1850's AUTHENTIC/ORIGINAL HEIRLOOM TEXAS RANCH SOURDOUGH STARTER + FREE RECIPES

Description: Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE 1850’s Heirloom South Texas (King) Ranch Sourdough Starter In early 1854 Richard King, the founder of the famous King Ranch of South Texas decided to go south of the border into northern Mexico in search of cattle to purchase for his sprawling ranching empire. Northern Mexico was in a severe drought and ranchers there were unable to find enough grass to feed their cattle. So King went to the village of Cruillas in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, about 125 miles south of the border to see about buying some cattle. The villagers had no way to feed their cattle during the drought so they willingly sold all their cattle to King. After the long cattle drive north to the King Ranch, Richard King later returned to Cruillas and offered the villagers work on his ranch in exchange for a place to live, an income, food, and a chance at a new life in South Texas. Many of the villagers accepted his offer and moved their families to the King Ranch. The King Ranch is a whopping 825,000 acres! Among the few possessions that the villagers brought with them to their new home was their ‘pan de masa fermentada’, or what we know as sourdough bread. This sourdough starter was what the women of Cruillas used to bake their traditional bread in the village communal adobe-brick oven. Unless a family had a hearth in their kitchen, this type of bread was only found in villages that had a communal oven. Otherwise every household would also make fresh corn tortillas daily. It is believed that the original sourdough starters found in colonial Mexico came from France during the 1820's and 1830's when many French settlers were arriving to Mexico. To this day, French bread is part of the Mexican cuisine throughout Mexico. In the 1860’s my great-great grandmother was given some of the ‘masa fermentada’ starter from a woman from Cruillas that now lived with her family on the ranch, and in turn, my great-grandmother was given some of the starter. On Saturday mornings my great-grandmother would get up real early to bake loaves to sell in town. She would take the wagon into town with her fresh-baked loaves of bread and would sell out immediately. The old photo is of my grandmother's mother(my great-grandmother) and next to her is my grandfather's mother at the ranch.The starter was eventually passed down to my grandmother who married my grandfather, a cowboy on another South Texas ranch. My dad was born in 1919 on the ranch where my grandparents worked and lived. Through my dad, I Eventually inherited some of my grandmother’s original sourdough starter. This old sourdough starter goes back over 160 years to the days when Texas was still part of the Wild-West! Back on the ranch the bread was baked in the kitchen’s stone hearth, right on the brick floor. When the cowboys were out on the range working cattle, the bread was baked in old cast-iron Dutch ovens over mesquite coals. I still have several of my great-great-grandmother's Dutch ovens that are over 150 years old that I use to bake my bread! When I don’t have the time to make the bread over a bed of hot coals I use my Dutch ovens to bake my sourdough bread in my kitchen oven for an equally delicious result! My grandmother always kept her active starter in a small clay pot in her old wooden ice-box, as she didn’t have a refrigerator on the ranch until much later. She would also make some of the starter into a stiff dough and let it dry into a hard patty, similar to hard-tack, which would keep forever. If she ever needed to make more fresh starter she would grate some of the dry patty and bring it back to life all over again. My grandmother would re-start her dried starter with water, wheat flour, some raw sugar, or brown sugar, cane syrup or molasses, or just plain sugar, whatever she had on hand. I recommend using dark or light brown sugar or turbinado sugar if you have some, otherwise plain cane sugar is fine. This starter produces a great-tasting bread with a wonderful aroma, a crunchy crust, and a soft, chewy inside! You can also add assorted whole grains, nuts, and seeds to the dough as well to make it even more special to your taste. In my favorite sourdough recipe I use 1/3 whole-wheat flour and 2/3 bread-flour. As a wine-maker and home-brewer for many years, I can say that nothing goes better with a glass of home-brew or wine than a crusty piece of this 1850’s Heirloom Sourdough bread along with some butter and cheese! I like to bake my sourdough bread in the traditional way, as a round loaf or French loaf baked in a cast-iron Dutch oven over mesquite coals. But it can be baked in a regular or brick oven, in any way that you like to bake your bread, be it in long loaves, small rolls, baguettes, for pancakes, pizza, pretzels, etc. Some people wrap the dough around a stick and baked it next to a fire! Another traditional South Texas bread is called ‘Pan de Campo’, Camp Bread, or Cowboy Bread. A popular bread that was commonly made when the cowboys were out working cattle or on long cattle drives on the range or trail and there just wasn’t time to make sourdough bread. This is an easy to make bread that is also typically baked in a Dutch oven over mesquite coals. Instead of using sourdough starter, it is made with baking powder. It is absolutely delicious! Pan de Campo also happens to be the Official State Bread of Texas! I grind my dried starter under low temperatures to preserve the integrity and viability of the heirloom cultures it contains. This is a 100% pure dried starter with absolutely no added flour or fillers! This makes for an easy-to-dissolve dry starter for you to have success in your sourdough adventures! You will receive a packet of my Super-Active dehydrated 1850’s Heirloom South Texas Ranch Sourdough Starter plus complete instructions on how to re-activate it and start using it to bake some incredible heirloom sourdough bread. I will also include our super- easy-to-make old family recipe for sourdough bread as well. Experience some today!We ship to USA addresses only. Please check out our other items on ebay!! Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

Price: 6.99 USD

Location: Laredo, Texas

End Time: 2024-09-17T02:03:59.000Z

Shipping Cost: 1.99 USD