I enjoy making sourdough, but I don’t want to make it every week. I would like to make it maybe once a month if that. I don’t like the hassle of feeding a starter constantly, it doesn’t feel worth it when I’m only making sourdough every once in a while.
Is there an alternative to maintaining a starter? I’ve tried throwing the starter in the fridge but I’m so lazy it just becomes a little cup of mold by the time I take it out two months later.
Many thanks for your wisdom oh Bread Lemmies.
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You can apparently freeze starter, but it will take 2-3 days to get going again, so it’s not no less effort than starting over, you just get to keep some of your culture.
Where I’m at there is starter at the grocery store just next to the yeast, seems like that would be the most convenient for you
Thanks, I will check for that!
I always have some in the freezer, and usually some dough balls too. Works fine. Yogurt cultures as well. Dough balls can be used the same day you take them out of the freezer. Starter can be too, activity just depends on how strong of a starter it is. One raised on Teff (for instance) will be much stronger than plain wheat flour.
Sounds like you just need instant-yeast instead. I love sourdough, but the maintenance is unreal.
Thanks, that is probably correct. Whipping out sourdough at a potluck is such a huge flex though.
Make a rye starter. When you want to make wheat bread, feed the starter with rye flour, split it and put half in fridge and add wheat flour to the other half. I have left my rye starter in the fridge over 6 months before and it always comes back. It’s maybe 5 years old total now.
Great suggestion thanks!
I keep 60 grams of starter going in the fridge. I sometimes bake once a week, and sometimes once a month, and it’s always fine. I keep some in my freezer to start over if there’s any mold (though I haven’t had a starter go moldy for like 7 years now). When I want to bake bread, I pull half of it off, feed it, and put it back in the fridge. When that 30 grams I pulled off is nicely fermented on the countertop, I ramp it up to the actual full amount I need.
It takes a couple days for me to get to having bread ready, but it’s worth it to not have to deal with constant feeding or throwing out any discard.
I also keep my starter in a small jar, and every few months, I transfer to a new jar. When I did have starter go moldy in the past, and when I’ve seen other people’s starter go moldy, it’s typically on the edges up the sides of the jar from where it was stirred. The main bulk of a healthy starter is probably too acidic for mold to take hold, but the dried bits up the sides of the jar might be more susceptible.
I haven’t tried it myself yet, but you can get yeast improvers , a powdered ‘mother yeast’ that claims similar results to sourdough.
I have a starter in the fridge that I only use once every two or three weeks, and have not had any mould problems; perhaps you just have to be only a little less lazy to keep a viable one, and feed on that sort of a schedule?
I agree though, that making sourdough bread can be a nuisance time-management-wise until you find some sort of rhythm that suits you.
That is interesting thank you!
