April 5, 2015 - 8:37am
WAKING DRIED STARTER QUESTION
I just got my dried starter that I ordered from e bay , Its called Larry from the mining camps near San Fransisco
and the instructions say to keep it in an oven at 100f for 5 days to get it started
my oven does not go down that low and the light does not work
if I keep it on the counter at 70-75f will it still work just slower ?
Share
Don't know what instructions they've given you but my recent attempt at reviving a homemade dried starter was successful at room temperature. With no instructions at all I just added some boiled water which was cooled to room temperature and stirred till fully incorporated. Then I fed it 1:1:1 by weight. And left it till it woke up stirring every now and again. Took two days but patience is a virtue. Then I started a feeding schedule to bring it back to full strength. No need to keep feeding till it's revived otherwise your feeding nothing and diluting the mixture and discarding the wild yeasts.
I always feed my starter with boiled water that has been cooled! to room temperature. Starters don't like chlorine.
is all I've ever used. Never had a problem. (and my tap water is chlorinated)
-Gordon
I agree, I do not use boiled or cooled or filtered water, straight from the tab and my starter is happy for almost 2 years now.
Take a gander at the link below. I dried my starter out in the oven in June, and used the method to revive in Sept. after a few months away. Good as new...
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/142323#comment-142323
alan
I have several small backup dried starters in my pantry. As we will be away travelling for several months soon, I decided to revive some to see how and if it really was viable. I just mixed a little with bottled water and left to hydrate on the bench at around 22 deg C. 1 batch was flakes, the other I ground up. It took a couple of days and did seem sluggish even tho I gave a small feed. Then I mixed them together, gave them a good feed and away they went. I put in fridge as wasn't baking and forgot about it. A week later had a lightbulb moment, refreshed it and baked a multigrain loaf successfully.
I plan to leave starter in fridge but feel a lot better knowing that I have a viable backup just in case.
I don't see that a commercially made starter will be any different. It will just take a few days to get going.
Although drying starters is the done thing, I find freezing works very well too. Feed your starter, allow it to bubble up and feed by 1/3rd then take a little off to freeze.
Whole rye starters can survive in the fridge between feeds for weeks. As long as they have reserves when you refrigerate. Mine can go for 3 weeks between feeds sometimes. Others on TFL have left theirs for months. Freezing, of course, much longer.
Other wheat starters I find are less resilient.
but it is still a month away, time for a couple more bake days! I will get withdrawal symptoms that is for sure, I am loving sourdough bread baking -flavour and texture are much better than yeasted! I just have to get a bit more adventuresome in the future. :) In the mean time, I think I will put aside some more of sourdough starter to air dry while it is still warm enough (its autumn here), and also put some into the freezer. No harm in "being prepared" is there. Then I can just feed my starter before we go and leave it in the fridge to sleep!
Leslie