Carl Griffith's Oregan Trail Sourdough Starter

I received Carl Griffith's 1847 sourdough starter a few weeks ago. I was getting ready to leave town and did not want to activate it and leave. Taking the starter on the trip with me was not an option. I was tired all of last week and actually contemplated holding off on activating it since I have my other two starters in the refrigerator. They take up too much room. I actually don't keep a huge amount of starter on hand. I keep just a few tablespoons and allow it to rise. I think I can actually move them from the quart containers into smaller containers.

On a whim I decided to activate Carl's starter. I ran out of my quart containers. I thought it was impossible but it is possible. I just had soupgroup and I just made a huge pot of pho and froze the extra soup broth in the containers. I am curious how the Oregon Trail starter tastes. Barry (aka starter B) rose really well, smelled great, but I wasn't thrilled with the flavor. I got a really sour bread but the flavor was flat. I didn't get anything else. Maybe it needs to mature a little more. I baked with it when it was only a few weeks old. The pancakes were yummy but I think that was because of the milk and the other ingredients I used.

Aki (aka starter A) was turned into a loaf today. It is sitting in my refrigerator. I will bake it in the morning. I discard most of it on Sunday morning and fed it. I threw away part of it because I wasn't really planning on baking bread. More on Aki Sourdough loaf on a different post. Back to Carl.

I mixed the dried starter with bottled water, stirred, and stirred some more to get the particles to dissolve. It is pretty much like concrete. I let it sit a while. It took a while before it all dissolved. I smelled it. It already has a sour-ish smell. Not the good sour smell but the early stages of the starter smell.

After sitting for fifteen minutes and I still had huge chunks.

Finally after about half an hour the bits of dried starter started to dissolve. I then added bread flour for a thick pancake-like batter.

About 36 hours after reviving. The starter was all bubbly when I woke up in the morning. It looks like a metal spoon in the container but it is actually a plastic spoon that looks like metal.

I didn't throw away half before feeding because I was giving half of it away. It still more than doubled. The starter smells really yummy!

It is definitely easier to get a starter going with dried starter. I have some of Barry dried. I need to dry Aki and the Oregon Trail starter just in case something happens. I think I have too much Barry starter. I need to start giving some away.