A LOOK BACK

Drying out a portion of your start can be a start-saver.

FFrom the particularly sour San Franciscan bread to the hardly sour camaldoli sourdough from Italy, there is an endless variety of flavors, textures, and aromas that come with the variety of yeasts and bacteria. I learned shortly after writing my first sourdough article that, in August of 2019, a group of people found a way to extract yeast from ancient Egyptian pottery.

Seamus Blackley, the creator of the original Xbox and a sourdough geek, claimed on Twitter that he had come into possession of some ancient

Egyptian yeast. After getting blasted by critics questioning the legitimacy of his source, he realized he didn’t actually have what he claimed. Instead of sheepishly trying to forget about it, he teamed up with some of his most vocal critics. Together, they went about getting the makings of an ancient

Egyptian sourdough start the right way. They found a way to extract and cultivate the yeast and bacteria used in ancient Egyptian breads.

Seamus said, “One aspect that’s important to the survival of anything in the microscopic world is the ability to hibernate when there’s no water present.” He explained there have been experiments sending yeast into space and then feeding them when they come back to earth; they revive. He and the experts he worked with thought that if the microbes in ancient Egyptian dough were driven into the porous ceramic matrix of ancient Egyptian vessels that were used for baking, molding, and raising bread, then there was a chance they could extract and revive them. Microbiologist Richard Bowman provided the extraction method, which resembles a miniaturized version of fracking. A portion of ancient Egyptian ceramic was injected with a nutrient bath before being pulled out through a syringe with the ancient yeast intact. Everyone was concerned with extracting yeast from the pottery that wasn’t actually from the time of the ancient Egyptians. Just the surface of a vessel being exposed to dirt or air from a time period other than when the bread was baked in it has the potential of having different yeasts contaminate a sample. In the past, scientists have tried scraping the pottery in an attempt to harvest the yeast, but this damages the artifacts and increases the chance of contamination since anything that touches the surface of the pot can have yeasts and bacteria transferred to it. Using this fracking-type method penetrates deep into the pottery with the hopes of freeing the yeast that have been embedded deeply into the vessel.

SAVE YOUR SOURDOUGH & MAIL IT!

Just dry it.

Gloria D. Gross from North Ogden spreads a portion of her starter on a pan and dries it. Once all the water evaporates, she picks up the flaky chips and puts them in a bag. She has even sent her start to people in the mail this way!

flavor saver

The variety of yeasts and bacteria in sourdough are as unique as their surroundings, including those from ancient Egyptian pottery.

Never underestimate the power of the yeast.

On the plus side, it doesn’t damage the artifacts either. With the help of Dr. Serena Love, who is a Ph.D. and archeologist and Egyptologist, they had access to several ancient Egyptian artifacts to do this mini-fracking process. The idea is to extract the yeast and bacteria from many ancient Egyptian vessels and see if they can find the same unique yeasts among them. They are also interested in comparing yeasts extracted from different pieces from different periods of time to see if and how the composition changes over time. Most of the yeast was sent to a laboratory to be studied. According to an article written by the Smithsonian Magazine, genomic sequencing will conclude if the ancient yeast is what we think it is or contaminated with modern microbes. Seamus took one sample home to bake with. He fed it sterilized Einkorn flour, unfiltered olive oil, and handmilled barley, all of which were available to an ancient Egyptian baker.

He described the scent as different from any other loaf he had made, and it tasted much sweeter and richer than the sourdough we are used to. He has also tried baking with those flours before, and not one other bread turned out as light and fluffy as this one. As interesting as it is to know the process, they went through to extract the yeast from pottery. Take heart in your own sourdough baking. You don’t need to go through the same thing to get your sourdough start back. If you know yourself well enough to admit you’re probably not going to be baking sourdough bread even once a month, this tip is a good option to keep your sourdough recipes in your box, even if it has been a few years since you’ve used them. Gloria D. Gross from North Ogden explained that, in an effort to preserve her start, she has spread a portion of it out on a pan and dried it. Once all the water evaporated, she picked up the flakey chips and put them in a bag. She has even sent her start to people in the mail this way!

Rehydrating a preserved starter

KingArthurbaking.com instructs to save the dried chips in an airtight container somewhere that is cool and dry. When you’re ready to revive the starter, measure one ounce or between 1/4 and 1/3 cup of it and add 1/4 cup lukewarm water. It will take three hours or so to dissolve the chips with some intermittent stirring. Then, feed it about 1/4 cup of flour and place it

somewhere warm. Once it starts bubbling, add 1/4 c water and 1/4 cup flour again. You can repeat this process until it’s just as active as it once was.

Drying it out is one way to preserve it, but how do you know if your start is too far gone? You probably don’t even want to think about how long it’s been sitting there neglected. If you go a long time between feeds, a layer of liquid called hooch will form on the top, which isn’t a problem. You can pour it off or mix it in before feeding your start again. Eventually, the top layer of the start will begin to turn gray, but you can always scoop it off and feed what’s underneath. The real problem comes when you find a streak of orange or pink. According to kingarthurbaking.com, that is a key indicator for a bad start. In Knowable Magazine’s webinar (this is what I watched that got me interested in sourdough), Sourdough librarian, Karl De Smedt, mentioned they go about two months between feeding or refreshing their refrigerated starts in their sourdough library. “I had a start one time, but I forgot about it in my fridge until it was too far gone.” I’ve heard this from friends and acquaintances several times. As I’ve learned about keeping the yeast and bacteria in your start alive, I’ve discovered they are resilient concoctions, unless there’s something pink or orange growing in it. Why not try to leave it out and feed it a few times? Never underestimate the power of the yeast.

remembered flavors

Chocolate sourdough bread

Eight years ago I was living in Vancouver Washington. I was grocery shopping at a local produce store when a loaf of chocolate sourdough bread caught my eye. Intrigued, I decided to try it. I was hooked after eating a toasted slice of it. It had that tangy sourdough flavor and went strangely well with the cocoa. The chocolate chips mixed in added melted sweetness that I looked forward to in every bite. I only lived in that area for about 6 months so once I left I always had my eye out for it. I have looked for it in every bakery I have encountered since, but I have yet to find it elsewhere. Eight years later and I now have a sourdough start and just enough baking knowledge to make my own loaf of it. The first bite of my first loaf was like a very long awaited reunion with a good friend.

Recipe on page 40

Anciently, carpets were weaved by looms. The earliest appearance of the loom in history occurred in about 3000 B.C., when it was already known and widely used in Egypt. The oldest known rugs, in fact, were discovered in 1949 by Russian archaeologist Sergei Rudenko in the Pazyryk Valley of Siberia, high in the Altari mountains. He happened upon the tomb of a Scythian chief prince, thought to be of the Achaemenid Empire, but wholly unknown. This carpet was lucky enough to survive 25 centuries because this tomb had been robbed soon after the burial. On their way out of the tomb, the burglars left the door open, and everything inside the tomb froze and remained preserved. It was clear to see that the Scythian people were horseback riders and hunters because they wove images of griffins, deer, and horseman. Our northern Utah climate forced

History of early home costs:Rugs & Carpeting

BY JENNY GOLDSBERRY This article is part of a series we’re doing on how much homes used to cost back in the day. Last month, we started from the ground up with a piece on the cost of land. This month, we’re working our way up to the history of flooring.

Ute and Shoshone tribes to master handweaving. They would hand spin the wool and weave intricate patterns that told a story. Then, this rug would keep their feet from getting too cold in their adobe homes. Many early pioneers would learn from the Shoshone and Utes, because the first few homes built by settlers only had a dirt floor. As settlers began building houses around the turn of the 20th century, cities across northern Utah inexplicably wrote it into their codes that homes had to have hardwood flooring. It likely slowly weeded out the less sanitary standard of dirt floors. Plus, carpet wasn’t necessarily accessible to everyone then because of its high cost. In addition, there weren’t very many carpet manufacturers at this point. According to an early survey of the industry conducted by a man named Timothy Pitkin in 1834, 20 carpet mills produced about one million square yards. Eventually, the price of carpet started catching up to the price of hardwood flooring. In fact, many builders in the 60s would put in the hardwood floors, as per the building code, but with basically only the raw material of hardwood. It cost approximately $2.75 per square foot to sand and finish the hardwood floors. Meanwhile, carpet was sold by the yard for much cheaper. In 1950, it cost $6.26 per square yard of loom carpet. By 1960, it only cost $4.50, and just five years later, it cost only $3.76. That translated to just over 40 cents per square foot of carpet compared to nearly $3 for a sanded, finished hardwood. So, to save money, builders just installed carpet over the unfinished floors, which, in most cases, were 2-inch red oak. Carpet’s popularity boomed at just the right moment in Utah, because, after the late 60s, the hardwood floor code vanished. Sales increased from about six million square yards in 1951 to nearly 400 million yards in 1968. Families consume about 12 square yards of carpet every year, and 45% of carpet comes from the U.S.

Nowadays, hardwood flooring has gained back its popularity. According to the Multiple Listing Service, 56% of all homes sold that were built prior to 1970 have hardwood, while only 22% of homes built between 1970 and 1999 have hardwood flooring. However, 73% of the newest homes, those built from 20112019, have either hardwood or laminate floors.

EARLY RUGS WERE WOVEN BY LOOMS, A TECHNIQUE DATING BACK TO EGYPT. EARLY UTAH SETTLERS LEARNED HANDWEAVING FROM NATIVE AMERICANS. RUGS WOULD REMAIN POPULAR UNTIL THE 1960S WHEN CARPET BECOME POPULAR AS CHEAPER OPTION.

The Weber Communities That Care Coalition (Weber CTC)

Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet!

April 30, 2022 • 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Bring unused over-the-counter and prescription medications to one of the following locations so they can be safely destroyed.

Smith’s ....................................1485 Harrison Blvd, Ogden Smith’s ...................................2434 North 400 East, N. Ogden Kent’s .....................................3535 W. 5600 S., Roy Kent’s .....................................3673 W. 2600 N., Plain City Macey’s ..................................325 36th Street, Ogden Valley Market ........................2555 Wolf Creek Dr., Eden Morgan County Sheriff’s ....48 W. Young St. Behind the office building parking lot

Make sure your old prescriptions are safely destroyed!

VAPING DEVICES Locations will accept electronic vaping devices and cartridges. Important to note: We cannot accept devices containing lithium ion batteries. Batteries need to be removed prior to drop-off.

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