It's Alive!

My sourdough starter has been living in the bottom of my fridge undisturbed for something like 7 months. 

This is not reccommended by the sourdough experts.  You can keep your sourdough in your fridge if you feed it periodically.  You can keep it in the freezer if you want to take a break.  You are not supposed to let your starter sit unfed in your fridge for months on end.  It just can't live under those conditions.  

Or not.

I had to give it a try.  I wanted to celebrate my blogaversary with sourdough.  I figured if my starter was dead, I'd go out and buy some yeast and cheat.

And so, I ventured into the cold recesses of my fridge and fished out the tupperware coffin that contained my starter.  Would it be moldy?  Rotten? Covered in maggots?

Nope.

It was exactly as it should be.  The doughy starter below with the "hootch" or alcoholic liquid floating on top.  No off-smells.  No horrific decay.  Just sourdough starter.

Woohoo!

But it could still be dead.  It hasn't had any new food in so long.  Even though I'm pretty sure my fridge is cold enough to put the yeast into a suspended state, I can't be sure.  There's nothing to do but give it a try.

And so, we feed.

Take a cup of the stirred up starter:

Get one cup of bottled or filtered water up to 80˚.

Mix that with your starter:

Get yourself some  good bread flour.  It's high in gluten, the protein that makes bread awesome.

Mix in a cup and a half of that. 

Don't worry too much about lumps.

Set in a cool place. 

You might think that the window isn't a cool place, but in New York in February, it's one of the coolest places in the apartment.

I say a cool place because of a conversation I had with a seasoned baker one night in Hudson.  He said that sourdough gets the best flavor not in warmth but at about 50˚.  I thought I'd heed his words of wisdom.

All I could do at that point was wait.  Eight hours, to be exact. 

Did it grow?  Did it bubble?  Has my starter awakened?

Indeed it has!

Glorious day!  The sourdough lives.  All is well.  Repeat the feeding process two more times, and you're ready for the next step.  Which I'll tell you about tomorrow.

Playing,
Meredith