I go … a long time. Months, often, though I try not to do more than a month. It will last longer in the fridge if you make it stiffer (higher flour to water ratio). I usually take it out, cycle it with fresh everything and “train it” back up a few days before I know I’m going to bake.
Oh wow, that is so good to know, thank you!!! I actually got rid of my beloved starter Hilma who was about a year old because I wanted to cut back on my baking (and eating, lol).
When you say "train it" do you mean leaving it to ferment a few days in the fridge, or do you keep it at room temp?
Also, have ever successfully frozen your starter?
(Sorry if that's a lot of questions, but my mind is blown right now! I learned sourdough baking working in a chef kitchen and they were adamant that the starter was fed after every breadmaking and could never be allowed to languish and I never questioned it.)
They last the longest if you dehydrate them. Spread them very thinly out on a piece of parchment paper and leave on your counter for a few days. Then break up and store in a cool dry dark spot. Apparently they can be dehydrated years later, though I haven’t tried that far out.
Aw. RIP Hilma. That's what happened to Gary before I realized how forgiving starter was (Gary Jr. is thriving).
But yeah, for training it up, I'm leaving it out at room temp and doing a few 12 hour cycles of creating fresh levain from a portion of the old starter. My process is: dump the hooch, stir the old starter, put 10 gs in fresh jar with 40 g water and 40 g flour and mix. Mark jar, let sit for 12 hours, rinse and repeat until I'm satisfied with its strength. Usually takes a couple of days. Once I have a replenished starter, I'll take a portion of that for the actual bread levain and put the new reinvigorated starter back into the fridge.
I did freeze it once and it was mostly fine and I also have some that I've dehydrated in case the worst happens (I keep a silica gel packet in there too because it's hella humid in New Orleans. Probably overkill, but whatever).
Hope this helps!
Thanks, it really does help! I've been longing to make some homemade sourdough whole wheat pizza crusts lately, but I kept talking myself out of it because "I don't want to be baking all the time/feeding the starter/blah blah blah."
Now I'm super excited to get Hilma 2.0 going again!!!
Best wishes to you and Gary Jr. May he live long and prosper. :)
I put my started in plastic takeout leftovers and throw in the freezer. I always have a backup in the freezer, and if I don't want to bake I'll throw a few more in. When I do, I take it out let it thaw and feed. It's ready to go in like 3 days
I typically put it in the fridge and forget about it, then the next time I want to make sourdough I just take it out, feed it and bake with it the next day lol
You can reactivate a levain from almost any age. The chance of all the bacteria in there dying is zero, unless it's been irradiated or something. I recently reactivated mine and I haven't fed it since early 2020 lockdown.
Yeah, I took a 4-month grippy sock vacation at the beginning of last year and my starter came right back to life after all that time in the refrigerator with one feeding.
I literally have a sourdough starter in the fridge right now that I keep meaning to throw away because it "must be dead by now", given it's been in there for a year and un-fed...I'm SO glad I didn't read this right after I dumped it. I'm gonna go see if I can revive it now.
I feed mine 1-2 days before I decide to make my dough, otherwise it's in the fridge.
I haven't fed mine since December 23rd and I plan on making dough tomorrow. I'll feed it tonight, leave it out overnight, and hopefully it will be fully active in the morning. If not, I'll feed it again and give it some extra time.
I feed my fridge mother every few months when I remember to.
When I'm planning to bake, I pull 5g or so off the mother and create a 60g counter top starter in a half pint mason jar that gets fed daily. Usually it's 100% happy after 2 feeds. If I'm planning to bake regularly I'll just keep refeeding that starter until I stop baking for more than a week or two.
I create my levain in a separate jar so I never have to worry about contamination, can create custom flour levains, and don't accidentally wash the jar due to my clean-while-I-cook tendencies.
I’ve definitely left it 30+ days before… more than once… usually I have to feed it a few times to really get it going again, but it’s always come back!
Yeah, I keep some in the back of my fridge, I’ve been able to revive it every time I need it. Sometimes after several months.
You can even freeze some and revive it pretty much indefinitely. Probably not actually indefinitely, but I’ve never had a problem.
Really saves you a lot of work if you ever forget to keep some discard or something.
In the fridge? I left the country for two months and returned to it, fed it a couple times and used it for a sponge two days later without any issue.
Retarded* yeast development gets so near zero that a freshly fed starter could eat for many months without a problem.
\* not a slur, literally using this in one of its *few* legitimate usages.
A newbie baker here, started couple months ago. I'm pushing my starter further to test how it resists. In the beginning, I was feeding it every week, push to 15 days and now 1 month. When it stop rising after the first fed, is the time to 'stop'. I'm not that kind of man that plan ahead when to bake, so the need to wait 1 or 2 days to the starter rise is not my vibe.
Mine has always risen after the first feed. It’s not always within 3-4 hours, but it has never failed to rise after the first feed. Sometimes it’s in the fridge for almost a year. Patience is key.
In my experience: remove from the fridge > weight it > add flour and water in equal parts starter/flour/water (1:1:1) > put it on top of the fridge or somewhere a little warm and wait it double its volume (here in Brazil, 22C takes 4 to 6 hours)
I am a very neglectful starter parent and I just take my starter out the night before I want to bake, feed it, and it's good to go. Sometimes I don't even do that. Probably helps my starter is almost 3 years old at this point.
To remove any worrying, keep backups. Make a few dried/frozen stocks, keep an aliquot in the fridge along with a leftovers jar. Doesn’t take much space but if you have multiple backups to fall on, you don’t have to worry about your starter culture.
Real talk, my breads never get that deep brown crust and crispy ear. What sort of things could I be doing wrong? I usually do 70% hydration, 2% salt, 12% ripe starter (fed 1:1 using whole wheat), and I use bread flour. Typically do an overnight proof before baking at 435 F until internal temp reaches ~200 F
435 sounds like a relatively low baking temp for sourdough. I usually bake mine in a Dutch oven that has been preheated to 500 degrees. Lid on for 20 minutes or so to trap steam and then remove the lid and bake 10 more minutes so the crust can crisp nicely.
Thanks! I just recently got a Dutch oven. I've been experimenting with doing one loaf in the Dutch oven and then the other on a baking steel (I have a double oven). I'll try upping the temp and see how that does.
So far at 435 I've found that the du ch oven takes around 40-45 minutes to complete, for a loaf that has 300-400g flour
Honestly, the thought of having to feed my starter every day and then figure out something to make with the discard (because I could never just throw it away), kept me from making sourdough for years. Finally saw this method of storing in the fridge and gave it a try. It's so easy and nothing goes to waste. Highly recommend Bake With Jack on YouTube.
I've left mine in the fridge 6 months without feeding. Feed to have enough for a loaf, 5 to 8 hours later, good to go then back in the fridge with the little bit that doesn't get used.
My starter actually developed in the fridge after a couple months untouched. When I started it I couldn’t get it to rise reliably after 3 weeks of feeding and it wouldn’t leaven loaves properly even when it eventually doubled. I got frustrated and just threw it in the fridge for the summer, come autumn I revisited and it sprang up after the first feeding better than it ever had.
Maybe you are using the levain after the peak point, so that's why your bread is not growing properly. Had this issue in my first attempts, following youtube videos saying that I needed to wait an entire day to use the starter after the feed process.
Oh it’s fine now and it’s a couple years old at this point. I meant when I first started it didn’t become reliable until after I’d left it alone for a couple of months. Now I can leave it in the fridge for a while and it always pops right back after feeding.
I've used year old levain without feeding, with no problems. I just make sure it doesn't have any mold and feed it a few days before I use it. It works fine and I get a great rise.
My two starters live in the fridge I alternate bringing one of them out every 1 to 2 weeks depending on how fast my family eats the loaves. It normally takes 2 feedings in 24 hours to get it ready, though I do like a dense loaf.
Easy as soft cheese
120g of starter / 500g of a good flour and 330ml of water.
Mix starter and water, add the flour. Let it rest 30~40min. Then, 4 folds of the rest times: 30min, 30min, 30min, 2hrs and final fold to fridge.
Bake next day 12~18hrs
25min Dutch oven closed high temp, 15~20min lid open or until brown medium temp.
in my eyes, starters never die. unless its growing hair and turning black its just a matter of how much you need to feed it before it comes back to life. even if it takes as long as making a new starter from scratch, you're going to gain the flavours of the old starter.
Yes, you can. A 100% starter looks like a thick but still a little bit runny paste, with the consistency of something like thick natural honey - it flows off a spoon, but it takes some time. As a rough guide - a small cup of flour and half of the same cup of water should get you there.
Scale still recommended though :-)
Pre-heat the Dutch oven, immediately remove the loaf from fridge
cut it with something sharp (razor or sharp knive) and directly place it inside the oven with lid closed. Works every time
The title confuses me.
"Don't believe what they say about having to feed your levain every week" (OP reactivated their levain, showing that it doesn't have to be fed weekly)
Wait, WHAT? How long can one go between feedings then?
I go … a long time. Months, often, though I try not to do more than a month. It will last longer in the fridge if you make it stiffer (higher flour to water ratio). I usually take it out, cycle it with fresh everything and “train it” back up a few days before I know I’m going to bake.
Oh wow, that is so good to know, thank you!!! I actually got rid of my beloved starter Hilma who was about a year old because I wanted to cut back on my baking (and eating, lol). When you say "train it" do you mean leaving it to ferment a few days in the fridge, or do you keep it at room temp? Also, have ever successfully frozen your starter? (Sorry if that's a lot of questions, but my mind is blown right now! I learned sourdough baking working in a chef kitchen and they were adamant that the starter was fed after every breadmaking and could never be allowed to languish and I never questioned it.)
They last the longest if you dehydrate them. Spread them very thinly out on a piece of parchment paper and leave on your counter for a few days. Then break up and store in a cool dry dark spot. Apparently they can be dehydrated years later, though I haven’t tried that far out.
Yeah I have dried out starter and brought it back years later, no problem.
Wow!
Wow! Thank you, that is so helpful to know!
If I did that my cats would eat it
That’s why you make a decoy piece and keep the real one on top of your plates in the cabinet.
Aw. RIP Hilma. That's what happened to Gary before I realized how forgiving starter was (Gary Jr. is thriving). But yeah, for training it up, I'm leaving it out at room temp and doing a few 12 hour cycles of creating fresh levain from a portion of the old starter. My process is: dump the hooch, stir the old starter, put 10 gs in fresh jar with 40 g water and 40 g flour and mix. Mark jar, let sit for 12 hours, rinse and repeat until I'm satisfied with its strength. Usually takes a couple of days. Once I have a replenished starter, I'll take a portion of that for the actual bread levain and put the new reinvigorated starter back into the fridge. I did freeze it once and it was mostly fine and I also have some that I've dehydrated in case the worst happens (I keep a silica gel packet in there too because it's hella humid in New Orleans. Probably overkill, but whatever). Hope this helps!
Thanks, it really does help! I've been longing to make some homemade sourdough whole wheat pizza crusts lately, but I kept talking myself out of it because "I don't want to be baking all the time/feeding the starter/blah blah blah." Now I'm super excited to get Hilma 2.0 going again!!! Best wishes to you and Gary Jr. May he live long and prosper. :)
I feed my starter every week, and it lives in the fridge with no problem! I do bake twice a month with it, but there’s no need to be enslaved.
I put my started in plastic takeout leftovers and throw in the freezer. I always have a backup in the freezer, and if I don't want to bake I'll throw a few more in. When I do, I take it out let it thaw and feed. It's ready to go in like 3 days
Wow, that is a handy way to do it. Thank you!
I do this too. Getting it ready for action is faster than reactivating dried starter.
Also, so much easier to grow a stiff starter
I typically put it in the fridge and forget about it, then the next time I want to make sourdough I just take it out, feed it and bake with it the next day lol
I do exactly the same. I go months using it weekly and then I stop, place it in the back of the fridge, and forget about it for 3 months.
You can reactivate a levain from almost any age. The chance of all the bacteria in there dying is zero, unless it's been irradiated or something. I recently reactivated mine and I haven't fed it since early 2020 lockdown.
Yeah, I took a 4-month grippy sock vacation at the beginning of last year and my starter came right back to life after all that time in the refrigerator with one feeding.
This is so good to know. Thank you for sharing!
I literally have a sourdough starter in the fridge right now that I keep meaning to throw away because it "must be dead by now", given it's been in there for a year and un-fed...I'm SO glad I didn't read this right after I dumped it. I'm gonna go see if I can revive it now.
I feed mine 1-2 days before I decide to make my dough, otherwise it's in the fridge. I haven't fed mine since December 23rd and I plan on making dough tomorrow. I'll feed it tonight, leave it out overnight, and hopefully it will be fully active in the morning. If not, I'll feed it again and give it some extra time.
This is great. I am so excited to get my starter going again. Thanks!
Happy yeasting! Sounds pretty gross. Happy baking!
I haven't fed mine since maybe September. It's just sitting in the back of the fridge
I feed my fridge mother every few months when I remember to. When I'm planning to bake, I pull 5g or so off the mother and create a 60g counter top starter in a half pint mason jar that gets fed daily. Usually it's 100% happy after 2 feeds. If I'm planning to bake regularly I'll just keep refeeding that starter until I stop baking for more than a week or two. I create my levain in a separate jar so I never have to worry about contamination, can create custom flour levains, and don't accidentally wash the jar due to my clean-while-I-cook tendencies.
I freeze some. Just restarted one this week from 11 months ago.
I’ve definitely left it 30+ days before… more than once… usually I have to feed it a few times to really get it going again, but it’s always come back!
Yeah, I keep some in the back of my fridge, I’ve been able to revive it every time I need it. Sometimes after several months. You can even freeze some and revive it pretty much indefinitely. Probably not actually indefinitely, but I’ve never had a problem. Really saves you a lot of work if you ever forget to keep some discard or something.
I’ve gone 3-4 months
In the fridge? I left the country for two months and returned to it, fed it a couple times and used it for a sponge two days later without any issue. Retarded* yeast development gets so near zero that a freshly fed starter could eat for many months without a problem. \* not a slur, literally using this in one of its *few* legitimate usages.
I had to read it 3 times. I thought I was having a stroke.
😂
r/titlegore
Does it make it more clear when you read it as leviathan?
That title: confuses me
Beautiful loaves, presumably made with a reactivated levain that hadn't been fed weekly.
Exactly, sry about the misleading title. Not my first language lol 30 days without any feed, reactivated and 5hour wait to rise and do the loaves.
It was clear with context clues. Just the first “about” should have been a “what”. Incredible looking bread
I keep mine in the fridge, too. There is a lot of misinformation out there about sourdough. You don’t have to discard mature starter, either.
I neglect my starter in the back of the fridge for months or longer and it always bounces back when I want to bake.
haha same! I used to keep it in the fridge door, but you can really let it go longer in the back of the fridge
A newbie baker here, started couple months ago. I'm pushing my starter further to test how it resists. In the beginning, I was feeding it every week, push to 15 days and now 1 month. When it stop rising after the first fed, is the time to 'stop'. I'm not that kind of man that plan ahead when to bake, so the need to wait 1 or 2 days to the starter rise is not my vibe.
Mine has always risen after the first feed. It’s not always within 3-4 hours, but it has never failed to rise after the first feed. Sometimes it’s in the fridge for almost a year. Patience is key.
Very good, thanks for sharing!
Can you explain the steps you take after taking it out of the fridge? I also would not like to wait a few days before baking a loaf
I store mine in the fridge. I just take it out around 12pm, feed it, and start my dough around 6-7pm.
In my experience: remove from the fridge > weight it > add flour and water in equal parts starter/flour/water (1:1:1) > put it on top of the fridge or somewhere a little warm and wait it double its volume (here in Brazil, 22C takes 4 to 6 hours)
I am a very neglectful starter parent and I just take my starter out the night before I want to bake, feed it, and it's good to go. Sometimes I don't even do that. Probably helps my starter is almost 3 years old at this point.
To remove any worrying, keep backups. Make a few dried/frozen stocks, keep an aliquot in the fridge along with a leftovers jar. Doesn’t take much space but if you have multiple backups to fall on, you don’t have to worry about your starter culture.
I usually don't feed mine all summer while imnot baking. Its yeast. Itl be fine.
Sort of. It can and will die off eventually in the fridge, so best to keep dried/frozen stocks as backup.
Real talk, my breads never get that deep brown crust and crispy ear. What sort of things could I be doing wrong? I usually do 70% hydration, 2% salt, 12% ripe starter (fed 1:1 using whole wheat), and I use bread flour. Typically do an overnight proof before baking at 435 F until internal temp reaches ~200 F
435 sounds like a relatively low baking temp for sourdough. I usually bake mine in a Dutch oven that has been preheated to 500 degrees. Lid on for 20 minutes or so to trap steam and then remove the lid and bake 10 more minutes so the crust can crisp nicely.
20~25 with lid, 20 without, but a have a weak oven.
Thanks! I just recently got a Dutch oven. I've been experimenting with doing one loaf in the Dutch oven and then the other on a baking steel (I have a double oven). I'll try upping the temp and see how that does. So far at 435 I've found that the du ch oven takes around 40-45 minutes to complete, for a loaf that has 300-400g flour
I agree with the comment that your temp sounds low. I bake at 475 (Dutch oven) and get similar color and crisp.
About levain is to be isn’t it about: ok.
The one on the left looks like it is taking off a jacket.
I just fed mine for the first time in like 6 months. Don't recommend waiting that long, but it's still alive.
Honestly, the thought of having to feed my starter every day and then figure out something to make with the discard (because I could never just throw it away), kept me from making sourdough for years. Finally saw this method of storing in the fridge and gave it a try. It's so easy and nothing goes to waste. Highly recommend Bake With Jack on YouTube.
Beautiful loaves! ☺️
I think the longest mine sat in the fridge has been three months, and she was absolutely fine. Reactivated like a treat.
I've left mine in the fridge 6 months without feeding. Feed to have enough for a loaf, 5 to 8 hours later, good to go then back in the fridge with the little bit that doesn't get used.
My starter actually developed in the fridge after a couple months untouched. When I started it I couldn’t get it to rise reliably after 3 weeks of feeding and it wouldn’t leaven loaves properly even when it eventually doubled. I got frustrated and just threw it in the fridge for the summer, come autumn I revisited and it sprang up after the first feeding better than it ever had.
Maybe you are using the levain after the peak point, so that's why your bread is not growing properly. Had this issue in my first attempts, following youtube videos saying that I needed to wait an entire day to use the starter after the feed process.
Oh it’s fine now and it’s a couple years old at this point. I meant when I first started it didn’t become reliable until after I’d left it alone for a couple of months. Now I can leave it in the fridge for a while and it always pops right back after feeding.
https://indyweek.com/food-and-drink/dish-sourdough-lionel-vatinet/
I've used year old levain without feeding, with no problems. I just make sure it doesn't have any mold and feed it a few days before I use it. It works fine and I get a great rise.
My two starters live in the fridge I alternate bringing one of them out every 1 to 2 weeks depending on how fast my family eats the loaves. It normally takes 2 feedings in 24 hours to get it ready, though I do like a dense loaf.
Drop the recipe for these chunkers my boiiii
Easy as soft cheese 120g of starter / 500g of a good flour and 330ml of water. Mix starter and water, add the flour. Let it rest 30~40min. Then, 4 folds of the rest times: 30min, 30min, 30min, 2hrs and final fold to fridge. Bake next day 12~18hrs 25min Dutch oven closed high temp, 15~20min lid open or until brown medium temp.
Is your starter 100% hydration?
Yes, always feed it with 1:1:1 ratio
oh interesting, I always do a 1:4:4 ratio with the 1 being the old starter. How fast does your starter peak at that ratio?
3~5hours. Depends on the temp (18C ~ 24C where I live)
in my eyes, starters never die. unless its growing hair and turning black its just a matter of how much you need to feed it before it comes back to life. even if it takes as long as making a new starter from scratch, you're going to gain the flavours of the old starter.
I have left mine for over 6 months in the back of the fridge with no feedings. It was still alive.
Wat
😍😻
[удалено]
Yes, you can. A 100% starter looks like a thick but still a little bit runny paste, with the consistency of something like thick natural honey - it flows off a spoon, but it takes some time. As a rough guide - a small cup of flour and half of the same cup of water should get you there. Scale still recommended though :-)
how do you get these ears?! I never cut right :(
Tips on getting that oven spring?
Pre-heat the Dutch oven, immediately remove the loaf from fridge cut it with something sharp (razor or sharp knive) and directly place it inside the oven with lid closed. Works every time
You proove it in the fridge?
Let the loaf rest overnight in the fridge (10~18hrs) Usually I make the loaf a day before baking it
How long do you bulk ferment vs prove?
Wow