Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter

170 Year Old Sourdough Starter

The history of this sourdough starter began in 1847 from Missouri with Dr John Savage.  Dr Savage headed west on the old Oregon trail where one of his daughters was the cook for the wagon train so this starter was well used to keep everyone alive.  Along the trail, the Mother Culture picked up very unique wild yeasts and cultures from Missouri to Salem, Oregon.  This has made a Sourdough Culture with a very robust flavored bread end product.  The sourdough starter was passed on from generation to generation for 170 years and now it’s here in Southeast Asia.  How lucky are we?

Our starters come in a crushed form for easy storage and shipping.  It’s easy to rehydrate your starter and this can be kept for years and passed on from generation to generation.  Your own personal family Mother Culture.

To REACTIVATE the starter from the crushed form:

1. Soak 1 package dried starter in 1 tablespoon lukewarm purified or spring water for a few minutes to soften.
2. Stir in 1 tablespoon all-purpose or bread flour, cover loosely with plastic and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours. While not necessary, stirring again once or twice during this 24 hours will expedite the process.
3. Stir in another tablespoon of flour and 1 tablespoon of purified water and let it sit as before. Within the next 24 to 36 hours you will most likely start to see the bubbling action of fermentation begin. (If not, something is most likely wrong and you should try again).
4. Now stir in 1/3 cup flour and 1/4 cup of water to your activated starter and continue to build the starter with once or twice daily feedings until you have a sufficient quantity to use for baking (amounts vary per recipe). You may double or triple the quantity of starter with each feeding. Feeding with approximately equal weights of flour and water (vs. equal volumes) will result in a good consistency for your starter.
5. Once you have a cup or two of healthy starter, store your starter in a container with a loose fitting lid in the refrigerator. Once refrigerated, weekly feeding is sufficient to keep your starter happy. Just remember to hold back some starter when baking as your seed starter for the next time.

You can WATCH THE VIDEO about rehydrating the starter.

When you want to bake something, bring the starter up to room temperature, mix in 1 cup flour, 1 c warm water and let sit overnight to ferment. The next morning, remove one cup to keep in a covered jar as a starter for use next time, feed it, then do your baking.