Georgia Varozza - The Homestead Sourdough Cookbook

T EN P EAKS P RESS

EUGENE, OR

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THE HOMESTEAD SOURDOUGH COOKBOOK

Copyright 2022 by Georgia Varozza

Published by Ten Peaks Press, an imprint of Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97408

ISBN 978-0-7369-8440-9 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-8441-6 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021944038

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CONTENTS

S ourdough has been a part of my life since I was a young girl. We lived near San Francisco and would often go into the city to Fishermans Wharf on Sunday afternoons (before it became trendyand crowded) to get live crabs and Boudin sourdough bread. A gigantic crab pot stood outside near the boat slips, and for a small fee, the person manning the pot would clean and cook our crabs for us. Wed buy several loaves of fresh sourdough bread and then rush homeriches in handand have a feast. Creamy butter thickly spread on slices of sourdough would assuage our hunger as we picked through the crab meat and made ourselves Crab Louie salads alongside more fresh bread. Those Sunday afternoons became a treasured memory for me, and the San Francisco sourdough bread, with its distinctive taste, was part of the gastronomic magic. Is it any wonder, then, that as an adult I wanted to recapture that magic?

Shortly after college, I began to actively pursue my varied interests, among them cooking and baking from scratch. In the back of my mind, I remembered the delicious bread of my youth and decided to try my hand at making sourdough. Times were different then, and try as I might, I couldnt lay my hands on an authentic San Francisco starter. While this obstacle may have slowed me down, it didnt stop me. I went to the local library (this was before the days of the internet) and began my research, and I soon had recipes to make my own starter. Long story short, my first attempts produced nothing but an off-smelling, pinkish mess that I knew wasnt right. So, for a time, I consoled myself with yeast bread baking.

Salvation came in the form of my brother, who had moved to Alaska. He was able to get an old Alaskan sourdough starter that the giver assured him was more than 100 years old, and my brother generously propagated a batch and gave it to me (which I brought home in my carry-on bag!). I was off and running, and that starter is still going strong 40 years later. Since then, I was able to buy a San Francisco sourdough starter (see Resources at the back of the book for links to purchasing your own), so now I keep two separate starters going, and Im careful to never let them comingle.

Over the years, Ive given away many batches of starter to folks wanting to begin their own sourdough adventure, and Ive taught sourdough bread baking classes as well. And when my students take the first bite of their first loaf, their grins tell me Ive helped yet another baker discover the thrill of taking flour, water, and salt and making mouthwatering treats for themselves and their loved ones. I hope the same will be said of you as well. So come along with me and discover for yourself the joy that is sourdough.

I ts not known when sourdough as a leavening agent was first used, but sourdough yeast is well-documented in ancient Egypt, and the baked goods were used to feed the workers who built the pyramids.