Rehydrating your sour dough starter? Who knew!

M

marilynfl

Moderator
See, this is why I don't have kids. You actually have to look after them. Forever.

'Cause the ONE TIME I worked with fresh sour dough starter (Ménage à Embécile), it took over my life, my kitchen, and my sanity for an entire weekend. Every counter space, every nook and cranny in the refrigerator will filled with fermenting yeast blobs.

How was I to know you could just let it dry out AND IT WOULD STILL BE VIABLE!

You can't do that with a kid.

http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2011/02/dehydrating_your_sourdough_starter.php

 
Ready for this?

you can also just spoon out a few portions (1 Tbs size), put over parchment paper on a baking sheet, freeze until solid and dump in a plastic bag

WHen you feel like it, take one of those little balls of frozen sourdough out of the bag, drop in water and leave it at room temp overnight

You cannot do that with a kid either! Heck, even my dogs would not accept this type of treatment!

 
I knew!

In the years that I fed and babied my starter, I dried plenty and saved lot for future use and sent a bunch to folks who wanted to try making the artisan breads but didn't want to fuss with making the yeast culture.

I stopped sending it to the far corners of earth when sending "white powder" became felonious.

I may still have a few baggies of dried stuff, but have not looked lately, or thought about trying to rehydrate it if I did find some.

As much as I love the bread, and the making of the bread, I can't afford to consume it at the rate I would bake it.

 
When I was a teenager my buddy and I went on a road trip to visit his older sister and her hubby...

...for a week. Hubby was a terrific cook. He found an old jar of sourdough starter that he had forgotten about for a couple of years. It was dry.

He put some warm drinking water, flour and a teaspoon of sugar in the mason jar with the old sourdough and left it out on the counter overnight.

The next morning we had the absolute best sourdough pancakes I had ever eaten! I'll never forget that meal.

Michael

 
Judy, I still have a couple of baggies and a jar somewhere.

Do you remember how devastated I was when I killed off the first one after setting it on my stove where the pilot light cooked it?

 
Thank you Sally and Judy! Here I was, throwing it all away and then regretting it the next

time I wanted fresh started.

 
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