Published: October 27, 2009 10:46 am      

Pete Kendall: Famous sourdough bread recipe MIA; looking for help

Dagnabbit.

Seems like every time I go looking for something from my five years at the Hood County News that I just absolutely have to have, I can’t find it.

I remember the afternoon I hastily cleaned out my desk in Granbury and carefully filed away keepsakes in manila folders.

I’m sure the keepsakes are still in my possession. No way would I have tossed them. I don’t think.

But I can’t find what I’m looking for today, and it bothers me profoundly because I wanted to share with you a slice of delectable information that will warm your heart, soul and small intestine just as it did mine.

I’m talking about Jack Stout’s famous recipe for sourdough bread, biscuits, flapjacks and assorted pastries.

I printed it a few years ago in a column I did on Jack. A lot of people told me they copied the thing just so they’d have the recipe.

I’m glad of that. I wish one of them would re-copy it for me.

You may be wondering: Why is Hossman writing about old Jack Stout, whose ties to Johnson County consisted primarily of driving through it to get to his hometown of Handley?

The answer is that I was chatting with the Cleburne High School culinary arts teacher Ann Lowrie last week and happened to mention that I had Jack’s sourdough recipe.

She appeared mildly interested. I asked if she’d like to have it. She answered in the affirmative.

So now my back is against the wall.

I’m appealing to anyone in possession of the authentic Jack Stout sourdough recipe.

I’d ask Jack himself for it, but he’s dead. What the heck, I may ask him anyway.

In the meantime, about all I can offer you is a replacement recipe kindly e-mailed to me by one of my two friends in Granbury, Cleburne High School graduate Vircy B. Macatee, who swears the sourdough recipes she enclosed are not hers.

To be exact, she said, “If you use this, please don’t put my name with it. Just say a friend shared with you. I am now working my mother’s history, the Barkers in Somervell County. I think I am about half through.”

I bet those Barkers could whip up some sourdough.

Too bad they had to share it with the Indians. Though if they had, the Indians could have shared it with us.

We’d sure have been appreciative.

Instead, here’s the next best thing, supplied by Vircy Macatee’s anonymous “friend.”

“At one time I was an avid sourdough fan,” Vircy wrote. “I do not have Jack Stout’s recipe. Howwever, I got my recipe for continuing the starter and one or two of my recipes from a friend in 1969, and the starter had been continued in her family for about 70 years at that time.

“I even had my sourdough crock pot to keep my starter in. When we moved from Houston I lost the starter because of lack of use. I used to make pancakes, waffles, biscuits and breads.

“There are various and sundry recipes for creating the starter, and everyone seems to think theirs is the best. This seems to be a basic recipe. To make the starter:

“2 1/2 c water; 1 cake (envelope) of yeast, 2 c flour, 2 T sugar, 1T salt.

“Some use milk instead of water.

“Always put your starter in glass, plastic or crock. For some reason metal kills the fermentation. It does have to ferment, and the odor will drive you crazy.

“Using lukewarm water, dissolve the yeast in 1/2 of the water in crock (glass bowl). Add salt, sugar. Add flour and blend well. Cover the crock with cuptowel or cheese cloth. Store in a warm place (about 80 degrees) for three days. Stir once each day. After the three days it needs to be used at least once a week. Each time that you use it you refeed it.

“To feed the starter: If a recipe calls for 1 c sourdough starter feed it with 1 c flour and 1 c warm water. Stir and let stand at room temperature 1 day. Some feed it before they use it. Do it the same way but wait two or three days before taking out 1 c for the recipe. Always feed the starter after some has been used. Some recommend that it be fed one or two times a week. If you can’t use it (or give a starter to a friend), take out about 1 c throw it away and feed it anyway.

“Some use milk instead of water. Others use water that potatoes have been boiled in.

“Jack made sourdough biscuits on the Square. This is a sourdough biscuit recipe:

“1 c flour; 2 t baking powder; 1/4 t salt/ 1/4 t soda. Cut in 1/3 c shortening or oil. Add 1 c sour dough starter. Mix lightly. Roll 1/2 in thick and cut. Let rise 30 to 40 minutes. Bake 12 - 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

“Pancakes: 1 c sour dough; 1 egg; 1 T oil; 2 t baking powder; 1/2 t salt; 1/4 t soda. Mix and cook on griddle.

“Waffles: I used the same recipe for waffles as for pancakes.

”Sourdough making is an Old West tradition of the pioneers.

“Neighbor women would work together and rotate the starter. About once a week each lady would have bread making day — use the starter, feed it and pass it to the next neighbor.”

I can’t wait for somebody to bring me some.