February 18, 2021 - 5:20am
How do I know if my starter is strong enough if I've kept it in the fridge for long?
I started my sourdough journey last January and after more than 2 weeks I decided to keep my starter in the fridge and I feed it occasionally, but I plan to make bread again this week. How would I know if my starter is good enough? What is the smell or any other sign other than the float test? Any reply would be appreciated. Thank you!
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The easiest thing is to build a levain from your starter, so this way essentially a small bit of your starter is refreshed and will be strengthened (and you'll know if it's not strong without wasting all the flour required for a whole loaf).
I also keep my starter in the frig. If it has been more than 4 days since it was last fed, I take out 10 gm and feed that (1:1:1) and let that mature on the counter until it has peaked. Then I use that for whatever bread I am making (either for a levain build or using the required amount for the dough).
The extra either gets fed at 1:5:5, kept on the counter until I see activity, and becomes my ongoing starter, (back in the frig), or it goes into my discard jar for future use.
Hope that helps!
I’ve generally found that two weeks in the fridge is the upper limit for how long my starter can be refrigerated and a levain made without refreshment. Any longer and it will need to be refreshed. But any less than 2 weeks and I can create an active levain without refreshing my starter.
After two weeks in the fridge your starter will have lost a lot of its volume as the gases have contracted and some been lost to the atmosphere in your fridge so a float test is useless.
As Ilya said, try taking a small amount off say 5 g and feed it 5-10 g and see how quickly and how much it can rise. That’ll give you a good idea of whether it should be refreshed before baking with it. When in doubt just refresh it, then make a levain and bake.
Benny
Benito, do you keep your starter on the countertop before sending to fridge? Asking because from my experience, if you send it to fridge right away, it kind of 'sleeps' and remains low-concentration (because of all the flour in it which hasn't yet turned into starter) for much longer than 2 weeks. And then I take one spoonful out the day before baking, about noon, let it warm to room temp, raise in the process, bubble, because essentially, it is still a fresh starter, and then make levain before going to bed. Never failed. And yes, it stays good that way, without developing hooch, for many weeks. Whereas if I refrigerate at its peak, then it gets sour and hoochy quite quickly, because it is hungry.
That's an interesting idea. I always let it peak and then refrigerate. With whole rye it generally stays strong enough for a direct use in bread for a few days, and a couple of weeks with a single levain build.
Without letting it peak I'd be worried it's not acidic enough and might grow mold...
The mold consideration did not come to my mind. Probably, I was lucky or went through the batch too quick for mold to develop. But thanks for this very logical input.
I feed, place in my proofing box so that the time to peak is predictable. Once peaked, I place it into the fridge. Even after two weeks I’ve never had it separate and develop hooch. I’m baking enough that I feed it once per week, just taking enough out to make a levain without any need to refresh John Dough, until the end of the week. Then it is taken out of the fridge to feed and the cycle starts all over again. Thanks
Benny
llames33, your starter comes with instructions. You either got a recipe from someone, or bought it from someone. So you would have instructions. It's important, because there are many kinds of starters, some are flourless, other are flour based, some are using flours that "balloon and rise" when wet, others use flours without gluten at all, some are liquid other are stiff, etc.
Most importantly, each starter has its own microbial community and rises differently, depending on the kind of yeast that lives in it. Some starters are slow, others are fast rising. Some are very acidic, others have no acid taste whatsoever. So only the person who taught you or sold you your starter will tell you the symptoms of its readiness and strength.
And most importantly of all, some starters are simply not designed to be refrigerated. They change forever once you place them in the fridge and there is no way back. They live forever on the countertop, refreshed once every day or every two days.
We know nothing about the kind of starter that you have, so there is no advice to give, only to share our own experiences.
I currently have 2 starters in my fridge. One is bought from sourdo.com, it's a 200yrs old starter from a Parisian bakery, and another I grew from scratch using Nancy Silverton's recipe from her book. It is suitable for baking San-Francisco sourdough. Both starters sat for 6 months in the fridge unfed, undisturbed in enclosed jars. They are designed to be that resilient, they wouldn't change even after one year in the fridge without refreshments! I refreshed both to get them ready for baking.
The France sourdough was ready for baking after 5 days of repeated feedings 2x daily, each time I was using 1/2 cup of starter and 100g of flour and 150g of water. I kept it at 27-32C. I also had to wash the starter 3 times, this process of very specific for that starter. It was very foamy and rising like crazy after one day of refreshments, but it wasn't ready. The yeast was eager, the yeast population was booming, but the lactic bacteria community of the starter was not restored yet, the typical heavenly aroma and taste of that starter was not there, not until 5 days later.
The Nancy Silverton starter was ready for baking after 1 day of feedings, 3 feedings in a row, each time I was using 200g starter, 120g water, 80g flour. It rose and smelled absolutely celestial. And so tasty, even raw. A great starter!
They look very different and they smell very different, they are simply different starters with different communities of microbes in them. One bakes bread that is not acid at all, French bread, and another - bread that is quite acidic in taste, like San-Francisco sourdough.
I know when they are in peak condition because I have experience with them and because I use a rule that professional bakers use, a rule for a standard starter strength: bread dough inoculated with the starter should raise 4x in volume after 6-8 hrs of fermentation at 27C. So I take 70g bread flour, 40g water and 50g starter, mix and let it rise for 6 hrs at 25-27C and see if it quadruples. Then I know whether it is strong enough to bake bread.
Your particular starter can be stronger or weaker than that and be ok for home baking. But then you would not be able to use other people's recipes for sourdough, because then times of fermentation and rise in the oven will be off.