Cornmeal Sour Dough ???

Peter Stines

Sergeant
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Location
Gulf Coast of Texas
Here's a recipe written by Wilhelmina Wilborn to her brother Karl. It's date June, 1862. The original letter is in the Stengler/Hankamer Collection at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. It has been published in the book CHAMBERS COUNTY TEXAS IN THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES by the late Kevin Ladd. Gateway Press. To the best of my knowledge it has NOT been published anywhere else. These are some of my relatives. So there!

"Your bread which you sent us to sample was real good.....When you make some again scald a little corn meal, add salt then finish it with cold water. Let it stand for 1 1/2 or 2 days, stir it good. Then make your biscuits with the corn meal mixture, add a little baking soda, then they were turn out much lighter and more digestible. Then you take a little of that dough and save it to start your next bread dough....."

Sorry there weren't more precise times or measurements but that's 'the way it war written...'
 
Interesting! It does sound like the method for a sourdough starter but if it were meant for that they wouldn't call for the baking soda. I'm curious that the writer thinks this will make the bread more digestible.
 
I think she had another recipe that added molasses to the mix. I'll find it. Haven't tried it though. I have irritable bowel/stomach problems and can't eat molasses. FWIW Sam Houston was fond of fried green tomato and crab gumbo. Not complicated but it IS period. There is also a recipe for Sam Houston's favorite white cake out there. It's fairly labor intensive to make but is VERY GOOD!
 
Back
Top