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Friday, April 14, 2017

Alaskan Starter


My First Sourdough Starter came from my Uncle George who worked on the Alaskan Pipeline for over 20 years. One night after work he and some other pipeline workers were at a bar, that night he met someone who changed his life forever. The guy at the bar told him in conversation about how much he loved sourdough and he had a very special starter. My uncle George told him he grew up on his mother Sourdough Breads, Pancakes and muffins. A few days later my Uncle George met him at the bar and got the starter and here is the story the guy told him:

This Sourdough Starter has a history and a tragedy.

Back when the old miners and trappers were out in the wilderness some of them would carry sourdough starter balls in their pockets. They would add flour to their sourdough starter until it formed a nice almost hard ball. Then it could be placed in a bad or wrapped in a rag and kept in the coat pocket until they got to their destination. Upon arrival at the camp or if they were lucky to have "a cabin"  to spend the winter prospecting or trapping for furs.

When they got all the gear unloaded and settled in they would take the sourdough ball out of their pocket and place it in a crock of water and let it dissolve back into a usable starter. This Sourdough Starter came from that ball, owned by a trapper named Zebulon Hawker, Zeb was my uncle Georges uncle and used it down through the years until he passed it onto my Uncle George. Zeb said he got it in 1918 and he estimates it was over 30-40 years old when he got it from his trapper friend.

It was a cold winter of 1918 and I (Zeb) was making my rounds on my trap-lines and as my trail was close to Fred's Cabin, I decided to mush on over (sled and dogs) and see if he had come in from Fairbanks yet.

As I approached the cabin I could sense something was not right, The dogs were nervous and were not to eager to get to the cabin for some strange reason. So I stopped the sled and tied the sled to a tree so that the dogs would not go anywhere and began to walk on snowshoes the rest of the way to Frank's Cabin.

As I got closer to the cabin I could see that the cabin door was ripped off the hinges. I also saw on the porch a coat that looked shredded and bloody laying outside the doorway. I was sure I would find because of the bloodied coat and door ripped of the hinges. Seems a bear had came out of hibernation early and was looking for food.

I had my rifle ready gripped in both hands in case I needed to fire quickly as I approached the door of Fred's cabin hoping the Grizzly was no where to be found. The bear was gone, and what I saw inside made be sick to my stomach, Fred was on the floor in a pool of blood and I could tell the bear really did a number on him and he was more dead then alive. When I approached him. I knelt down beside my dying friend and he was able to tell me what happened.

Fred said he had just arrived at his cabin from Fairbanks the night before. He tied up the dogs and began  to unpack the sled and take all his supplies into the cabin for trapping season when a hungry bear cam into his camp. Fred told me that he was right out front of the cabin when the grizzly surprised him and ripped off his coat, Fred made it into the cabin closing and locking the door. He could hear the bear outside tearing his jacket to shreds for the candy Fred had in his jacket pocket along with the sourdough starter ball in a rag.

His dog team got loose and the rest of his supplies were scattered from here to hell. Franks rifle was not loaded and still on the sled with other supplies he needed to take into the cabin. So he was unable to get to it before the bear took the cabin door off the hinges to get to Fred and the other supplies he had in the cabin.

Fred passed away from his injuries the next day, there was nothing I could do to help him and Fairbanks was 3 days away. After he passed I notified his kin and the authorities about what had happened. When I was cleaning up the mess outside the cabin, the sourdough starter ball fell out of his torn jacket pocket. I knew what it was and I knew he had had it for at least 30-40 years from his mother. He always had bread or hotcakes and muffins when he would invite me over for meals.

I decided to take it and keep it and use it, keeping it going for all my trapping excursions in the future, I did this as a way of keeping him alive in my mind. After I retired I used it and passed it around to my kin to keep the memory alive of Frank.

My Uncle George can't say whether this story is true or not, It was the story the guy in the bar told him one winter night of drinking when he gave him a sourdough started ball all wrapped in a handkerchief. Since then his wife (my aunt Maryanne) always made sourdough bread and never bought store bread after George told her the story. Every loaf of bread, every hotcake they ever made came from this started. In 1997 it was given to me when they came over to see my new born son and offered it as a gift with the story printed out and on the back of the story was a few of their favorite recipes.

I have been keeping the starter going for over 20 years since my uncle George gave it to me making bread and hotcakes only on occasion. After many people said this is good enough to sell, I have decided to offer it to anyone who can find my website or Facebook page. I now use it every day to make different breads people are buying from the cheflejeff.com website as well as facebook leads.

So now you know the story being my Alaskan Sourdough starter.

-Chef Le Jeff