The Zeiger Family Homestead Blog

Posts tagged: sourdough

The Homestead Reference Library: Alaska Sourdough

By Mark Zeiger, February 20, 2013

It’s been a long time since I’ve written about our homestead reference library. In honor of our sourdough starter’s 21st anniversary today, It’a time to profile one of our most revered resources, Ruth Allman’s Alaska Sourdough (check your local independent bookstore).

I’ve mentioned the book in an older post.This chatty, meandering, homely, yet wonderfully informative cookbook had been my mother’s guide in the care and use of sourdough through the years she raised it in our home. My parents gave us our own copy back in the early ’90s, and it has been our primary guide to all things sourdough ever since. In fact, I probably used a recipe from this book to start our own sourdough in the first place.

Our copy of Ruth Allman’s book, our guide since 1991 (Photo: Mark Zeiger).

Continue reading 'The Homestead Reference Library: Alaska Sourdough'»

Food & Drink | homestead reference library, sourdough

Travel-Ready Sourdough

Comments (2)

By Mark Zeiger, February 8, 2013

If I may assert that sourdough is particularly associated with Alaska, then transporting sourdough may be said to be a particularly Alaskan problem.

The problem with moving sourdough is that motion and warrmth activate the yeast, causing expansion. Atmospheric changes also affect it, which makes Alaska’s most common mode of travel—flight—particularly problematic. A sourdough pot, sealed enough to prevent spillage, becomes a pressure bomb under these circumstances.

I have never personally experienced a sourdough accident in my luggage. I have, however cleaned up enough spilled and dried sourdough to fear the possibility.

We have two methods of transporting sourdough starter that prevent unpleasantness, even through high altitude airline flights. Continue reading 'Travel-Ready Sourdough'»

Food & Drink | sourdough