Ya know, this idea that you have to have a starter to make a good sour dough is sort of a hoaky idea. I mean, you can get a starter from someone, but ya don't have to. You can just make one yourself. Potatoes and sugar and yeast will make a starter sing in the moon light ... and howl like a wolf. (Just kidding.) But you can get a good starter goin' with potatoes.
I had this left over potato soup? It had milk and butter in it, and lots of potatoes. It had been mashed potatoes, and then I had added milk, salt and herbs to it, and made soup with no meat in it. And the left over soup was about 3 cups? So, anyway, I added about 3 tablespoons of yeast to this and some sugar, and mercy, it about got up and left the pan. I stirred it all up good. And then I put it in this old crock I have ... it's an antique crock with a lid and has a little hole in the top of the lid ... it has a handle on one side ... it isn't a tea pot ... I don't know what it was supposed to be used for to begin with ... but it makes a nice sour dough jar. Anyway, I let this sour dough bubble up. Then I took a cup of it, put it in a bowl and then added a cup of warm milk, and added flour and made a dough. This will be a batch of dinner rolls. I had the dough ready to make rolls last night, but Papa brought home Pizza from work, so I just put the dough in a plastic bag with cooking oil in it and put it in the fridge. So today, I will make some nice fat potato buns.
My sour dough in my pot was so active, I didn't need to feed it. But usually, if you take a cup out, you would add some flour or whatever to the pot to keep it going and the yeast growing. In a few days, I will add some water ... maybe a cup ... and some flour. It should look like pancake batter in your pot. Then, when you go to make rolls again, just take out another cup of starter and add a cup of water.
So you will have the 2 cups of liquid to make 2 loaves of bread or 2 batches of rolls. Bread is only a liquid, a shortening or butter, salt, sugar, yeast and flour. You can add eggs or fruit or vegetables and herbs. But, basically, you just need the basics to make bread. The sugar makes the yeast grow. Just like the ol' moonshiners would tell ya, yeast needs sugar to put life into it. See, beer has yeast in it. And you can take a can of beer and add flour and oil to it and make a bread.
I had made this Sunday School Rootbeer once and it was too strong, but I just used it to make bread. I would take like a cup of rootbeer and add the flour and shortening and a cup of milk or water, some salt and a bit of sugar. For each loaf of bread, you will need a cup of liquid. Now, this can be apple juice or any kind of juice, too.
But, ya know, I will bet ya that some of the old housewives of yesteryear would never admit to doin' it? But I bet many a mother who ran out of yeast made a starter from her husband's whiskey and kept on truckin'. I mean, you couldn't go to the store back then everytime ya needed something. I know the old timers kept whiskey on hand to make cough syrup and to give to the livestock to keep 'em warm in the winter. (Not that I drink whiskey, as Jim wouldn't allow any strong drink like that in the house.)
But, anyway, if ya make this starter, you need to use it every day for your bread and feed it again after each time you take out a cup. Because, otherwise, the starter will get moldy just sitting there in the kitchen. So if you aren't using it every day or every other day, then just put in the fridge. Then, if you plan to make bread the next day, put your starter out that night and let it begin to bubble again. Put it in a warm place, like on the stove or on a heat register. Cover it good and make sure there is room in the jar for it to bubble up without bubbling out of the jar. If it don't bubble at all, don't use it. The reason you use the sour dough is so you won't have to buy any yeast. You are growing your own.
