Spread some on plastic or parchment paper or something. It will dry up and then you can store it. It's kind of the way that they save commercial yeast in the packages - remember that almost all of the yeast cells in the package are dead. I don't remember the exact difference between the rapid rise that came out about 50 years ago and the newer instant rise - if I'm not mistaken one of the main differences is that the newer one has more live yeast cells. As some cells die they entomb a live cell, so you have these little balls of dead cells surrounding a live one and consequently you have a greater proportion of viable cells when you start. The labeling isn't consistent, which is a pain. The vendor can call it whatever he wants But the earlier yeast, whatever it's called, is dried at higher temperatures. That kills more of the exterior yeast cells. The newer one, instant or rapid or whatever, is dried at lower temperatures so more cells survive. So you can do the same. However, at some point that yeast will no longer be viable either - all yeast has an expiration date eventually. Anyhow, good luck with that phase!

I have always had both refrigerated and dried. I make the starter batch, and spread a little onto some plastic wrap. Its allowed to air dry for about 2 days. By then it crumbles easily. I simply place in a small plastic bag and its fine for almost forever, if stored in the fridge. You MUST create the starter from just water, flour, and the orignal sourdough culture. Do not add salt, sugar or anything else to the culture!! Every time I make a batch of sourdough, I mix my jarred, refrigerated one with flour and water to give me a stiff batter, almost a sticky dough, as well as adding a little of the dried. I keep the dried ones in the fridge too. I have several, one for rye, one, my grandfather used 100 years ago, and one with a more recent (30+ year old) sourdough culture from San Francisco. All three are viable and will start 'working' within 4 hours. The water I use has no chlorine, so bottled might help prolong the cultures. I do have a new one pound bag of regular yeast, and its compressed and granulated. I store it in the freezer, unopened. Once it is opened, it goes into a canning jar with air tight lid, then back into the freezer again. Everything mentioned in the King Arthur descriptive above is exactly what I do. I don't mind smelling top of the starter liquid in the fridge, as its 'hooch' (booze) like another person mentioned. There is also another recent post I made that covers the same issues of keeping a sourdough culture alive and well. I don't even bother to feed mine, and it could be sitting in the fridge 6+ months at a time, with no ill effects.

digdirt and jimster thanks for the links , good reading. ksrogers thats a nice story as i always enjoy reading the family ones, on the other forum i have been going to for little over 3 years now we discuss fig tree and there fruit another passion of mine and the family history of the tree's are great to read as well so thanks for shareing that. My granfather in Italy was a baker by trade my father used to tell me but i never met him nor grandmother as they passed when i was small. The cast iron pan gets a ring of slight rust after it cools around inside rim which i scrub with water and then rub in some oil and heat on stove till i use it next ,it is cumbersome and this one pan is just for the bread , when i preheat oven with it i dont get any smoke which is good. I just have to keep at it or it would rust thats for sure, but your right stainless would be much much better. Today i baked a loaf of bread with some starter that i had bought last year, i tried a basket i have with one of those towels in it floured nice, so i made the dough wetter i usually freeform my loaves, i figured since in a basket i could get away with a wetter dough. I had a stone but it cracked on me last year so i use a preheated cookie sheet, i took cookie sheet out of hot oven and placed over the basket i know what your thinking burn towel and basket well that did not happen but the dough flattend out more or less at this point i slashed top and put in oven, now the funny part, my turkey roaster i was going to use i thought well if the dough rises to much it will mess things up so i used tall aluminum stock pot to cover the dough to see what would happen. After about 4 to 5 minutes i pulled rack out of oven and lifted pot up and the dough would have stuck to it as it kept on spreading. So i left top off of dough and misted it and sides of oven, the bread tasted good with slight sour taste this evening with spaghettis and the works but it looked awfull , the crum had nice holes though oh well. I have what they call chicago mettalic pan with a bunch of little holes in it if anyone is familar with it you know what it looks like, trouble is the bread crust pokes thru them iv'e tried several ways, first time for proofing in them (big mess) second time proofing loafs elswhere then baking in them another mistake as they crust still went into the wholes and made it hard to clean. Then i used parchment paper until crust formed enough not to poke thru the holes which is what i do now when i use this , basically im not crazy about it. So im going to try the basket again it seems like it works well and is the right size for the pound and a half bread i make and comes out easy for me i just need to not make the dough as wet, and i should get a bakers peel as well instead of fooling around with a hot cookie sheet like i did today, in the meen time i think i will freeform the loaves till i get the bakers peel 1 day.The starter i bought off ebay seems slow to activate but its getting there, the other one i experimented with is so far going real well as there are many more bubbles now than yesterday , today im dumpind all but a cup and then just adding cup of flour and about cup of water it seems to react faster than the other ones i have dealt with in the past and present so im anxious to try this one, it did have an off odor at first but now it seems to be ok , im going to keep feeding it for a good week and then bake and see what the results are. Sorry for long post but i tried to put what i as thinking all in one post instead of creating several different ones, any comments are always welcome. Martin

Ginny, you will find all kinds of different advice. Here is how I use my starter. When I take it out of the fridge to feed it, I take 2 ounces of the discarded starter (60g) and mix it with 225g of flour and 225g of water. Stir well cover and leave to double. Once it is doubled, I add it to 1000g of flour , 680 to 750g of water, and 26/27g of salt. So based on when you want to make your bread. I would make the preferment now. It should have doubled in about eight hours. Then you can make your dough and put it in the fridge for an overnight longer fermentation. Bake tomorrow. Take the dough out of the fridge about 3 hours prior to shaping. It needs to come to room temperature and start to rise again. Then you can shape and proof and bake. If this is the first time you are using your starter, you might want to add a pinch of yeast just for insurance. Or just take your chances. ~Ann Here is a link that might be useful: Sourdough Bread This post was edited by ann_t on Fri, Nov 14, 14 at 16:51