Starter starting again.

putitupmike

  I don't use my starter all that often,  Me mate an I are older and conscience of both Carbos and calories.  I tossed my old starter because it sat for months without being fed.  I started over a few weeks ago and just used some, re-fed and it is bubbling like crazy.  If it is kept in a refer how long can I go before I must feed it?  Also I got some dry started from a Sourdough page and it's like 100 years old.  Should I add it to my new batch? 

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farinam's picture
farinam 2013 June 20

Hello Mike,

I bake about one a week and the starter stays in the fridge from one bake to the next without feeding.  I have been away on holidays for four weeks and after a couple of feeds things are back to normal.  Basically, the beasties go into dormancy/stasis when there is no food about and would take an awfully long time to die off completely.  I think this is evidenced by the fact that your old starter got going again when you started to revive it.

As for your 100 year old starter, I think these are a bit like Captain Cook's axe - five new heads and ten new handles - but still the same axe.  However, as an experiment, why not keep both going and do a comparison to see if they are intrinsically different.  Bake alternately with each one and see if they maintain their identity or if they converge in character.

Let us know how they go and good luck with your projects.

Farinam

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