My Bread News

[Larry Greenly]

I recently traded for some Tennessee sourdough starter and made some sourdough waffles last Sunday. Yum. That makes about six different starters I have.

Today, I bought some Montina Pure Baking Supplement, which is a gluten-free flour made from Indian Rice Grass (the state grass of Utah). It's high in fiber and protein. I'll give you a report when I use some in my next breadmaking effort.

[Jenise]

Larry, we had sourdough pancakes a few weekends ago made from a starter that it's owner has had going since 1957. She got it from another military wife in Libya, and this starter has travelled wherever the Air Force sent them since and she remains "under orders" to make sourdough pancakes every single Sunday. She's 85. Amazing history some of those starters can have.

It must be a lot of work keeping all those starters alive.

[Larry Greenly]

It must be a lot of work keeping all those starters alive.

Not really. All I have to do is feed them once in a while. And all it takes, really, is just one live yeast cell.

Concerning the Libyan starter: is it from Libya or was it taken there from somewhere else?

[Jenise]

It wasn't Libyan in origin, just one that was given her by someone who brought it with them from the U.S. I might have my stories mixed up, but the giver of it might have been the original Heloise (of newspaper column fame) who was a military wife. Heloise gave Stella either that starter or her pot roast recipe.

[Larry Greenly]

Hello Larry and Jenise,

One horrible bread story. This bread company in Rochester I think made bread for generations from the same starter over one hundred and fifty years. Then the owners at the time went on vacation and the person who was supposed to take care of the yeast did not and all the yeast died. Bottom line, the bread was dead, it never tasted the same again.

Similar story: aggrieved employee tosses all the firm's starter into the alley. But the owners were able to recover a little bit to start over.

Another possibly apocryphal story: My "Red Ryder" sourdough starter was given to me by the actor. He originally got it years ago from someone who was a prospector in the Klondike in the 1890s. The prospector's mule, which was carrying the sourdough starter, slipped off the trail and was killed.

It took some time to get down to the dead mule and all that was left of the starter was a smear on its cheek. The prospector reconstituted the starter from that.

It's a great story, whether it's true or not.