Recipe - Basic Sourdough Starter

1 cup Water
1 tablespoon Sugar
1 cup Flour
4 tablespoon Commercial buttermilk

Sourdough starters can be purchased commercially or they can be started
on your own. Your own might be more fun. One cup of water is mixed with 1
tablespoon sugar, 1 cup flour, and 4 tablespoons commercial buttermilk. Mix
all of this together and place it in a glass or stainlesssteel bowl. Do
not use aluminum. Cover this with a towel and allow to stand in a warm
place for a few days, or until it has begun to ferment and has a wonderful
sour smell. You might keep this on the top of the water heater or in your
oven and leave the light on all the time. The starter should be the
consistency of pancake batter and it can be covered and stored in the
refrigerator. Use this as your starter in any of the recipes that follow.

The oldtimers claim that you can get a sourdough starter going by just
mixing flour and water together and allowing it to sit in a warm place for
several days. This may work, but it is not terribly reliable.

HINT: ON STORING SOURDOUGH STARTER. When storing sourdough starter in the
refrigerator, remember that it should be kept at around 42ø. If it is too
cold, it will take a long time to come around again, to come back to life.
Your refrigerator is probably colder than this, so perhaps you may want to
store the starter in a very cool place.

From The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American. Downloaded from Glen's MM Recipe
Archive, http://www.erols.com/hosey.