I cleaned out the refridge recently. Anyone who has undertaken such a task knows the perils and pearls. Among the perils were 3 containers of soudough starter in various stages of neglect. I decided to experiment.
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Bill had gotten sick in the spring and summer had been so hot so I had not made bread nor even thought of the little yeasty beasties in the fridge. The I broke my ankle in the fall and all bets were off. So I was starting over, trying to build enough good starter to bake at least one loaf of bread this week
Item A was the mostly dried starter I made last year about this time I think. You mix it with a lot of flour until it is about the consistency of play doh and store it sealed up in the fridge til you need to start some new starter for bread. It is in suspended animation of a sort.
Item B was a container of unfed starter that looked ok and didn’t smell bad but was mostly dead. It has been sitting since the last time I made bread.
Item C was a small jar of left over starter to make dog biscuits. The time for it had long since passed and I let it go. I almost had to blast it out of the jar. Starter is serious stuff when it sets.
So, I took 10 grams of each A and B into its own jar, added 10 grams of flour and water and watched them. There were tiny bubbles in jar B but larger ones in jar A. I left it to feed and grow. A looked very strong but B was a little wimpy. Then I took 20 grams of each, adding 20 grams of flour and water and left it to grow again. Waiting…
A grew more and had more and larger bubbles. B grew at a good pace but not as fast and was not as bubbly as A. The next step was to take 30 grams of each and feed the same ratio as above. But there was more than 30 grams of A so I put the extra into B’s jar, fed them and waited…
A grew quite well, up to 86 grams. I fed it but not B, which had grown and looked bubblier than it had been. I left it for the leftovers from tomorrow and then will store it for dog biscuits. It doesn’t need to be fed for that. Meanwhile, I fed A 86 grams of water and flour and will see if there is enough tomorrow to make bread. There was enough left to make a smaller jar also.
This morning, the election news was better than expected and the beasts of yeast were abubbly in their jars. There was enough to make bread in the smaller jar and more than enough in the larger. I made a loaf using all the starter in the small jar and it is in the fridge, rising for about 16 hours. I will bake it Thursday morning and will post a picture if it looks good. I plan to use up the larger jar for two loaves in the next week and then add the leftovers to the dog biscuit recipe and bake some for Razzle.
It is nice to be back to baking bread, now that we are feeling better and it is cooler. This long term rising loaf sits in the fridge for hours and it doesn’t care if it is cold in the house like the kind you let rise on the counter in the summer does. This kind is good for winter.
Have a good day.