Hi Folks
I pulled out a starter that’s been dormant in my fridge for a few years. It still look good color wise, with layer of alcohol on top, so I stirred it up yesterday and started the refresh process.
I refreshed at 1:1:1 with 100g of each using APF - 300 g total. Left it at room temperature in a sealed mason jar.
4-5 hours later there was some bubbling but no rising.
I refreshed again 1:1:1 with 110g of each. But this time used 11g of rye flour and the rest APF. Left it at room temperature but with a cloth top secured with a rubber band, instead of lid.
No action overnight...no sign of bubbling and no evidence on jar that it rose overnight.
Any ideas? I don’t mind starting a brand new one, but thought it might be nice to revive this one.
Hmmm that’s serious suspended animation territory, but it can be done. At the very least, what you have there is a little jar of acid, which is a welcoming environment to encourage the beasties you want, far better than starting from scratch.
So what I recommend is stir it up well, then take a couple of spoonfuls of it and add to 5x weight of flour (at least 2% wholewheat) and 5x weight of water. Set it on the counter top, sit back and see what happens. Give it time for all visible activity to cease before feeding again, something more like 1:1:1 at that point.
I’m going to stick my neck out and speculate that you might have a viable culture within a week... please let us know how you get on :)
I’m in New England and it is bit warmer today...yesterday it snowed and was a bit cool in the house. The starter spent the day on my windowsill on yesterday’s refresh and it’s now more than doubled in size.
I’ll let it come back down to original level before my next 1:1:1 refresh, which would be my third since the dormancy period.
Do you think it will be ready to raise a loaf after the next refresh or should I do a 4th?
Thanks!
Well that’s great to hear - and pretty amazing!
I’d say if it’s reliably doubling in size in less than 8hrs it’s good to bake with... yes, you could give it another cycle to be on the safe side but what the heck: go for it ;-)