Fridge Temp for Starter
I bake about once a week; maybe twice but I usually have discard for the pizza dough. I would like to be able to feed my starter once a week rather than daily and for sure not twice a day.
Hamelman in "Bread" quotes Calvel who says that if you store starter in the fridge for weekly feedings the temp has to be 8 -10℃ (46.4 - 50 ℉). He also quotes another baker who says that temps below 8℃ destroy wild yeasts. That may explain why I have had difficulty creating and maintaining a starter. We keep our fridge at 37℉.
So is there any way I could keep a starter in the fridge? Is there a starter, whole wheat or rye, liquid, or stiff, that could survive in the fridge at 37℉? If that's too cold for wild yeasts, that's the way it is.
Is there a way to keep a starter at room temp with less frequent feedings? Maybe instead of a 1:1:1 daily a 1:5:5 might keep it fed for 3-4 days?
Thanks
37F should not be a problem for the starter. Just let it grow after feeding and place in the fridge. Feed again in a week.
However you might want to make sure your new starter is sufficiently strong and robust before refrigerating, putting a very young starter in the fridge might perturb it too much. An established starter will have no problems, although the yeast and bacteria in it might change or adapt to colder temperatures and it will affect the resulting bread (not in a bad way necessarily, it'll just taste different).
You might like this approach: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/40918/no-muss-no-fuss-starter
Whole rye starter stores really well in the fridge for a long time.
For the guidance on the rye.
37 isn't detrimental except over long periods of time. If you tried to create a starter at that temp, you will at the very least have a real hard time creating one - to the point of not creating one.
Questions
If baking on a relatively regular basis, fridge is not needed, neither is discard (such a waste). Enjoy!
Thanks for the insight. I guess I should expect to baby the starter for at least a week and maybe two before it is sturdy enough for the fridge
I've had difficulty creating a rye starter with 100% hydration. But we have been having unseasonably chilly weather. The Proofer setting on our oven runs at 80℉ which might have been a little too warm. .
Never mind - your schedule is for fridge storage and the method/formula i would suggest isn't for that. By the way - 80 is about where you want to be, especially when starting a starter. Enjoy!
I feed my starter weekly allowing it to peak fully with the dome just starting to fall and then I refrigerate it for the week removing some as needed to build a levain. I keep my fridge at 3°C to try to keep the microbial activity low in the starter. This works just fine for me and I bake bread well without having to do multiple feeds prior to building a levain so long as I feed it weekly I can use it directly from the fridge during that seven days to build a levain.
It sounds as if the key factor is feeding and keeping the starter at room temp until it's really active before sticking it in the fridge for a week.
I also keep my starter in the fridge, which we have set at 37F (2.7C), and have done for several years without any problems. Like others have stated, if you don't feed it weekly you will likely need to give it several feeds before you want to use it. If you are baking weekly, the extra 'wake up' feeds are not usually necessary. But everyone's variables are different so you will just how to see how yours responds to the cold treatment. You can try 1:1:1 refreshes straight from the fridge (during the day) and see how your starter responds and note the clock to see how long it takes to wake up and double or triple. Then you will know what to expect and when your starter will be ready for use. I usually start a levain or feed for a dough recipe the night before (with starter straight from the fridge), feeding 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 which I know won't peak until the next morning when I am ready to use it...straight 1:1:1 feeds peak too soon over night for me. I learned very quickly that daily or twice daily starter feeds were not something I was ever going to be interested in.
The evening before a baking day when you build the levain overnight, do you first feed the starter 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 and immediately use the just-fed starter in the levain? This has the effect of the feeding the starter not used in the levain for the next week and setting the levain up to peak the next morning, ready to mix and bake.
After feeding the starter and building the levain, do you leave the starter out at room temp until it peaks the next morning more or less the same time as the levain, or does it go right back in the fridge, or do you leave it out a few hours and then back in the fridge?
Thanks
Hi Louis! Yes, if I'm understanding your question correctly, I leave the refreshed (just fed starter) out at room temp overnight after a 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 feed, either for baking or refreshing. So, it will sit out at room temp for about 8 hours (overnight) and is peaking just when I want to use it--you can also portion off some to put back in the fridge at this time as your 'refreshed' starter, ready to go in another week or so for whatever baking you want to do.
You just have to make sure you are building enough for your dough formula (whatever recipe(s) you plan on making that day) as well as portioning a bit off to either pop right into the fridge for next time (fully fed started waiting to be used) or a smaller amount of scrapings that you feed a bit too (at whatever ratio you want) wait for peak in a few hours, then pop back into the fridge so that it is ready next time for use. Some folks here just put the scrapings and the jar back into the fridge and will refresh their scrapings next time they need to build up some for a bake.
If you have a specific levain recipe/process that calls for a certain amount of refreshed starter, refreshing the starter would be the first step, then the levain build following using the refreshed starter.
I hope that all makes sense...if not, just reach back out. Happy to help!
Thanks very much for the clarification.
If I understand correctly,
"Bread" by Hamelman has a formula for a miche that calls for 40g of mature stiff starter to be mixed with 200g of whole wheat flour + 120g of water to be left for 12 hrs to ferment. before mixing the final dough. So if this is my weekly loaf then;: