Old Fashioned Sourdough Pancakes, Sourdough Pancake Recipe:
During the Klondike gold rush of 1898, it was said that a real “Alaskan Sourdough” would just as soon spend a year in the hills without his rifle, as to tough it through without his bubbling sourdough pot. Since food was scare, food provisions were more valuable than gold. In extreme cold, miners would put the dough ball under their clothes, next to their skin, or tuck it into their bedroll with them at night, anything to keep it alive.
I made sourdough pancakes last weekend — not the various yeast-assisted recipes you see but real pioneer style flapjacks — and they were amazing. Light, a little chewy, with a very wholesome flavor, and so easy to make.
But first things first. You need sourdough starter. I have been meaning to post my experiments with this, but have been doing too much with it to write about it.
So this is actually two postings. Didn’t start out that way.
If you start this on a weekend and all goes well, you could be using it by the next weekend. But whatever happens, it will last as long as you feel like keeping it going.
There are approximately a bajillion methods to make sourdough starter. I’ve used a couple and I expect all of them work reasonably well. If you make your own, keep it simple: no sugar, no domesticated yeast. So that leaves flour as your main variable. Some recipes call for milk or potatoes/potato water. I’m inclined to keep it simple until I understand the processes involved. I used an organic rye flour since rye flour is very easily digested by yeasts, both wild and cultivated.
In a clean — sterile, as in rinse-with-boiling-water-and-heat-in-the-microwave-or-oven-sterile — jar (I use a 32 ounce peanut butter jar, of which I have several: the wide mouth helps with the measuring and stirring), put 1 cup (6 oz) organic rye flour and 1/2 cup water. Mix as smoothly as you can, cover loosely, and leave in a warm place but not in direct sun.
Within 2 days, you should see a change in the appearance of the unappealing gray blob as it rises a bit. Remove half of the mixture and add 1/2 cup unbleached white flour and 1/2 cup room temperature water. Stir til smooth, cover loosely, as before. You should catch an aroma that may vary from fruity to tangy, but never pungent or unpleasant.
This recipe calls for a more gradual approach to white-flour feeding, but I didn’t go that route. I continued with every other day feedings of 1/2 flour to 1/4 cup water until I had a starter that could expand to double or triple its volume in a few hours.
Once you have that, you can make anything you like, but for a substantial and easy breakfast, try putting 1 cup of starter, 1 cup of flour, and 1 cup of water in a bowl, and mix til smooth. Leave overnight, covered or in a safe place like an unlit oven.
The following day, measure out 2 cups of the resulting mixture (return the rest to your sourdough crock), and add 2 tbsp of sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 beaten egg, and 4 tbsp butter or oil.
When mixed and your griddle is hot enough to bounce water droplets across it, add 1 tsp baking soda to 1 tbsp water (enough to make a thin paste) and add that to the mixture, stir it in for a minute, and start dropping batter on the griddle.
They cook very quickly so don’t let your attention wander. Makes a dozen 4-6 inchers. Serve hot. Butter and maple syrup (please — not ‘pancake syrup’) or a good quality fruit preserve are the thing for these.
Rumor has it this adapts to waffles as well.
All starters (yeasts) live on sugar which, in most cases, must be added periodically to the flour and water mix. However, some starters include the enzyme which converts the starch in flour to sugar. In those starters, you don’t have to add sugar. Sourdough Jack’s cookbook (from the 70’s) included a dried start which didn’t need the added sugar. We used our starter for 30+ years, but lost it. We can’t seem to find it again.
Paul’s method captures whatever yeast is around either in the flour or in the “sterile” environment. It will work, but it’s hit or miss.
I have never found a need to add sugar: I simply add more flour and water. I wish I could say I had kept one for years, but I haven’t been so lucky. They get neglected for a week or so and become contaminated (if they are kept active, they can fight off infection, but when dormant, they are not so good at it).
I haven’t gotten around to starting a new one, but I have no worried about it’s success.
I am a third grade teacher who loves to bake. I have made Amish Cinnamon Bread which uses a starter, but never sourdough bread. I am doing a lesson on making this type of bread with my students so that they can experience making bread in much the same way the
49’s of San Fransico did it. I am working on my starter this weekend ( we are traveling to a water-powered mill for rye bread tomorrow) for my lesson 2 weeks from now. Do you have a recipe and /or any other hints for this venture? I am very excited about this lesson, and I was delighted to find this source of information. Please let me hear back from you so that I can share with my class.
Two weeks should give you enough time: with luck you can have a working starter in 4-5 days. In fact, I just grew a new one, since I had neglected the cultures I made previously, and have made perhaps a dozen loaves from it so far.
I believe I have a winner going. It is frothy and beginning to bubble. I’ll keep you posted and my class will access this site to view communication on the web. Thanks!
M. E.
I was a good friend of Sourdough Jack. He passed on all his equipment, his starter, all he had before he departed — and hoped his great Sourdough Starter would live on. I have shipped a couple of thousands Sourdough Jack’s Starter Kits. Am reprinting his books and have his sourdough starter kits if anyone is interested.
I would like a Sourdough Jack’s Starter Kit. please. :)
Wish I could help you, but I’m not the guy has the stuff: it’s easy enough to start your own, if you’re serious. -Ed
I was a kid when I bought my first (and only) Sourdough Jack kit in Bozeman, Montana. I kept it going for 10 years or so with the help of my hungry family but we lost both the book and the starter when we moved. Too bad, as it had ripened nicely over the years and I’ve never tasted anything close to it since. We made silver dollar pancakes, waffles and bread with that stuff, and it was soooo good I can’t even tell you! A miner would give up his claim for just one flapjack! Best with genuine Vermont maple syrup, of course. I would put it out on the pilot light after mixing up a big batch in a ceramic bowl covered with plastic wrap the night before cooking up some pancakes and in the morning a quarter bowl of goo would have fluffed up to the wrap and had it bulging. When the cooking spoon went in for a stir, you could smell that yeasty goodness and you just knew you were about to cook up something special on the cast iron griddle. We kept the starter going in one of those ceramic cheese crocks with the metal clamp across the top. I’ve been searching for the recipe book and some Sourdough Jack starter ever since, so if anyone knows how I can find these two items, I’d sure appreciate it!
Martin, are you out there? Save me!
Marcus
This is what I’m using: http://www.sourdoughhome.com/startermyway.html
Martin, let be know it you still have any of the Sourdough Jack’s kits.
I would like a copy of the cookbook and maybe a kit or two. My mother had one when I was a child but it has been lost. The silver dollar pancakes were great, with the orange syrup.
If anyone can help let me know.
Scott
I found a copy of Sourdough Jacks Cookery with a package of starter inside. Do you think it is still good? Would be happy to share with anyone.
You can always try it. It’ll either work or not. You won’t be poisoned or anything.
I haven’t heard any updates from the industrious school teacher upthread, but starting your own culture is very easy.
having recently found an intrested in sourdough breads (stared with the amish/herman friendship bread/ i got from a friend this past holiday. i found i enjoyed the cinnomn bread it made and did search to learn more about where it came from what else i could make from it. seeing how it made so many starts. i would like more infor on this Sourdough Jacks started and cookbook. and if anyone could tell me the best way to sore a started and feed it on order to keep one going if a person in wanting to start to learn to cook with sourdough?
wishing well and wonderment
desi
Refrigeration is your best bet. Feed it up, based on whatever instructions you have, and refrigerate it between uses. The best preservative is, I suppose, not to preserve it but to use it, but not all of us can make that much stuff. Those pioneers ate differently than we do.
My brother visited Alaska late last fall and brought back a packet of Alaska Jack’s Sourdough Bread Starter as a gift. Great! however, the card inside the envelope with the starter packet has only 1 recipe for Sourdough Flapjacks…and it says for more recipes go to their website:
http://www.alaskajack.com OK, but there’s a note there that says they no longer sell direct and there’s a link to Alaska Wild Berry site. But there’s no bread recipe there either…can anyone suggest where I can find the recipe for the bread?
thanks!
experiment . . . .
A simple bread recipe is to take a cup of risen starter, 1 lb of flour, a cup water, 1 tsp or so of salt, combine, knead, proof, shape, and bake. Sugar/honey is optional, as are different types of flour.
I have the Jack Sourdough starter from our trip to Alaska last year. It’s missing the bread recipe. Will someone send me the bread recipe please? Thanks.
I’ve been reading a number of different blogs about keeping sourdough starters and they talk about leaving it uncovered on the counter. I put mine in a large crock and wrapped the top with cheese cloth. However I now have my own personal swarm of fruit flies chumming around the crock. Should I cover it and let it air once or twice a day? The flies are awful!! and can’t be sanitary.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
I use the paper coffee filters to keep ‘em out. Cheese cloth doesn’t quite do it.
I have fond memories of the thin, slightly sour pancakes my grandmother used to make back in the forties. She had something she kept in a pitcher and I am thinking it must have been a sour dough starter. Is there any other possibilities? I would really like to experiment and come up with that taste!
Are there any suggestions or comments?
Thanks.
Yup, that’s probably what it was. So make your own and see how it goes. s’easy . . .
I read one of the basic bread making instructions for Alaska Jack’s starter above is “A simple bread recipe is to take a cup of risen starter, 1 lb of flour, a cup water, 1 tsp or so of salt, combine, knead, proof, shape, and bake. Sugar/honey is optional, as are different types of flour.” I’m new to this, does anyone have a more defined bread reciped that defines all of these steps a bit better?
I dunno, that’s pretty straightforward, if you have made bread before. Might be worth a little Googling and/or getting some other resources.