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Sour Dough Flapjacks
I CUP SOUR DOUGH SPONGE (SEE RECIPE) 1/2 CUP MILK (OR WATER) I EGG, BEATEN I TABLESPOON SUGAR 12 TEASPOON SODA 1/2 TEASPOON SALT SUFFICIENT FLOUR TO MAKE BATTER Mix ingredients in order given. Beat until foamy before putting in the flour. The egg may be omitted if necessary, or if you are using egg powder 1/2 egg will be sufficient.
A camp pancake built on a live sourdough starter rather than baking powder, with soda added at the last moment to cut the acid and raise the batter. The whole thing depends on getting it to the griddle promptly.
- Sour dough spongeThe book gives its own recipe for this; typically a loose flour-and-water batter fed with a little starter and left to ferment overnight until bubbly and sharp-smelling. A cup of such a sponge is roughly 250 g, depending how slack it is.
- The soda is the hingeThe recipe puts it in before the flour, and the batter should go to the griddle promptly. The soda neutralises the starter's acid and the carbon dioxide it throws off helps lift the cake; a batter left standing loses much of that gas and bakes flatter.
- "Sufficient flour"Add flour a little at a time until the batter ribbons off the spoon. The amount will vary with how slack your sponge is, so it is worth adding it in stages. Thinner batter gives lacy, crisp-edged cakes; thicker gives tall, cakey ones.
- Griddle heatModerate, lightly greased. Turn when the surface is matte and the bubbles at the edge stop refilling. A very hot pan risks darkening the outside before the middle sets.
- Egg powderDried whole egg was common camp and wartime kit. "1/2 egg" presumably means half whatever the tin's directions give for one egg; reconstituting it with its water before it goes in is the safer reading. The recipe treats fresh egg as the default and says it may be omitted entirely.
- Keeping the starter aliveTake out only part of the sponge and refresh the remainder with flour and water before you use the rest, so there is something to build on tomorrow.
Sourdough was the practical leaven of the trail and the North: a starter kept warm travels where a tin of baking powder gets wet, and it works with nothing but flour and water to feed it. The association is strong enough that Klondike and Yukon veterans were themselves called sourdoughs, the name generally traced to prospectors who carried a crock of starter through the winter. Soda alongside a sourdough sponge was a common combination, the soda taming a sponge that had gone sharper than anyone wanted at breakfast. Egg powder in the alternative line fits an era of packed rations and outfitting lists, where fresh eggs were often done without.