Land of the Rising Dough

Survival comes in many forms. And one of those forms is sourdough. You wouldn't think that bread would be at the top of a survivor's tool kit, but when you recognize the potential for starters to generate loaf after loaf of bread, it's hard to dispute.

Breads and baking are in some ways a lost art among the general population. But a solid starter can yield loaf after loaf of bread, or flapjacks, or muffins, or batters for other pastries and carb-stock.

And the best part? All it takes is a little bit of flour and water. The simplest of ingredients. And a fair amount of patience. Add a dash of care and you've got the recipe for survival.

Ready Starters

Literature

Starter Process

the great frontier and fermented flour

Frontiersmen trekked across the west slinging pouches of survival around their necks. They earned the name "Sourdoughs" or "Dough Boys" because of the small leather pouches they wore with sourdough starters inside. These pouches aided in survival by providing the start to dough that could be used for nutrient-dense food along their way.

In a land abundant with wildlife and vegetation for the savvy herbalist, there was still a need for heavy amounts of carbohydrates and healthy bacteria. Sourdough became the back-woodsman's best friend. As these travelers crossed into the west, wild yeast cultivated inside the dough - made of equal parts of flour and water. The dough varied from person to person based on which regions they traveled through.

The "Dough Boys" and their legacy are rarely mentioned in today's world of convenient food, quick rise yeast, and fast-paced promises. But it's an important lesson to remember and revive. Modified yeast that we know of today is only about 150 years old, but sourdough is the bread of ages. 

Listen to "Doughboys, Legacy, and Survival with The Next Generation Show" on Spreaker.

your sourdough's gotta start somewhere

Making your own starter isn't as hard as you might think. You can take advantage of the hard work of others by collecting a starter from a friend, or tracking one down on Amazon. There's also a great reference article over at The Homesteading Hippy that provides some insight for further reading.

Just make sure to use good ingredients, clean water, and a healthy dose of common sense. With a little bit of patience, you can have a sourdough culture that can extend for generations.

A recipe to best any disaster

A key to the process is to be mindful of feeding the starter and following a rigid process. But, if you do, a starter that is well maintained can be used for generations. Some have lasted over a century after being handed down from one patron to the next. Others have been revived after 4,500 years by using careful, meticulous feeding protocols.

Krista, a recent contributor provided the following advice on her tried-and-true method for making and baking her starter. In her words:

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Krista's Sourdough:

Key take away here - ORGANIC, UNBLEACHED FLOUR and if you have municipal water, let it “de-gas” any chlorine off for 24 hours before adding to your starter.  If your water is really bad, you may want to feed it filtered water.

After I got the starter going by feeding every day for about 2-3 weeks, it was mature enough to start storing in the fridge.  Then, instead of feeding every day, I only get it out once a week.  If you don’t like throwing away your discard, after you get some bubble action going, about day 5, you can start storing your discard in the fridge.  You can’t make bread with this discard because it’s “weak” but you can use it in any recipe that calls for sourdough discard (King Arthur Flour website has a ton of them).

Once I have a mature starter that I can store in the fridge, I get it out about 12 hours before I plan to feed it to let it warm up.   Then I split the starter into two parts.  I take one part of it (the discard) and I feed it using whatever ratio I need to make a bread levain (usually much more like 2-to-1 or 4-to-1), which stays on the countertop at room temperature. It then gets completely incorporated into bread or whatever I am making.

The other part (I call this this “mother”) I feed it only enough to keep it going (a regular 1-to-1 ratio) then I put it back in the fridge.  It will SLOWLY digest the food over 1-2 weeks and not die.   This way I can keep the starter going indefinitely.

A typical weekend bake for me goes as follows:
Friday morning - get starter out of fridge to warm up
Friday night - put some starter in a separate jar and feed it according to what I need to bake (usually I take 100g starter + 150g bread flour + 50g rye flour + 200g water) which gives me a 500g bread levain.  I put this in my fermentation station in the winter because my house is around 65 degrees and it ferments better at around 75-78 degrees.  It takes about 10-12 hours to peak and then it’s ready to use in my bread recipe.
I take the remaining starter (mother) usually about 100g and feed it 100g flour and 100g water (50g rye flour + 50g all purpose flour) which is a 1-1-1 ratio.  This gives me 300g of mother.  I put this back in my fridge.
Saturday morning - use bread levain according to my bread recipe (more coming later).
Saturday or Sunday - I usually take 200g of starter from the mother and make something else with it (like pancakes, dog biscuits) and so by the start of the next cycle I am down to about 100g of my mother starter left which stays in the fridge.

The Ultimate Sourdough Shopping List for Prepper pastries and bunker bread

If you're ready to take the plunge and pound out a few rounds of sourdough yourself, there's opportunity to do better than the store-bought bread you've tried in the past. Natural sourdough with wild yeast has a greater nutritional value and is packed with more protein and carbs than sliced bread.

You can either create your own, or order up a starter and look into some cookbooks while you're at it. Check out these best-of options for your sourdough sweet tooth! What's great about this bread is there's some options for people who can't handle gluten. Pizza crusts, pies, breads, and more! Be sure to check your ingredients and stay away from bleached flour. Stick with the good stuff to begin with and you can't go wrong.

Great Books and recipes

Simple ready-to-start sourdoughs