Welcome to the wagon train. It's a hard journey but I know you can make it. Pioneers have been taking this journey for years now and you are just as strong as them. Can you hear the creak of the wagon and the turning, grinding wheels. The horse's heavy breathing and the monotonous plod of the hoofbeats have gone on for so long you can hear it even when we're not moving. Round and round the wheels go and the hooves go plodding through the dust hour after hour, day after day. You can smell the leather and the canvas and the horses. Is the sun so hot that you can just feel it baking your skin and bleaching your hair? Is the taste of that lukewarm water you got at the last creek getting stale? Even so its soothing to your parched lips and tongue. Right about now you probably feel dusty and grimy from hours of riding from sunup to sundown. There's nothing to do but watch the road which is more of an endless overgrown trail with ruts and bumps where the other wagons have traveled before you. The scenery that was so bright and filled with hope back east is now just mile after endless mile of empty prairie.
Earlier one of the boys killed a rabbit that was startled by our passing. So tonight we will have fresh meat in the pot. Oh how good that stew will be. The bread and salt pork from breakfast and lunch are long gone and the evening camp can't get here soon enough. So hungry and tired but just a little further today.
Every bone and muscle in your body must be sore and aching. I know its all I can do at night to get cleaned up a bit after supper and dishes and laundry before falling on my pallet and closing my eyes. Last night the wolves howled so close that sleep was restless. Today I'm feeling poorly since we left at daybreak with nary a break before a lunch of cold salt pork and leftover bread.
There! Up ahead, it looks like the first wagons are stopping for the day and setting up camp. Soon enough we will stop too and start the campfire and coffee first thing. Then we can pull out the sour bread starter and set the bread to rise for supper with enough leftover for tomorrow's breakfast and lunch. Oh how I long to rest first. What I wouldn't give to bathe and wash the days' grime from my hair and skin as all the aching muscles quit pounding and throbbing from the wagon ride . Oh please, Just a short nap and a stretch before work? But no, too much to do. Too far to travel. We have made it too far to get lazy now.
The boys ran ahead to stretch their long legs and gather some wood and water. Soon they will have the fire ready. We had best get along and work the bread. Here right in this wooden box is the precious crock of starter and the sack of flour right beside it. Get the iron pot there. Grab the beans too. Drain the water they've been soaking in while we traveled. As soon as the rabbit is cleaned and started browning we will add the beans and a few of these potatoes to the stew.
Careful with the starter now. It's been in the family for years. I used that same starter as a child learning to make bread by mamas elbow. First stir the liquid back in. Then measure some out and add it to the wooden board. Now before we do anything else we HAVE to add flour back to the starter and put it away. Stir it in there now. Cover the crock. Gently, gently put it back in the box until tomorrow night.
Now pull that board over here and lets make some bread. Doesn't that starter smell good. So yeasty and full of goodness isn't it? Add some flour now. Don't be scared you can't mess it up. Just work that flour in there and when its done you'll FEEL it. See how nice and smooth it is now? Lets let it rest a bit here under the towel while we tend to the stew.
We are blessed to have both a large pot and a covered Dutch oven. While the stew cooks we can also cook the bread. Ida over there has corn pone 'most every night because she just has the skillet and a big iron pot. With all your help we have the stew cooking already as it hangs over the fire. It can cook a long while and its ok because we have other chores and the others won't be ready to eat for a while. Now we just have to knead the dough and let it rise. Then we can put it in the fire to bake.
There you go. The coals have died down. The stew is beginning to bubble nicely and the bread is ready to bake. Nestle it down in the coals there. Add some coals to the lid so the top of the bread browns too. We can clean up a bit. Oh, that bread smells so good. I think I feel much better already and maybe after evening chores I may stay up and enjoy the music and fire before bedtime after all......
I hope you enjoyed that little glimpse into the past. I can't say that its absolutely accurate but its how I imagine life must have been some days on that long ago trail. Why in the world did it take all that just to get to my point today? Well, if you've ever looked up recipes for sour dough starter you would have seen that they ALL say to store it in the refrigerator. I don't know but somehow I'm pretty sure that the pioneers didn't drag along a refrigerator or a cooler while they were going across country. Modern yeast would not have been available. It took many, many months for them to travel and they took their sour dough starters with them. When you think about it they had to have done something to keep the sour dough starter alive. The only logical answer is that they USED it every day or two and they fed it afterwards.
I have a sour dough starter that is almost 9 years old. Prior to that I had starter of varying ages but I know one was at least 15 years old. Those starters were never refrigerated until I moved. It was then that those starters died on me. The reason they died was because I neglected them. A pioneer would have baked bread every single day. It was a staple of their diet. It was a daily chore no matter what. So every day a part of the starter was removed and then the remaining starter was fed. The secret then to keeping a starter is not refrigeration at all but baking bread with it.
You're probably wondering why bother. It seems like so much work when I can just bake bread with yeast or better yet buy bread. It's true that you can do that BUT you need to know that eventually yeast loses its ability to make bread rise. The older the yeast the bigger chance that it won't work. Part of your food storage should be yeast and for now it should be stored in your freezer. You can start some sour dough now and bake bread with it to keep it alive or you can actually start one when you really NEED a starter later. That yeast in the freezer will last a long time while its in there and if you lose the ability to keep it frozen then it will last a while without refrigeration. Before it goes bad and if yeast is unavailable in the stores then you will want to have a starter ready.
Now, I love sour dough bread and I keep a starter going all the time on the counter. It stays in a large ceramic cheese crock with a bale type lid. There are alot of ways to start a sour dough starter and I will give directions below. It's a good idea to keep those directions and recipes for later but also you NEED to practice making the bread (cakes, pancakes etc) now so that you're not learning later under stress. You don't have to keep a never ending starter if you don't want to but do make one soon and practice. You may find that you like it and just like me you will keep that crock of yeasty goodness going.
Here are a few different ways to make your own sourdough starter. You can make one with just flour and water and let the mixture sit out to collect its own yeast if you want to also. You can choose whichever starter recipe you want or try several as they each have a slightly different flavor.
Basic starter:
2 cups water
1 tsp yeast
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
Yogurt starter:
1/2 cup non fat milk
1 and 1/2 cups plain yogurt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp yeast
Potato starter:
2 cups water left over from boiling potatoes
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp yeast
Beer starter:
2 cups flat beer
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp yeast.
Rye or whole wheat starter:
2 cups water
2 cups rye or whole wheat flour
1 tsp yeast
Prepare all the starters the same way. Mix all the ingredients for the starter you choose in a glass or stoneware bowl. Use a bowl big enough for the starter to expand. Stir until smooth. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Place in a warm spot for 5 days, remembering to stir twice a day. the starter should have bubbles on the surface and smell slightly sour and yeasty. It is now ready to use but as it ages the flavor will deepen and improve. If liquid forms on top of your starter just stir it back in before using. Remove one cup of starter to use in your recipe. Now you have To feed the remaining starter by adding 1 cup of water and 1 cup of flour. Stir until smooth. You can continue to do this and keep the starter going for years and years. If you are unable to use it to make bread every week then you still have to remove a cup of starter and feed the rest. You can then give the starter you removed to a friend or start a new second batch for yourself. If it ever gets strange colored mold then your starter probably died and needs to be discarded. I keep my starters in an extra large cheese crock with a bale top lid.
You can use sour dough starter to make breads, pancakes, waffles and many other baked goods.
Here is a basic recipe for pancakes:
1 cup sourdough starter
1 and 1/2 cup milk
2 cups all purpose flour
1 egg
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
The night before place starter in a bowl and stir in the milk and half the flour. Cover and refrigerate. In the morning beat in the remaining ingredients. Pour 1/4 cup full on a hot greased griddle. Cook as you would any pancake flipping when the top bubbles and the edges begin to get dry. Makes about 12 pancakes.
Enjoy.
Southern Wood Elf