Hootch

Ever wonder what the origin of a particular, peculiar word might be? I do all the time. I love dictionaries, sometimes I just "read" them, like I do cookbooks.


This past week I got better acquainted with "hootch". I always knew it had to do with "booze" (hmmm, that's another one...), or in short, drinking alcohol. The usual association seems to be the roaring 20's and 30's, but you still hear the term in passing. Being in an alcohol oriented state (more beer consumed per capita than any other, if I remember correctly), I've been surprised not to hear it more often. I seemed to hear it more in the Northwest. Now I know why.


Here's a short history lesson (compiled by Sara Pitzer, "Baking With Sourdough"):

"Most of us have known baking only with the recent invention of commercial yeast, but in the days of covered wagons, a pot of sourdough starter for leavening breads, biscuits and flapjacks was a common part of cooking.


During the California Gold Rush and later the Yukon Gold Rush, sourdough was so much a part of their diet that the prospectors were known as "sourdoughs." And before pioneers, prospectors or even colonists, Columbus brought sourdough to American shores aboard his ship.

Perhaps because of all this, some people have considered sourdough uniquely American. But the Egyptians had it several thousand years before the birth of Christ; the ancient Greeks and Romans used it too.


If you have ever kept mashed potatoes or canned fruit so long it began to ferment, you have an idea of how sourdough must have begun and of why it would have attracted attention. The wild yeast in the air settle into such congenial environments as sugar, starch, and liquid combinations and begin to grow, fermenting and producing potent alcohol which rises to the top. For a long time people were more interested in brewing than baking.


Even American prospectors had uses for the alcohol which surfaced in their sourdough starter pots. They called it "hootch" after the Alaskan Hoochinoo Indians who produced liquor by a sourdough process."

Here's my hootch! That layer of liquid floating on top of the starter is pure alcohol...
"Jokes about hooch permeate American humor, along with stories about the prospector who used sourdough starter to glue broken furniture, the hunter who used it to polish the brass on his gun, and the pioneer mother who rubbed her children with a combination of sourdough and shoe polish so they would rise and shine."

There are misconceptions about sourdough, everything from what temperature will kill the yeasties, and the way to use it. Some think it is finicky, but consider the beating a starter took while hanging in a pot slung under a covered wagon, and the variations of temperature on those long treks, and I think that will lay most concerns to rest.

Some folks think sourdough means baked goods that will make you pucker up. Truth is, it can be as bland or as tart was you want to make it, you control the taste by the fermenting length and process.

One thing that is true, it takes time. You have to plan ahead. Again from Sara:

"Using it takes time. Fortunately it's not your time; because sourdough needs more time to work as a leavener, you must begin the baking process further ahead of which you want to finish than you would with commercial yeast or baking powder. That's the main way sourdough baking differs from other kinds. You have to give the sourdough time to grow, you have to keep it alive, and - of course - you have to catch the wild yeast to have a starter."

I cheated. I ordered a starter http://www.culturesforhealth.com/cart.html , it came safely via the post office with accompanying ice pack, and is now residing in a warm place in the cabin.

The jar sits above the hot water heater. I've fed it several times, it seems to be happy. It's making hootch.

Oh yes. I baked my first ever sourdough bread - a batch of biscuits, baked in my cast iron skillet. Can't get anymore authentic than that! Next up: getting some coals going to try some loaves in the dutch oven.

I feel like a real pioneer now. Log cabin, iron pots, and sourdough.