2/18/11

3 Staying Alive ~ Reviving Sourdough Starter

This is what my sourdough starter looks like without food for two weeks.  It goes into a hibernation period and develops this layer of watery yellowish stuff on top called, "hooch."

Yes, hooch is alcohol and you have the option of stirring this back in or pouring it off.  It is not recommended by the sourdough experts out there (on the Web) to keep your sourdough in the fridge longer than a month; otherwise the hooch will kill your starter.  I chose to pour it off and see if I could get my starter going again.  

I removed half of the starter, gave it a 1:1:1 feed (1 oz. water, 1 oz. flour, to 1 oz. starter) and let it sit in a warm place: oven with the light on.  Four hours later are my triplets, ready to be used or put back into the fridge!


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3 comments:

  1. I'm impressed with your committment. I have to say I was a fickle sourdough partner. I think this is akin to be a parent all over again. What yummy things are you making with this starter?

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  2. Bonnie, so far I've made several loaves of sourdough bread, weekly batches of pancakes (which my hubby loves!) and just made a New York Deli Rye bread. My next bread will be a 100% Rye made with a sourdough starter. Not a big fan of rye, but my other family members are ~

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  3. Aughhh! I wish I would have known this on Thursday, I threw my starter out for the same reason-forgot to fee it, and it looked bad! Well next time I screw it up, I will have hope...
    Plus I mad a pretty good loaf of bread with the starter and I wanted to give it a second try...
    LOL-thanks for the great tip!
    Amber

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