I received some Carl Griffith 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough starter crumbs
from Charles Perry day before yesterday, and last night successfully
baked my first loaf of bread with it. Overall it was a smashing success,
but the bread did not turn out sour. Here's what happened:

I sent of a SASE37 return envelope for sourdough starter as explained at
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/, and received ordered the little zip-
lock bag with a couple teaspoons of starter by return mail in about 2
weeks.

The crumbs were rock-hard, apparently made by letting a cookie sheet of
a thin layer of starter dry over several days, then breaking it up in a
food processor.

I tried breaking the starter down in a little water, but it was so hard,
I put it with flour, water, and honey into a beaker and tore into it
with a wand mixer till it was nice and smooth. Then I added some more
flour and water (total about a cup of flour and enough water to make it
resemble thick pancake batter), smoothed it with the wand, and set the
whole thing aside in a plastic pitcher to work its magic.

I live on the West Coast of Central Florida, so the temperatures and
humidity are typically high, and my condo is not kept cold. Yesterday
it was cool out (high 50's to low 60's), and mid 70's inside.

In the first couple of hours, I did not see much change in the starter,
but a few bubbles were forming on the top. I was not sure whether that
had come from the mixing process. Within 4 hours, it was bubbling
nicely.

Impatient, I added a cup of the starter to a King Arthur Flour whole
wheat bread baker's yeast recipe. It called for 3 1/2 cups of whole
wheat flour. I used 2 cups plus 1 1/2 cups of white KA bread flour, 1
1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 cup molasses, 1/4 cup olive oil, and some water. The
recipe wanted 1 1/3 cup water, but because the starter contained liquid,
I cut back to about a cup.

I used my mixer with dough hook to nead the stuff. It was very thick,
so I added a quarter cup more water. I left it a bit sticky, so it did
not pull cleanly away from the sides of the bowl at the end of 7 minutes
of kneading. I turned it out into a freshly oiled bowl and covered it.

In half an hour, I checked it and discovered that it had not risen at
all, as far as I could tell. That worried me. I have ruined a lot of
bread in the past by allowing it to rise till double, then punching it
down, forming loaves, and learning it would barely rise at all over many
hours. Baking such loaves yields a very dense bread.

I suspected I was headed in the same direction, so I omitted any further
rising. I patted the dough flat in a 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 bread pan (it
consumed just over half the space), covered it with plastic wrap, and
set the pan in the oven with the light on at about noon.

I worried over it and checked it throughout the afternoon, wondering if
it would rise at all. For 3 or 4 hours there was little noticeable
rising. Then finally it started upward. After 8 hours it was well
above the rim of the pan.

At 9 PM I removed the plastic wrap, and tried to cut a slash in the top.
I am seldom able successfully to slash the top. The dough was quite
sticky and seemed to grab the knife edge. Instead, I snipped a gouge
lengthwise in the top with kitchen shears. Then put it in the oven,
turned on the heat, and set the temp for 350.

I normally preheat the oven, and the recipe called for it. But I could
see no real reason for it, and I was impatient. After 25 minutes, the
loaf was browning nicely, and I tented it with aluminum foil to keep it
from burning. In another 20 minutes, I removed it, rolled it out onto a
rack, and let it cool down. The crust was nice and hard.

20 minutes later, my wife insisted I cut her a slice, so sawed off a
couple and buttered them, giving the end to her. The texture was even,
the smell sumptuous, and the crust crackly. We loved it.

But it wasn't sour at all, not that I could tell. I'm guessing that the
bacteria were killed by the starter drying process, and somehow have to
grow all over again, but I really don't know. I figure 9 rise hours
should be sufficient time to get a little sourness,

Today I'll try the refrigerator rise method. Maybe the bacteria will
grow better at 40 degrees than at 95.

A few days ago my wife found bread flour in Albertson's @ $1.40 per 5
pound bag. Thank goodness it's cheap. Looks like I'll be going through
a lot of it, feeding this starter and baking trial loaves.


Thanks, Charles Perry for sending me the starter crumbs, and thanks Carl
Griffith for keeping the Oregon Trail starter tradition alive.

Jugito