I live in a big old cold house. We also have a wood stove in the living room. I have trouble keeping my starter robust during the winter. It will thrive during the day while the fire is going but then drop off overnight when the fire goes out. (we keep the thermostat around 68 but it feels quite a bit colder than that in most places) I have some sizeable hydroflask stainless steel insulated food containers. I was just wondering if anyone has tried using those as their primary starter container to hold some heat in over cold winter nights?? Cheers and thanks for any thoughts!
at night, like the top of the refrigerator, or in a cardboard box with a small light bulb? We have an above-the-stove microwave with a stove surface light in the bottom. With the light on low the microwave is perfect for starter on a cold night. Our house goes down to the low 60's at night, and our daytime setting is 68F. My starter may just be used to it, and so conditioned to live that way, but it seems to do fine in the environment. Yes, it does slow down some during the current (very) long winter nights, but it still bakes up good bread even so.
I'm going to look up those containers because I've never heard of them. They might be useful in our 5th weheel trailer. Thanks for the tip.
Best of Luck
OldWoodenSpoon
Lol sorry but just gotta chuckle! I'm a fan of cold, about 50 is the norm in my kitchen. No problems with starters. Key point though is to keep it warm enough for long enough to ferment enough by the time it's needed again. Other considerations unnecessary. Adjust for the environment - fundamentals always apply. To the question - if metal lined, i would avoid long term. If big enough to hold a jar, throw it in. Enjoy!
phaz - with a kitchen that cold, how long does it take from the time you feed your starter to the time you'd consider it optimal to start a dough?
Give it a try. I don't think stainless will be any problem. Reactive metals should be avoided but I don't know of any evidence that stainless causes any issues.
Just put a small zip lock bag with 85°F water in the bottom and a small starter container on top. Keeps my coffee hot for 24 hours.
I've used this only to make yogurt in but I was thinking the other day it could be used for a starter. You just fill it with really hot water for about 5 mins to warm everything up (both the containers and the lids), drain, put whatever you need inside (you could use the glass jar it comes with for your starter), put on the lid and leave it overnight. When I've used it to make yogurt, the inside jar is still warmish in the morning so I think it would do a great job of keeping everything nice and toasty, although I do wrap the thermos in a thick tea towel. The nice thing here is that the starter stays in a largish jar that you would just lift out.
Insulated thermos and jar