September 9, 2023 - 7:25am
Biology of a neglected starter
So once again I am resurrecting my refrigerated starter after a month or more without feeding. The starter (as a whole) always responds/revives quickly but I'm wondering what's actually happening. Does the yeast component rebound promptly or does it lag behind the other beneficial beasties? Thank you.
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In general, starters “neglected “ in refrigeration tend to be quite resilient. Not (scientifically) sure about the balance but the revived starter has the taste, smell, and performance as it had before refrigeration so I guess that the balance is maintained or very quickly reestablishes.
One month isn’t a long vacation… mine has gone nearly a year and atill revived, albeit wit increasingly more effort.
Sometimes, when it takes so many refreshments to "revive" an old starter, I wonder if I'm not just building a new one instead. I don't know how to tell the difference.