Is this old sourdough starter is still good to use?
7 years ago
I've had a sourdough starter in the back of my fridge for about 1-1/2 years and wonder if it's still good. It's been in the same closed Mason jar all the time. While it smells strong, it's not a rotten or putrid smell. My husband says it smells like fermented soy sauce.
I understand that some might say "looks disgusting; just throw it out", but I'm looking for some experienced feedback from people who have had similar experiences or know more about it. Thanks.
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Sourdough Starter
Comments (6)If you do not bake bread everyday, the starter does not have to be fed everyday. I would think you should store your starter between bakings in the refrigerator. Then when you want to make bread, you plan ahead: take the starter out of the fridge, let it come up to room temp for a couple of hours, feed it with equal parts of water (I use filtered) and flour (I use unbleached all purpose), let it "work" for a few hours until it rises up in the container then starts to fall back - at this point you mix your bread. If you have only a little starter left after making bread, you feed it again, let it work for a few hours, then store in the fridge until the next time you want to bake bread....See MoreLOOKING for: Recipes using Sourdough Starter
Comments (1)Here is a good recipe for Sourdough English Muffins Sourdough English Muffins from "Sourdough Cookin'" by Dean Tucker, 1 cup sourdough starter (after being fed and left to expand for several hours) 2 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour 3/4 cup buttermilk 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal 1 t. baking soda 1/2 t. salt Take buttermilk and starter from refrigerator at least 30 minutes before preparing recipe. When all ingredients are at room temp, combine and stir well. Turn dough onto a lightly floured board or work surface and knead until smooth or knead about 5 minutes in a heavy duty mixer such as a Kitchen Aid or Bosch, adding a little more flour if necessary. Roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Cut with a floured 3 or 4-inch round floured biscuit cutter. You can use a very clean tuna can with both ends cut out if need be. Sprinkle 2 TB cornmeal on a sheet of waxed paper. Place muffins on cornmeal and press lightly to coat each side. Cover with plastic wrap and a clean towel and let rise for 1 hour. Cook muffins on a lightly greased griddle heated to 350 (or a medium low burner) for 20 minutes (or less-see my note), turning occasionally while cooking. When done, split and butter and toast, then spread with honey or your favorite jam, jelly, or cream cheese. Recipe makes 10-12 muffins. Note: you can sub 1 cup whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the unbleached if you want whole wheat muffins. I made a note that mine took only 6-7 minutes per side to bake on a lightly greased cast iron griddle. Teresa...See MoreExperts herald Canadian woman's 120-year-old sourdough starter!
Comments (16)Annie, did you ever hear the medical old saw that someone isn't dead until he's warm and dead? Meaning that life signs can be hidden by the cold? Same is true with starter. If you think it has died in the fridge, it probably hasn't if it had any legs at all. Pour off the hooch (brown alcoholic liquid) and use a spoon to remove the darkest of the gray part. Feed the rest, let it sit up to a day until you see a bubble. Feed it again. By the time it's warm and had a couple of good meals, it should start burping its thank-yous and showing rising signs of life. Feed it a couple more times in the warmth, until it doubles volume in 12 hours (8 is better) and you can put it back in the fridge to hibernate. Once a starter is established, it's really a resilient little pet. You can also dry your starter and wake it up a few days before you want to start baking......See MoreSourdough starter - Can we talk?
Comments (46)Sooo....shortly before this current pandemic quarantine thing started, I started a starter. Just put equal volume of purified water and organic rye flakes and in about 36 hours I had bubbles.....so I began the discard feed routine and soon I had a starter going that doubled in about 8 hours.....but by then flour was very hard to get and I had committed to baking bread every day and giving it away, so I stashed the starter and the current jar of discard int he refrig and forgot about it for easily 3 weeks....likely longer, time flies during this quarantine and one day looks like another. Last Sunday My grand daughter came over to visit....through the door or outside at a respectable distance and asked if I could spare some starter as she had a friend who wanted to try some. So. I dug out the jar,. and poured some into another fed it, fed what I had left and sent her home with the starter and directions to feed it again before bed and again in the morning and again after work when she would give it to her friend.......and I did the same for my jar and both are up and running. I stirrred the hooch back into the starter along with any dark stuff on top....sites I have read say it's fine and I found it to be so. I have been using the discard as part of the volume in my "daily bread' and it adds to the flavor profile but I don't even think of asking it to provide leavening all by itself. but tomorrow morning, I will make myself a mix with just the starter and no yeast and leave it on the counter to rise for about 18 hours and hope it will give me some loft.....then I will bake in my Enamel cast iron Dutch oven. I'll report back. But what I have learned is that even a young and very neglected starter has live yeast if it doesn't smell rotten.....and if fed it will grow. And For L Pink the reason you don't just add flour and water to increase the volume is the food in the starter is then very quickly used up.....as there are more yeasty-beasties to eat the carbs. So either increase what you feed your starter or discard and refrigerate the discard and feed what is left....See More
7 years ago- 7 years ago
7 years ago- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
Here’s an update: a bubble or two appeared after about 12 hours, and now after about 40 hours (one feeding, no discard, just sitting on covered with light towel counter) there are several (see pics). So I guess it’s alive! Overnight the little layer of dark separation that you see formed. I’m thinking I’ll try to pour that off and feed, without discard, as per @pilllog’s suggestion. Also, it still smells quite strong. Volume didn’t increase in the 40 hours.
@artemis_ma: i don’t suggest waiting 1-1/2 yrs between loaves!!
- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
Wow, this is cool! It looks totally happy. And volume increased by about 33% in 12 hours. I will now start the discard/feed process.
- 7 years ago
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