Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/20/pandemic-sourdough-friday-fry.html
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These threads on the sourdough starter have been inspiring, so thanks for them… I might try starting my own this weekend.
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In Newfoundland these are called toutons and served with butter and fancy molasses (especially butter). We made some ‘pandemic sourdough toutons’ just last night. yum
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Another good use for sourdough discard is making crumpets (or pikelets if you don’t have the ring molds). I usually save a few discards up over the course of a week and will make a big batch on the weekendds. + butter + jam = delicious! They also freeze really well, for mid-week snacking.
Happy baking!
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Fry bread os traditiinal, except it dates from the time people were issued ratiins, so it’s made with tye basics.
I’m no ecpert, but I don’t think yeast or sourdough starter was part of those rations.
Speaking of fry bread, I saw someone tweet medical advice yesterday, she’d consulted two doctors. But, the first was Evan Adams, who played Thomas in “Smoke Signals” (and then went on to become a doctor). In the movie he claims his grandmother makes the best fry bread. And then she quoted James Makokis, who won the Amazing Race Canada last summer. So two doctors made famous by other things. I’m not saying they aren’t credible, just somewhat amused that the doctors she could ask happened to be well known.
Have you tried cooking them in your tandoor?
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People, am I missing something by never having tried this?
You are. I’ll chop onions and kimchi into my pancakes and serve with banchan. Fry 'em thin, make roll-ups. Add a little milk, make crepes.
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If you add an egg (and sometimes a little milk), a 1/4 tsp full of baking soda, and about 1tsp sugar it will make great pancakes. Especially if you are doing a rye flour starter! The sugar isn’t essential but it helps the pancakes brown up nicely. Thin it out with more milk if you want to make crepes.
I just started a new starter this week - haven’t made bread in a while. 
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How do folks keep the starter warm enough? I live in the Bay Area and even though it’s warm during the day at this time of year, my house cools down to 60 degrees at night.
Anyone have a ‘must try’ sourdough recipe for the bread maker?
Also waffle batter. My post for tomorrow I think.
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You can put it in your oven with the LIGHT on (not the heat).
You can put it in your oven and set the heat somewhere between 80-90ºF.
You can put it inside a larger bowl with a thick towel as a cushion in-between.
You can buy a heating pad for sprouting seeds or for keeping reptiles/snakes warm – they’re a very gentle steady heat – and put that in a large box with your starter.
You can just accept that it’s going to take a lot longer to grow, because it’s colder.
We have a very old, non-insulated kitchen in Chicago and I have no trouble with keeping my sourdough starter going.
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I’ve not had a problem with this. I do a batch a week, having started starter a month ago. I feed it a day before making dough and make up the dough the next day. The stuff is pretty resilient. It’s flavor and activity has improved over the batch cycles. Was sluggish at first, now it becomes active really fast when I feed it even without putting it somewhere particularly warm
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That’s fried bread, but it’s not frybread.
Jason, I love it! Sourdough is also a fantastic learning opportunity for kids of all ages. Erin McKenney at the Sourdough Project has some excellent short videos and lesson plans for teaching science via sourdough: http://studentsdiscover.org/lesson/sourdough-for-science/
And on the intersection between sourdough science mysteries and human histories: https://seeingthewoods.org/2019/08/29/sourdough-cultures/
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There’s no such thing as discards in my world.
Before I learned “the proper way”, I developed a system that works for me. I keep 12-16 oz of starter in the fridge, and when I want to bake, I shake it up, pour out half & use that in the baking. Throw flour and water into the starter jar, shake it up good, let it sit out for a hour or two or until bubbly, then back into the fridge.
For a few years, I had a starter that I made from wild yeast (I live above a bakery, there’s a lot of it in the air) and was crazy sour and vigorous. The husband threw it out when cleaning the fridge early on in our life together. I love him, so I didn’t kill him.
Currently, I’m baking with Oregon Trail starter.
Earlier this week, an experiment:
I should have slashed it.
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What was the experiment?
The starter had been in the fridge for 3-4 months unused, and because I have a lot of generic AP flour, I wanted to see if I could make survival bread out of just old starter and meh flour. Let it do its thing at room temp overnight, punched it down in the morning, at dinner time remembered it & put it in a Pyrex dish because my dutch oven isn’t oven safe.
Let it rise two hours, baked at 400 for 40 minutes.
It was OK. It made great French toast the next day. From looking at the inside, I could see where the rise was inhibited by not slashing it (thanks, GBBO for the explanations about breads).
We’re going to try using an exacto knife as a lame next time just use my paring knife to slash it because we have no real razor blades here.
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