Reviving Sourdough Starter {Even If It's Been Months} - Crave The Good (2024)

FAQs

Reviving Sourdough Starter {Even If It's Been Months} - Crave The Good? ›

If your sourdough starter is simply thin and watery, and still has an acidic, vinegary smell, then it's likely still safe to revive. To revive a neglected starter, Crave the Good recommends letting it come to room temperature before mixing equal parts sourdough, water, and flour, and letting it sit out to ferment.

Reviving a sourdough starter that has been stored in the fridge for a longer period of time is a good idea. This can be done by feeding it equal parts flour and water, allowing it to sit at room temperature for 12 hours, and then feeding it again.

Take 50g of starter from the jar and feed it another 100g of flour and 100g of water. Leave the starter for around 12 hours. After this second feeding it should double. If it does then it's ready to use.

Typical signs of food spoilage and mold include pink, orange, or green colors, white fuzzy spots, or sometimes areas that are darker with white areas on top. If you see any of these signs, I would recommend throwing your starter away and creating a new one.

While the age of your starter won't make your bread any better — turns out, only good sourdough practices can do that — it's a link in the long legacy of sourdough, one of the oldest forms of baking that exists. Whether your starter is a week or a decade old, you can become part of that lineage as well.

Many established starters have lived unused in fridges for weeks and months and have been absolutely fine, working perfectly when next used. If you got your starter out of the fridge thinking you were going to have time to make some dough up but it turns out you haven't, just put it untouched back in the fridge.

What Does Bad Sourdough Starter Look Like? It's usually pretty obvious when your starter has gone bad. You will either see mold or discoloration (generally pink or orange). If you see either of these things, you will need to toss your starter.

However, I've had starters that were in serious trouble develop pronounced acetone aromas. Acetone is the main ingredient in cheap fingernail polish remover. If you smell that, it's probably time to start a new starter.

What to do: Toss it. While I don't recommend it, I have heard of starters being saved by taking a few tablespoons of starter without visible mold (nearest the bottom of the jar), rehoming this into a new jar, and then encouraging a sour starter with delayed feedings of equal parts water and flour.

REVIVING A LOAF FOR FRESH EATING

Splash some water over the top of your bread, just enough to become slightly damp. Place the loaf in a 250°F oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Watch it closely and remove it when warm. Too long in the oven and you'll get dried-out toast.

What does moldy sourdough starter look like? ›

Most likely, you will know if you have mold on your starter or not. It is often black and fuzzy growth on the side of the jar or on top of your starter. Bad bacteria can also appear as an orange tinge or pink streaks. However, if you see a brown liquid sitting on top of your sourdough starter that is called “hooch”.

Yeast will die if exposed to temps of 60C or above (140F). It is very likely that your sourdough starter will actually die at temps lower than this. Anything above 120F (50C) would be considered too hot for a sourdough starter and will kill the wild yeast if exposed for long periods.

To revive your old sourdough starter (or make starter more active), try feeding it with half regular flour (bread flour or all-purpose) and half wheat or rye flour. Rye seems to make sourdough starter especially bubbly! Your starter may be cold. Use a thermometer to monitor the temperature where the starter is stored.

Blackley's sourdough starter, created from 4,500 year-old yeast, is considered the oldest sourdough starter, per Oldest. Other starters like the Saint Honoratus Wheat also are quite old. A bakery called Chrissi's Farmhouse Bakery uses it and said, “This noble starter dates back 900 years.

No you do not have to stir sourdough starter before you use it. You measure the sourdough starter by weight, not volume, so stirring it or not makes absolutely no difference. What does "fed" sourdough starter mean? Fed sourdough starter refers to a starter that has been fed flour and water (preferably by weight).

The longer you leave your dough in the refrigerator, the more sour and complex flavors it will develop. You can easily leave a loaf in the refrigerator for 3 days before baking. I've gone as long as 5 days, but you will see some deterioration of the loaf after Day 3.

If you are following my no discard, no feeding sourdough maintenance method, you will keep it in the refrigerator for the most part. Even a healthy sourdough starter can grow mold if you keep it at high humidity.

The discard could be sitting in the fridge for several days, up to 2 weeks, which is far too long without feeding in an environment that's too cold. The mixture is likely overly acidic and won't be properly balanced—in terms of bacteria and yeast populations—for leavening dough.

I'll share my tips on the best way to store sourdough and a plan on the best way to eat it too. Sourdough bread will keep well for up to 3-5 days at a moderate room temperature of 18-20°C or 64-68°F. The warmer and more humid the conditions become, the more chance the sourdough has of spoiling.