I came across Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter when I googled
sourdough starter. I was looking for a starter recipe that did'nt contain
rye. (Rye is expensive and hard to find; and I'm cheap and lazy.)

Friends of Carl will send the starter, without cost, to anyone who
requests it. People on "rec.food.sourdough" talk favorablely about the
starter. Do a "find" in NG and pull up some old posts. Here's one of them:
"Well, Carl has passed on to that great bakery in the sky, but his starter
is
still available, thanks to Carl's friends.
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/
Carl's is a great starter, I use it weekly"

So I sent a 41 cent self-address envelope to Jefferson MD yesterday and I'll
give it a try. Just one question: How will I know that Carl's 1847 Oregon
Trail Sourdough Starter is really 1847 and not 1849 or maybe even 1852
Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter. Don't you just hate it when people do
things like that.

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:54:57 -0700, Frank103 wrote:

> Just one question: How will I know that Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail
> Sourdough Starter is really 1847 and not 1849 or maybe even 1852 Oregon
> Trail Sourdough Starter. Don't you just hate it when people do things
> like that.

Yes you must pay attention to these types of details or else you will just
be taken advantage of.

As I understand, it the more accurately term for this starter is "The July
27th, 1847, around twoish starter". NOTE:Rounding this off to just the
year was started by fake-sters in the late 4PM period and continues to
this day.

To tell if you have the a genuine "Carl's TWOish" you should experience
any one or all of the following characteristics after making a bread from
this starter:

- A strong affinity towards mules
- Begin regarding family members and/or neighbors as a food source
- Yelling, "Are we there yet?!" every so often to everyone's embarrassment.
- A state of extra-ordinary confusion at the sight of any indoor plumbing
fixture
- A strong urge to pow-wow.

Be aware that this is an incomplete list.
Good Luck.

I was reading that gold miners when traveling from San Francisco to Alaska
in 1849 strapped pouches of sourdough starter to their stomach so as to
maintain the proper heat. Hence the term sourbellies. If I get the urge to
tape a jar of sourdough starter to my stomach and start walking north, I'll
know that it's 1849 sourdough starter and not Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail
starter. I never knew that making sourdough bread was so complicated.

"ZerkonX" > wrote in message
news
> On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:54:57 -0700, Frank103 wrote:
>
>> Just one question: How will I know that Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail
>> Sourdough Starter is really 1847 and not 1849 or maybe even 1852 Oregon
>> Trail Sourdough Starter. Don't you just hate it when people do things
>> like that.
>
> Yes you must pay attention to these types of details or else you will just
> be taken advantage of.
>
> As I understand, it the more accurately term for this starter is "The July
> 27th, 1847, around twoish starter". NOTE:Rounding this off to just the
> year was started by fake-sters in the late 4PM period and continues to
> this day.
>
> To tell if you have the a genuine "Carl's TWOish" you should experience
> any one or all of the following characteristics after making a bread from
> this starter:
>
> - A strong affinity towards mules
> - Begin regarding family members and/or neighbors as a food source
> - Yelling, "Are we there yet?!" every so often to everyone's
> embarrassment.
> - A state of extra-ordinary confusion at the sight of any indoor plumbing
> fixture
> - A strong urge to pow-wow.
>
> Be aware that this is an incomplete list.
> Good Luck.
>
>
>
>
>