Bread/Funny Sourdough Story

[Cudedog]

Remember our bread conversations?? And the fact that some of us discovered flour was in short supply? This article explains it all. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/fo ... ing-bread/

Thanks for the link, Judy! Interesting article. For myself (like you, I think) I have always been a bread maker, when I have had the time. For the years I was working full-time, not so much. Those days I just mostly made bread at the holidays.

The reason I started in again making bread recently is because I like to eat bread, but didn't want to be going to the store every few days to get some, in view of the current "situation". When I started, I had about 15 pounds of flour in the fridge, but soon realized that when one is baking every few days flour goes pretty fast.

I have not been able to find the normal size package of flour (5 or 10 pounds) in about a month. I have just ordered a fifty (!!) pound bag of flour from a local restaurant supply store for delivery tomorrow. Hoping the larger size might still be in stock (if it comes, this should last several months - flour keeps well in the refrigerator). This 50 pound bag is priced at around $15.00. Keeping fingers crossed!!

Talking about baking, for many years I even kept a ceramic crock on my kitchen counter with sourdough starter. I used it to made sourdough pancakes every morning. With real Vermont maple syrup drizzled over them. Heaven!!

For those not-in-the-know, a counter top crock of starter can be a bit - unexpected, when encountered by the unwary. Starter is a live culture, it is not refrigerated, you feed it every day (it is fed with flour) and it sits there happily bubbling and foaming, fermenting and giving off a bit of a pleasant, although somewhat pungent, odor.

My (ex) sister-in-law came to visit one time (she was a high-level computer programmer, definitely not the homebody type), and she absolutely raved about my pancakes. She said she had never tasted better, and she couldn't get enough of them. After a few days of scarfing pancakes every morning, she noticed the crock on my kitchen counter and, thinking it was cookies or something I guess, took the lid off - put it immediately back on - and took a quick step back.

With a look of total bewildered astonishment on her face (not unmixed with a touch of alarm), she asked: "What is that??".

I kind of looked at her for a beat or two, a bit confused myself. "Oh, that?" I finally replied. "That's my sourdough."

She stared at me. Then: "Well, this one's spoiled, right? Where is the one you are using?"

I tried not to laugh, and managed to keep a straight face. Barely. "Well, no. It's just fine. Actually, I used it to make your pancakes this morning".

LOL. Her face went pale, and I thought she was going to heave. Needless to say, she refused to eat another single sourdough pancake for the rest of her stay. The rest of us continued to eat them every morning, with relish. She would just sit there at the breakfast table, looking a bit green.

Are there any other sourdough fans here? Anyone else have a sourdough story?

Anne

[Acadianmom]

I'm a sourdough fan. Years ago I would have starter going from time to time. In our old house I had one of the water heaters that looked like an appliance. About the size of a washing machine. That was the perfect place to put bread and rolls to rise. Since it's just me I seldom make bread. I have to put a loaf in the refrigerator because it lasts so long. I'm not much of a sandwich eater. Though someone was raving about making homemade hamburger buns so I found a recipe. That will probably be my next bread project.

If you have room in your refrigerator for 50 pounds of flour you have a lot more room than I do.

Martha

[snowball]

my thoughts exactly Martha... my mom used to get 25 lb bags of flour... we never keep ours in the fridge she kept it in a garbage can (never used as garbage) with a lid in the basement when we lived at the ranch she had a cabinet with a bin that opened for the flour and sugar so miss that!!! I keep mine in a tupperware container holds about 10 lbs... sugar in another one...
I keep a start in the fridge they taste different to me I remember neighbors when I was a kid that had the one on the counter made with water.. more pungent I think is what I remember but oh so good so is the one I have it is suppose to be oh heavens how old by now when we had our 4x4 trips in Jackson Wy it seems it was about 100 years then so that would be about 44 years later yikes now whether it is or not I honestly don't know however I do know that it is way older than 44 years as to a funny story not sure if I have one... and for those that know I make sour dough scones for the Navajo taco's it's not with the same start perhaps I ought to put that in the recipe file unless it is already there
how ever not a start story but a fun story anyway... we lived on the ranch and mom had gotten a dish washer not a built in one but one that you rolled to the sink plugged it in and attached it to the faucet and turned on the water when it would cycle through the water in the dish washer was expelled from where it was hooked up to the faucet actually if you didn't know better you would think the water was coming from the faucet.. when in realty it was dirty water from the dish washer... enter in a very thirsty aunt who had never seen that wanting water she quickly grabs a cup to get dirty dish washer water... we stopped her but laughed at it..
sheila

[JudyJB]

Loved your starter story, Anne. Your sister-in-law really missed out on some good cooking!

Can I tell a fudge story? We used to spend weekends and summers at our cottage on Lake Huron, where my uncle and his family lived next to us. I think he was really an adult ADHD because he never walked anywhere--constantly running and almost always with a cigarette in his mouth and a Coke bottle in his hand. (He talked the Coke delivery guy to set him up as a business and deliver several cases to him at a time.) His other major food was anything chocolate, but mostly Hershey bars and fudge. One day, he stopped by while I was cooking fudge. It was almost done, and for some reason someone opened the cabinet over the stove, and a small, open container of lighter fluid (for cigarette lighters) fell out and and into my pan of fudge.

I was about to toss it out, and he stopped me and said he'd take it because any lighter fluid would have burned off anyway, so I poured it into a pan and he took it home! I tried a piece and couldn't taste any, but he got the fudge anyway.

He had been in the Navy in WWII, by the way, and kept his old dress uniform. In the late 60s, he had one of the leads in a community playhouse production of the musical South Pacific and wore his old uniform which fit him even after all those Cokes and fudge! He had a great voice also, but for many years, the lighter fluid fudge was a standing joke in the family.