The Pancake Part II

In May of this year, I decided that I needed to learn to make pancakes.  So I did and I put the recipe to memory:

1.5 cups flour
3.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1.25 cups milk
1 egg
3 tbsp butter (melted)

This is pretty easy, right?  I made excellent pancakes all over using this recipe and even on a spur of the moment made some while at my sister-in-law's house.  So when I got the sourdough starter I thought, well I can mix up everything but the egg, milk, and butter when I pull it out and let it grow overnight. It also happened that I left the mix on the stovetop thinking that the kitchen was warm enough.  I was wrong about that, too.  By morning the mix smelled a little of sourdough but it wasn't pungent.   And when I made the flapjacks, I found out my mistake as my pancakes tasted just like regular pancakes not sourdough pancakes.   That was 28 July of this year.

This is our starter in its jar.  You can see the little pockets, which are clear.  That's yeast poop, or some like to call it ethyl alcohol and others call it booze.  If too much of it fills the top of the jar it'll literally drown the starter in its own feces.  I know it's kind of a disgusting thought but that's what it is.

Given long late mornings with a late work call I could make pancakes for my family more often and not even bother to refrigerate the starter, but that's not my life so the next batch of pancakes was the next Friday.  This time I decided not to add the salt (as I think that's what slowed the yeast).  So I just fed the starter and let it grow overnight (this time in the oven with the light on).  In the morning, the starter had a nice clear liquid on top so I knew it had done its job but I decided to make waffles instead of pancakes.  My wife still says those were great and I need to do it for pancakes.

Saturday morning, instead of letting the sourdough starter grow overnight I just used the starter from the fridge and added some flour.  I should have known that wouldn't work, and it didn't.

To be continued...

The picture above is from deep in the Tanana Flats south of Fairbanks.  It's a beautiful area and I was there studying the mosquitoes (there were plenty).