Blogging Melodrama

Feeding Herman

Ever hear of Herman Starter?

I didn’t realize it when I first heard the name, but Herman is another name for Sourdough.  Don’t ask me why, but I’ll check into it and see if I can find out the story behind the name.

I’ve been looking for a starter recipe for years now and stumbled on one by accident yesterday while dunging out closets.  The recipe comes from one of my old cookbooks from when my church made cookbooks to sell to help out with the food baskets we always gave away at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I thought if I was wanting the recipe, maybe others would like it too, so I’m going to bless you as I’ve been blessed; with Bess Clary’s contributions to our Weldon Methodist Church Recipes and Remembrances Cookbook.  I believe it was 1984 when we collected these recipes for our Church cookbook.  If you’d like to get a copy for yourself you can contact the Fundcraft Publishing, P.O. Box 340, Collierville, TN 38027.

Basic Sourdough Recipe
1cup milk (whole not reduced fat, soy or 2% etc)
1cup sugar
1cup flour
1pkg yeast
     In a large 1gallon jar, mix all ingredients and stir well.  Check once a day to make sure it is bubbly.  Do this five days.  Divide into fourths called splits, one for you and three to give away.  DO NOT KEEP AIRTIGHT
     Day 1:  You get Herman.  Herman needs fed and any time he is to be fed, feed him the following:
1-cup milk
1-cup flour
1-cup sugar
Put Herman in a covered dish and stir him once a day for five days.  On the fifth day, feed him again.  Stir well and continue to stir once a day for five more days.
     On Day 10 from the start: make Herman into one of the recipes.  You will have 4-cups of Herman.  Again – Keep one for yourself for starter.  You can give one away if you want or use the remainder to make whatever.  It will take 1-cup of Herman per recipe you make.

Use the one-cup reserved to keep your Herman alive.  Remember to repeat the feeding program, being ready to split up on the tenth day and start over again.  This will be your process every 10 days to start over with one cup of Herman, so plan on baking something every 10 days minimum once your start or give all of your Herman away.  Make sure you give feeding instructions along with Herman when given to the people.

Sourdough Bread Using Herman
1-cup Herman          1 ½-cup warm water     Approx. 6-cups flour divided  
1-pkg dry yeast     2-teaspoons salt   2-teaspoons sugar   ½-teaspoons soda
     Dissolve the yeast in warm water and mix with Herman.  Add 4-cups flour, salt and sugar to yeast mixture.  Stir and cover.  Let rise until double in bulk, about 2 hours.  Add 1-cup flour and soda to risen mixture.  Knead in 1 cup more of flour until dough is smooth and not sticky.  Form dough into large or 2 small loaves.  Place in greased pans.  Cover and let rise until double, about 1-½ hours.  Put in a shallow pan of water on bottom rack of oven.  Bake bread at 400° for 30 to 35 minutes.

    *And here’s a little hint I gleaned from San Francisco Sour Dough Bread Co. I was watching on the Food Network.  They let their bread dough rest in a refrigerator overnight before baking the following day.  The reason given was so it would have that nummy sour dough taste we all love so much.  So I don’t know about you, but I’m going to try it and see if it makes any difference for taste to me.

http://www.yankeegrocery.com/sourdough_bread/recipe.html

posted by Jan myrz @ 2:27 PM