DCHP-3

sourdough

Esp. Northwest
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1an.

fermenting dough, often a piece held over from a previous baking, used as a starter in baking bread, biscuits, etc.

Sourdough was a staple in the camps and cabins of prospectors and others during the gold-rush days in the Cariboo and the Klondike.

Quotations

1864
Gie my respecks to ye're guid wife;
If ever I get back to Fife,
I'll teach her hoo to mak loaf bread,
Wi' sour dough. . . .
1900
"Boys, it would have done your hearts good to see that whole tribe fighting drunk--and all because of a glorious ferment of sugar and sour dough."
1951
Dudley went on, by mixing three-fourths of the sourdough with a tablespoon of melted fat and a cup of flour into which a teaspoon of baking soda had been well stirred.
1962
The grub supply was getting low as to variety . . . No sugar, baking powder, sour-dough or fruit.
1bn.

(used attributively) made of sourdough.

Quotations

1938
These sour dough hot cakes, made right on top of the stove by the men of the north, have no equal anywhere.
1962
As breakfasts vary with hotcakes, sourdough biscuits, muffins and toast, most of the bread is used for sandwich lunches.
1966
For the adults, there was legal gambling, sourdough flapjacks and the town was awash with bottled spirits. . . .
2an. — Hist.

a prospector or miner who crossed the White, Chilcoot, or Dyea passes into the Yukon gold-fields before 1898, so called because his staple was sourdough bread.

Quotations

1899
Good judges among the sour doughs predict that the river will clear this week.
1963
The narrow-gauge railway . . . follows the shore of Lake Bennett, following a path beaten so hard by the thousands of sourdoughs that the gold trail is still visible today
2bn.

a prospector, especially an experienced one who spends a lot of time in the wilderness.

Quotations

1901
It means longs walks, and plenty of them; but walking has no terrors for the "sourdough" when he is only talking about it.
1957
The man looked like a sourdough and was panning for gold among the gravels of Bonanza Creek whose rich finds in 1896 set off the Yukon gold rush.
1963
But a rank greenhorn can have just as much fun making like a sourdough with a basic prospector's kit, a set of mineral samples and a layman's geological guide.
2cn.

any old hand in the Yukon or the Northwest Territories; an old-timer, as opposed to a greenhorn, or cheechako.

Quotations

1898
The usual strong expletives had been used expressive of their meeting and Mr. Chee Chaco was not looking for information from his old friend Mr. Sour Dough.
1944
Trapper Top is the prototype of Canadian Sourdoughs the Northland over!
1954
I was now a sourdough, according to the accepted definition, for I had watched the river freeze up in the fall and break to pieces with a grinding roar in the spring.
3n.

bread made with dough started with sourdough (def. la).

Quotations

1935
These sourdoughs are started from yeast, potato water and flour--whole wheat preferred.
1958
. . . and celebrated New Years by making sourdough to eat with beans.