.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

 

[Gunner3456]

I've always thought of the folks on this forum as relatively uncultured.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

At least sour.

 

[Gunner3456]

It isn't the "luck of the draw", this is the way bakers start a culture. I don't know where you got your culture from, but odds are this is probably how it was done originally.

It's not just a specific culture (variety) of yeast, it's also dependent on a bacteria

Every yeast culture and different bacteria will alter the texture and the flavor.

With all due respect, you're relying on the luck of the draw.

FWIW, I don't care for "San Francisco" sourdough. I prefer sweet to that sour.

 

[Trlsmn]

I've always thought of the folks on this forum as relatively uncultured.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

It's the Lyeast you could do!

 

[jordanka16]

Every yeast culture and different bacteria will alter the texture and the flavor.

Yes, and that's what gives San Francisco sourdough its unique flavor, it's also what gives my starter it's unique flavor.

You could just order some of that starter and have the same as everyone else, but I like that mine's unique, and it works just as well as any other starter I've tried, and better than some. To each his own.

So... are you going to post a recipe for those pancakes?

 

[Gunner3456]

You can make it, you just mix flour and water and leave it sitting out, you just need the correct proportions of water to flour is all, and using the correct flour helps get a strong culture.

4.8 oz of whole-rye flour 100%
6 oz of water 125%
.2 oz of honey 3.3%

Mix everything well, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in a 75 to 80 degree area for 24 hours.


In 24 hours you need to "feed" the culture by mixing some of the initial mix with new flour and water.

5.5 oz of the initial mix 111%
1.2 oz of whole rye flour 50%
1.2 oz of AP or bread flour, UNBLEACHED! 50%
3 oz of water 125%

You need to do this twice on day 2, once every 12 hours. And make sure it's covered with plastic and left in a warm area. After 48 hours the mix should have a definite sourdough smell to it, it should smell pleasant and twangy.


At this point you need to feed it every 24 hours for about 5 days using this mix.

5.5 oz of initial mix 111%
2.4 oz AP or bread flour 50%
3 oz of water 125%


after a week of this procedure you can use the mix to make bread. You also do not need to keep so much of it, as the large amount we've been using is only to ensure it gets off to a good start, you can cut the amounts in half, keep in SEALED in a jar in the fridge, and feed it about once a week. I've got a good basic sourdough bread recipe I can post too, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

The neat thing about making your own culture is that it will have a distinct taste depending on where you live. Since there are thousands of strains of yeast, as Gunner said, every starter tastes a little different depending on what particular strain calls it home. I'd also love to get some of your culture Gunner, maybe we could trade

It isn't the "luck of the draw", this is the way bakers start a culture. I don't know where you got your culture from, but odds are this is probably how it was done originally.

With all due respect I wish you wouldn't threadjack.

I offered to share my old world starter which I've had since the early 1970's with anyone who'd like it, and right after that there's this method for making a "luck of the draw" sourdough which most likely also doesn't include the necessary bacteria for the added texture and flavor.

Please understand I'm not at all angry. I just have this special strain of starter which I know is more than 100 years old, and I know where it came from. I'm also kinda proud of it.