Tag Archives: holidays

Mama Ruth’s Sour Dough Bread

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This post is part of our Sinclair & Co. for the Holidays series.
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This is my Mama Ruth’s sour dough bread recipie. My grandmother, Ruth Youngblood, was mistress of the domestic arts. Her quilts, afghans, canned goods and pies won all sorts of ribbons in Oklahoma. Her recipes for sour dough are among a handful of items I have written in her own handwriting. I once accidentally threw them in the trash and went wading through days-worth of garbage to retrieve them, they are that precious to me. Fortunately, Mama Ruth put ALL her recipes in plastic sleeves so the recipe cards themselves emerged from the garbage unscathed.

Mama Ruth’s sour dough is a little sweeter than the traditional San Franciso style that had a bite to it. This bread was among the MANY homemade goodies awaiting our arrival at Christmas — along with cherry and apple pies, divinity to DIE for and homemade spiced apple cider.

Sour Dough Starter: before you can make sour dough bread, you’ve got to culture the starter.

1 package active dry yeast
2.5 cups warm water (105-115 degrees)
1 c. Instant nonfat dry milk
2 TBSP. sugar
4 c. All purpose flour

Stir first four ingredients in 2.5 quart crock with lid (non metalic) until yeast is dissolved. Stir in flour until smooth. Loosely cover and let set in warm place for 3-5 days. Stir, then cover with lid and keep in fridge. Whenever you use starter — or every 10 days, whichever comes first — replenish supply by adding 1c. Milk, 1 c. Flour and 1/3 c. Sugar. After “feeding” starter, always allow it to sit at room temperature for a while before returning it to the fridge.

BREAD
1 package yeast
1 TBSP sugar
1/2 c. Warm water
6 c. Flour
1 c. Water
1 egg
1/3 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Oil
1-1/2 t. Salt
1 c. Sour dough starter

Add yeast to 1 TBSP sugar and 1/2 c. Water and set aside

Add starter, 1 c. water, sugar, oil, salt and egg together and blend thoroughly. Add to flour and blend thoroughly. I use my standup mixer for this, using the bread claw until the dough threatens to spill over the bowl.

Put dough in greased bowl, cover and set aside in warm spot until it rises to double its size. Knead again and form into two loaves. Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees, then turn down to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes.

Other Mama’s Cranberry Salad

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This post is part of our Sinclair & Co. for the Holidays series.
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My maternal grandmother, Imogene Nance – Mama Jean to us – was extremely devoted to her mother and sister. There’s a long back-story there; for brevity’s sake, let’s just say that Mama Jean was destitute growing up, and her mother and her sister were all she had.

After Mama Jean and Aunt Kat grew up and started their own families, they would gather together for holiday dinners. My great-grandmother, Margaret – Other Mama to us – contributed the cranberry salad. It was her signature dish.

My mother inherited Other Mama’s old-fashioned food grinder. Here’s a photo of what it looks like:

As a child, I loved helping make the cranberry salad. I loved smelling the orange as the food grinder released the peel’s fragrance, and I loved hearing the pop and crack of cranberries in the blades.

My grandmother once tried using a blender on the cranberries and orange peel, reporting that they came out too mushy. We’ve never tried a food processor, but I would imagine a coarse setting would work.

Here’s the recipe, handed down in my family since the 1930s.

 

Other Mama’s Cranberry Salad

1 package fresh cranberries (12 ounces)
2 small packages lemon Jello
1¾ cups sugar
½ cup chopped pecans
2 naval oranges, peeled and sectioned (remove all white pith)

Coarsely grind cranberries and orange rind through food processor. Dissolve Jello in 2 cups of hot water. Add sugar and stir until thoroughly dissolved. When thickened, add cranberries and orange rind, nuts and sections of orange. Place in mold and refrigerate to congeal. More orange sections may be added if desired.

Here’s a picture of the salad:

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