Hi All
I made a great chef, starter and bread
the book I was following then said to put the reamining chef into the fridge in an airtight container and feed it every seven days.
I put the chef in the fridge, and after two days its got the dreaded 'nail varnish' smell
Any ideas on what I should do - it made such great bread I'd hate to have to start again
Stacm
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Replies
mix it - take a teaspoon and refresh.., it' still alive
Feed it.
It's hungry!
( ........... and here comes the inundation of far more sensible advice from the more experience bakers!!!)
I find the secret of storing starters in the fridge, and I have a whole family of them, is to feed them and let them sit for about two hours and then put them in the fridge. If they have food they will still be active but very slow, and I often find that on warming them up they spring to life without even added feeding.
I fell this way is better than storing a starter which has reached it's peak and used up all its food.
I've been taking a small amount of the old starter, feeding it, and leaving it out for twelve hours or so. After it's demonstrated that it's alive and well I feed it again and pop it into the fridge.
This way I'm confident that the starter is good going in, that there's tucker for the beasties to nibble on if they want, and that there's enough culture there for a tsp or so to be useful when I want to start feeding up a starter for baking.
How often to refresh? Dunno; after 2-3 weeks my fridge starter developes a layer of hooch and I figure it's time for a refreshment. I refresh sooner if I'm baking and it's convenient.
Regards,
Giles
Like Bill I put my starter in the fridge when fresh. As it's often another 2 weeks before I bake or feed again I normally only leave it out 1-2 hrs before putting in the fridge.
Ideally I'd like to bake or feed every weekend, but reality kicks in and I often find that after 2 weeks I'm only taking it out to feed a couple of times and then put back in after the 3rd feed.
Matthew
Thanks for all your great advice everyone
Is it ok to refresh starter that has gone hoochy or should I just start again ?
Stacm
Hooch is not a problem...it's part and parcel of keeping a starter/baby. Like your kid's friends, some you may not like, but have to accept them anyway.
Some people stir the grey stuff in before they take out a tablespoon for refreshing. I just dig past that into the more palatable-looking stuff.
[quote="stacm"]
Thanks for all your great advice everyone
Is it ok to refresh starter that has gone hoochy or should I just start again ?
[/quote]
Yes you can refresh your starter even when "hoochy" - some tough people drink that stuff - after all it has quite a bit of alcohol in it...