Does yeast fly ... ?? | The Fresh Loaf

... or, more precisely, does anyone have experience taking active starter on a vacation by air [to bake with at the in-laws' for Thanksgiving, fer instance. ;7) ]

Thanks,

- Richard

www.oldWithoutMoney.com

Recent bread porn:

http://www.oldwithoutmoney.com/sourFrenchCrust1a.JPG
http://www.oldwithoutmoney.com/sourFrenchCrumb1a.JPG

I know that I'm *able* to put the starter in a container and take it on the plane ...

I'm just wondering if anyone has actually done it and can advise whether the organisms suffer unduly from the change in altitude (in which case I'll just bring some Instant or Active Dry).

Cheers,

- Richard

www.oldwithoutmoney.com

this worked going from columbia SC, to halifax NS.

refresh your starter to an as lively as possible state.

make a thin pancake batter with it. pour on wax paper. let dry.

blend in food processor etc.

fly. land. rehydrate + plus a little flour. then begin refreshing as normal.

Hi expatCanuck, I have traveled with sourdough starter by plane. I have carried it on in a small transparent plastic container made by Rubbermaid, placed in my backback or in a duffle bag. The carry-ons went through the security x-ray. They were not searched. No hassle. As they say, YMMV. Good luck.
David

Ahh yes...this brings back some memories - earlier on this year I flew overseas and had a connecting flight along the way. That meant it would be about 24 hours from the time I left home til I arrived at my destination. Since I was worried about onboard security checks, I decided to pack the starter in my suitcase. To get it ready, I fed it and made as tight a dough as possible, just kneading in more and more flour. Double packed it in ziploc bags, and into the suitcase it went. Then the all time dreaded " my suitcase is lost" happened. To make the story short, 4 days later I got my suitcase and the starter survived whatever it had been through. It took a few refreshments to recover, and in the meantime I started up another one, but in the end it was fine. I think the fact that it was very very stiff, helped to keep it alive.

If it's really important to you than I suggest taking a bit of it in your hand luggage as well.

At the time MiniOven said that she always makes up some large, easy readable identification cardboards to place inside the suitcase in case the tag on the outside gets lost, so that's what I've doing since.

Good luck!

L_M