Great video, thanks. I have dried my starter before and mailed flakes to friends, with complete success. They had no problem rehydrating the starter and baking bread. I’ve saved dried flakes for myself as well, just in case. I think you could let the remnants in a jar dry, cap it and rehydrate from that as well. I remember reading about someone who was able to reconstitute starter from an old crock that had been used for starter and set aside in storage for quite a while, with no intent of saving it. It wasn’t even sealed. Our little starter friends are amazing!
Having grown my own starter successfully and enjoying baking with it for about three years I suffered a heart attack and ended up in the ICU ward in hospital. It has taken me about six months to feel that I have enough strength and energy to tackle baking bread again. I have a jar of dehydrated sourdough starter on the shelf in the kitchen and will be starting with the rehydrating process today. Wish me luck hoping that I dehydrated it and stored it correctly so that I can now resuscitate it and enjoy baking again with my faithful and loyal starter. Failing that I do have a few friends in the neighbourhood who received starters from my starter in the past and they are only too willing to gift me with some of their starter which was my original mix. Thank you for this useful information.
@@carolschedler3832 Thank you for your good wishes Carol, I am recovering but it takes time. My dried starter didn't turn out too well. I live at the coast in a very warm and humid environment in South Africa. After drying the starter (which I did in a dehydrator) I sealed it in a mason jar. When I looked at it again ... maybe 6 months later there were little minute creatures wondering around in the jar! Needless to say I tossed the experiment. Perhaps the flour I used was not fresh enough to start with (I used rye flour). I have no problem in taking care of my fresh starter however which I feed every day and it's great to work with..
Yep .. just restarted mine from preserved flakes. I had a very mature/active all purpose flour based starter that was about 5 years old. Using the exact technique you documented in this episode. I wanted to preserve mine for those unseen emergencies. In Jan 2020 I spread a tray out, placed in oven with light on, and dried out a sheet on parchment. Made into powder with clean coffee been grinder, then stored 60grams of dried starter and placed powder in a Mylar bag and heat sealed the pouch. This year (2 years later) for Hurricane Ida, I lost my starter. We evacuated, had to stay away for 3 weeks, family came over to the house and “cleaned out” our fridge and freezers before food spoiled. In that helpful act, they threw out my refrigerated starter. Once we settled back in at home, 3 months later I restarted my starter from the preserved Mylar pouch of flakes. Same ratio’s you mentioned in this episode and voila .. 3 days later the recovered, 2 year old flakes, sprang back to life more than doubling. After 5 days, back to full activity. This dehydration / rehydration procedure DEFINITELY works. Saved me weeks of trying to start from scratch. Needless to say, after the recovered starter is mature again in a few weeks, I have to preserve another “emergency” batch.
Cheers Michael. That period must have been extremely difficult, I'm sorry about that. I'm really pleased that dehydrating your starter worked so well for you. It just goes to show that you never know when a backup will come in handy!
@@CulinaryExploration you are picking my interests with the sourdough starter more information and you don't stay and work in the same country you move around alot iam starting to understand this in your videos so you only use your sourdough starter and you push the sourdough starter to the full limits and you hydrate the sourdough starter as well you can do this with the sourdough starter WOW
Almost lost my starter when the jar hit the ground and the glass shattered. Picked up the large chunk of glass that had starter on it that never touched the ground and there were glass shards through the starter…. Put the glass and starter into a bowl and added warm water until the water was bubbly. Put the water through a coffee filter and poured it into fresh flour. Had good starter again the next day. Hope this helps someone.
This process worked for me. I moved from one country to another and wanted to keep my starter. Yes, I could have made a new starter at the cost of days.
This time around, it didn't go so well. On the second day, it doubled, but I had a pancake load. Maybe it was a false rise. Next time, I waited until I saw a doubling on day three, and the loaf turned out much better. At any rate, having a dehydrated starter is a must as the alternative is to spend many days creating one.
Hello Phillip. As I mentioned in an other comment, I purchased a dried starter from a Bakery in San Francisco during a visit there. I was able to get an active and very robust starter in about 4 days. I have dried two batches of starter and used some unfed starter in my weekly sandwich loaf which was amazing. I also baked my first sourdough bread in several months using your no stretch and fold formula and it was good. Not great because I believe my fermentation was too long. Next time I will use your new fermentation spreadsheet. This evening after work I will rehydrate the starter I dried and see how quickly I can have it strong and active. Thanks for the support you provide for us home bakers. Love your channel and website
Thanks for your continuing exploration! I'm new to sour dough starter but have finally achieved what I would consider a successful loaf (altho not that much sour dough flavor yet)....with your help by the way. Now I'm experimenting with drying out some starter as a backup and looking forward to what happens down the road. From another one of your videos, this morning I fed 55g of water and 55g of flour to the scrapings of starter in my jar and it is beginning to show lovely signs of activity. Thanks for all your help!
Super! Thanks! I added this to my "everything sourdough" playlist which is down to 3 videos! WAY better than the 15 I had on it before. Super easy sourdough for ANYbody!!!! Particularly, sissies like me!!
Wow, I always wanted to so this. I tried once, drying it in the fridge, and sent it to my niece, but she said it didn't work. She was new to starter so not sure what she tried, probably not the three feedings. I'm going to try with your technique, I have a starter I have been using for 23 years and would love to preserve it for emergencies.
I maintain a Biga the exact same way except I leave about a teaspoon of the Biga in the jar when I take out the amount needed for a loaf. I dust in some dry flour, maybe another teaspoonful, on top of the teaspoon of Biga left in the jar. No water, just a dusting of dry flour. This keeps in the refrigerator for literally weeks. When ready to bake I do as you do, take it out the night before then I add 150/150 flour/water, mix it well, leave it on the counter and in the morning it is ready to go.
How does the bread taste? Too often, in my opinion, I hear/read much about technique and looks, but not about the flavor. Does your bread have a distinct taste? Thanks.
Philip, your videos are always to the point. I like your method better. Early in the year I had to dehydrate my starter to take oversea to bake, it took about 3 days to rehydrate there. The batch at home turned sour after rehydrated, it could be sudden heat wave 40+ during my absence, luckily I freeze some starter for back up. Very nice website! No Carrot logo? Hahaha - Becky
interesting, i air-dried some of my starter last weekend the plan was to see if it can be restored after a month or so. No i see this is actually a thing, really curious to see how it will work out, or not... i did not powder mine its just in pieces in a airtight jar. To be seen, thanks for the video.
Awesome Video !!!You said you can use the dry starter in the bread for extra taste also? i haven't done that yet, but have you ? and if so how good does it taste? Thx
Paul, have you tried adding the powdered sourdough starter to your bread (for flavor) yet? Would love to know how it improved the flavor! I’m on day 6 of making my starter,
This is certainly a useful and convenient procedure. I have dehydrated in the freezer successfully, but this way seems better. I have lost my starter on several occasions over the years, and have obtained new free of charge (requires an SASE) from ‘Oregon Trail 1847.’
I know you’re going to think this is crazy but, I baked a loaf of bread with rapid rise yeast. I saved a little bit of the wet dough and fed it just like I would a starter. I did this for several days until I wanted to make another loaf. I now have a starter that I keep in my fridge and take out every few days, feed a day or two, and make another loaf of bread with it. I’ve never had to use any more commercial yeast. I just use that initial starter that I began from the commercial yeast. No It certainly didn’t taste like sourdough the first couple of loaves but it is beginning to taste very good. And I think I have graduated from the commercial yeast and caught enough wild yeast in it that it is now a sourdough starter. What do you think? Is that crazy?
Good for you, Kathy! Very clever of you. Thanks for telling us about your very successful experiment. I have wondered about doing the very process you described; now I shall try it. Necessity is the mother of Invention! 👍
Excellent video, and thanks for sharing knowledge. Can I use a food dehydrator to dehydrate the starter? The lowest temperature setting is 100 degrees Fahrenheit which is 37.8 degrees Celsius,
Great idea on how to make a backup should my "live" starter ever "die". So far my starter survived even 4 weeks without feeding but I'd rather be safe 😅 Thank you!
Ive been strong mine in the cupboard but I recently watched Modernist cuisine talk about dehydrating starters and they suggest the fridge is better. Hope this helps
I long time Diego, I wouldn't want to put a date on it. As long as the starter doesn't dry out it should be fine. It may take a few feeds to get it going again. Obviously watch out for any signs of mould.
I left my starter in the fridge for 5 months while gone to our summer home. I returned to find it with a thin grey film. Scooped out the film added flour and water and it came back to full fermentation.
I don't use anything like that. Although Modernist Cuisine suggests keeping the dehydrated starter in a sealed container in the fridge. I've been storing mine at room temperature and haven't had any issues with its vitality. ATB, Phil
I was thinking I would use my air dryer dehydrator setting but there is a small amount of heat involved. I like the fan idea. Visited your website, very nice. Looking forward to what is next.👍
@@CulinaryExploration Are we talking air fryer? I just bought one...it has a dehydrator setting but doesn't go below 90 degrees. Wouldn't that kill the culture during drying?
@@CulinaryExploration Thanks for answering !! I'v written my comment in Arabic deliberately to find out accuracy of translation !!! In fact this is the first time seeing such a process of dehydration of starter !!!! I think I'v seen sort of powder starter few years ago in a commercial bag of one kilo during a visit to USA , I forgot its commercial brand name !! Im not sure if its the same of yours ?!?! Greetings from Jerusalem , Palestine .
@@CulinaryExploration everyone uses the mentioned recipe, BUT it didn’t work with me, when I tried it, it was too sticky ruclips.net/video/yOXDDMPq4rs/видео.html
Great video, thanks. I have dried my starter before and mailed flakes to friends, with complete success. They had no problem rehydrating the starter and baking bread. I’ve saved dried flakes for myself as well, just in case. I think you could let the remnants in a jar dry, cap it and rehydrate from that as well. I remember reading about someone who was able to reconstitute starter from an old crock that had been used for starter and set aside in storage for quite a while, with no intent of saving it. It wasn’t even sealed. Our little starter friends are amazing!
Having grown my own starter successfully and enjoying baking with it for about three years I suffered a heart attack and ended up in the ICU ward in hospital. It has taken me about six months to feel that I have enough strength and energy to tackle baking bread again. I have a jar of dehydrated sourdough starter on the shelf in the kitchen and will be starting with the rehydrating process today. Wish me luck hoping that I dehydrated it and stored it correctly so that I can now resuscitate it and enjoy baking again with my faithful and loyal starter. Failing that I do have a few friends in the neighbourhood who received starters from my starter in the past and they are only too willing to gift me with some of their starter which was my original mix. Thank you for this useful information.
Best wishes on your continued recovery and gaining back full stamina!! How is the bread coming along from the dried starter??
@@carolschedler3832 Thank you for your good wishes Carol, I am recovering but it takes time. My dried starter didn't turn out too well. I live at the coast in a very warm and humid environment in South Africa. After drying the starter (which I did in a dehydrator) I sealed it in a mason jar. When I looked at it again ... maybe 6 months later there were little minute creatures wondering around in the jar! Needless to say I tossed the experiment. Perhaps the flour I used was not fresh enough to start with (I used rye flour). I have no problem in taking care of my fresh starter however which I feed every day and it's great to work with..
Yep .. just restarted mine from preserved flakes. I had a very mature/active all purpose flour based starter that was about 5 years old. Using the exact technique you documented in this episode. I wanted to preserve mine for those unseen emergencies. In Jan 2020 I spread a tray out, placed in oven with light on, and dried out a sheet on parchment. Made into powder with clean coffee been grinder, then stored 60grams of dried starter and placed powder in a Mylar bag and heat sealed the pouch. This year (2 years later) for Hurricane Ida, I lost my starter. We evacuated, had to stay away for 3 weeks, family came over to the house and “cleaned out” our fridge and freezers before food spoiled. In that helpful act, they threw out my refrigerated starter. Once we settled back in at home, 3 months later I restarted my starter from the preserved Mylar pouch of flakes. Same ratio’s you mentioned in this episode and voila .. 3 days later the recovered, 2 year old flakes, sprang back to life more than doubling. After 5 days, back to full activity. This dehydration / rehydration procedure DEFINITELY works. Saved me weeks of trying to start from scratch. Needless to say, after the recovered starter is mature again in a few weeks, I have to preserve another “emergency” batch.
Cheers Michael. That period must have been extremely difficult, I'm sorry about that. I'm really pleased that dehydrating your starter worked so well for you. It just goes to show that you never know when a backup will come in handy!
@@CulinaryExploration you are picking my interests with the sourdough starter more information and you don't stay and work in the same country you move around alot iam starting to understand this in your videos so you only use your sourdough starter and you push the sourdough starter to the full limits and you hydrate the sourdough starter as well you can do this with the sourdough starter WOW
Almost lost my starter when the jar hit the ground and the glass shattered. Picked up the large chunk of glass that had starter on it that never touched the ground and there were glass shards through the starter…. Put the glass and starter into a bowl and added warm water until the water was bubbly. Put the water through a coffee filter and poured it into fresh flour. Had good starter again the next day. Hope this helps someone.
Very cool. Glad that worked for you. You have some mighty starter there!
I love how you use Bon Maman jars. I have a small (?) collection of them too.
This process worked for me. I moved from one country to another and wanted to keep my starter. Yes, I could have made a new starter at the cost of days.
Great job, I'm pleased the process worked well. Just out of interest, how long did it take you to revive the starter?
@@CulinaryExploration I wasn’t in a rush so it was a week. Now in another country I’ll post back on how long it takes this time.
This time around, it didn't go so well. On the second day, it doubled, but I had a pancake load. Maybe it was a false rise. Next time, I waited until I saw a doubling on day three, and the loaf turned out much better. At any rate, having a dehydrated starter is a must as the alternative is to spend many days creating one.
Hello Phillip. As I mentioned in an other comment, I purchased a dried starter from a Bakery in San Francisco during a visit there. I was able to get an active and very robust starter in about 4 days. I have dried two batches of starter and used some unfed starter in my weekly sandwich loaf which was amazing. I also baked my first sourdough bread in several months using your no stretch and fold formula and it was good. Not great because I believe my fermentation was too long. Next time I will use your new fermentation spreadsheet. This evening after work I will rehydrate the starter I dried and see how quickly I can have it strong and active. Thanks for the support you provide for us home bakers. Love your channel and website
Thanks for your continuing exploration! I'm new to sour dough starter but have finally achieved what I would consider a successful loaf (altho not that much sour dough flavor yet)....with your help by the way. Now I'm experimenting with drying out some starter as a backup and looking forward to what happens down the road. From another one of your videos, this morning I fed 55g of water and 55g of flour to the scrapings of starter in my jar and it is beginning to show lovely signs of activity. Thanks for all your help!
WHAT! This is incredible information. You have blown my mind. I had no idea this was possible. Thanks 😀
Super! Thanks! I added this to my "everything sourdough" playlist which is down to 3 videos! WAY better than the 15 I had on it before. Super easy sourdough for ANYbody!!!! Particularly, sissies like me!!
Wow, I always wanted to so this. I tried once, drying it in the fridge, and sent it to my niece, but she said it didn't work. She was new to starter so not sure what she tried, probably not the three feedings. I'm going to try with your technique, I have a starter I have been using for 23 years and would love to preserve it for emergencies.
Well worth a go. It might take one or two more feedings, but three worked well for this test. Let the starter decide. Let me know how you get on :)
I maintain a Biga the exact same way except I leave about a teaspoon of the Biga in the jar when I take out the amount needed for a loaf. I dust in some dry flour, maybe another teaspoonful, on top of the teaspoon of Biga left in the jar. No water, just a dusting of dry flour. This keeps in the refrigerator for literally weeks. When ready to bake I do as you do, take it out the night before then I add 150/150 flour/water, mix it well, leave it on the counter and in the morning it is ready to go.
How does the bread taste? Too often, in my opinion, I hear/read much about technique and looks, but not about the flavor. Does your bread have a distinct taste? Thanks.
@@philip6502 It tastes great. A hint of sourdough but in a modified Ciabatta loaf still using dry yeast as well as the biga.
Philip, your videos are always to the point. I like your method better. Early in the year I had to dehydrate my starter to take oversea to bake, it took about 3 days to rehydrate there. The batch at home turned sour after rehydrated, it could be sudden heat wave 40+ during my absence, luckily I freeze some starter for back up. Very nice website! No Carrot logo? Hahaha - Becky
Sending a white powder in the mail,
what could possibly go wrong? ; )
interesting, i air-dried some of my starter last weekend the plan was to see if it can be restored after a month or so. No i see this is actually a thing, really curious to see how it will work out, or not... i did not powder mine its just in pieces in a airtight jar. To be seen, thanks for the video.
Hi. Will be interesting to know way you moved from Italy to Greece. Thank you.
Awesome Video !!!You said you can use the dry starter in the bread for extra taste also? i haven't done that yet, but have you ? and if so how good does it taste? Thx
Paul, have you tried adding the powdered sourdough starter to your bread (for flavor) yet? Would love to know how it improved the flavor! I’m on day 6 of making my starter,
Thanks for the information, from Texas.
This is certainly a useful and convenient procedure. I have dehydrated in the freezer successfully, but this way seems better. I have lost my starter on several occasions over the years, and have obtained new free of charge (requires an SASE) from ‘Oregon Trail 1847.’
The Oregon Trail starter sounds awesome!
Whats the time between feeds? Would be useful to see it on the feed table at the end too.
I’ve used my proofing over to speed up the process of rehydration.
I know you’re going to think this is crazy but, I baked a loaf of bread with rapid rise yeast. I saved a little bit of the wet dough and fed it just like I would a starter. I did this for several days until I wanted to make another loaf. I now have a starter that I keep in my fridge and take out every few days, feed a day or two, and make another loaf of bread with it. I’ve never had to use any more commercial yeast. I just use that initial starter that I began from the commercial yeast. No It certainly didn’t taste like sourdough the first couple of loaves but it is beginning to taste very good. And I think I have graduated from the commercial yeast and caught enough wild yeast in it that it is now a sourdough starter. What do you think? Is that crazy?
That's not crazy, it's cool what we find out when we experiment. Right up my street Kathy :)
Good for you, Kathy! Very clever of you. Thanks for telling us about your very successful experiment. I have wondered about doing the very process you described; now I shall try it. Necessity is the mother of Invention! 👍
Can you review Red Star Platinum Instant Sourdough Yeast. Please
An excellent video again Phil. Thank you
You're welcome buddy, I hope you are keeping well
Excellent video, and thanks for sharing knowledge. Can I use a food dehydrator to dehydrate the starter? The lowest temperature setting is 100 degrees Fahrenheit which is 37.8 degrees Celsius,
That should be fine. Do a test run and see how you get on :)
@@CulinaryExploration Once again, wouldn't that heat kill the culture?
Did it work?
My dehydrator only goes down to 40°C, which is probably way too hot :/
Great idea on how to make a backup should my "live" starter ever "die". So far my starter survived even 4 weeks without feeding but I'd rather be safe 😅 Thank you!
The starter last a long time in the fridge, that's for sure.
Thankyou
How long does the dry starter last in the jar?
Where do you store the dehydrated starter? On counter, fridge or freezer ?
Ive been strong mine in the cupboard but I recently watched Modernist cuisine talk about dehydrating starters and they suggest the fridge is better. Hope this helps
@@CulinaryExploration Thanks...I will move it to the fridge
Could you use discard starter to make the dehydrated starter?
You could. But I prefer to dry it when it is at its peak - although I'm not sure if the science would back up my theory ;)
Did you try it with discard? If so, how did it go??
Great video. Around how long do you think a starter should keep in the fridge without feeding?
I long time Diego, I wouldn't want to put a date on it. As long as the starter doesn't dry out it should be fine. It may take a few feeds to get it going again. Obviously watch out for any signs of mould.
@@CulinaryExploration thanks Philip!
I left my starter in the fridge for 5 months while gone to our summer home. I returned to find it with a thin grey film. Scooped out the film added flour and water and it came back to full fermentation.
That doesn't surprise me at all, good job :)
Any oxygen absorber, etc needed to store flakes?
I don't use anything like that. Although Modernist Cuisine suggests keeping the dehydrated starter in a sealed container in the fridge. I've been storing mine at room temperature and haven't had any issues with its vitality. ATB, Phil
Hey!! You're doing fine !! wish you success!! Come to Russia
Cheers! Russia is on my "must visit list" - I'll need some help tracking down some decent places to eat :)
I was thinking I would use my air dryer dehydrator setting but there is a small amount of heat involved. I like the fan idea. Visited your website, very nice. Looking forward to what is next.👍
Cheers Blair. I think the dehydrator would be fine
@@CulinaryExploration Are we talking air fryer? I just bought one...it has a dehydrator setting but doesn't go below 90 degrees. Wouldn't that kill the culture during drying?
I just hate it when I loose my sourdough starter :)
مذكور ان هناك خمسة تعليقات ولكن لا يوجد الا اثنان !!! اين البقية ؟!! اتمنى ان يقوم جوجل بالترجمة الصحيحة !؟!؟
Translated perfectly! I deleted one spam comment. RUclips probably deleted another.
@@CulinaryExploration Thanks for answering !! I'v written my comment in Arabic deliberately to find out accuracy of translation !!! In fact this is the first time seeing such a process of dehydration of starter !!!! I think I'v seen sort of powder starter few years ago in a commercial bag of one kilo during a visit to USA , I forgot its commercial brand name !! Im not sure if its the same of yours ?!?! Greetings from Jerusalem , Palestine .
Please make sweet molasses brown bread ( Cheesecake Factory Brown bread) pleeeeeeaase
Send me a link for it and Ill see what I can do ;)
@@CulinaryExploration everyone uses the mentioned recipe, BUT it didn’t work with me, when I tried it, it was too sticky
ruclips.net/video/yOXDDMPq4rs/видео.html
Have you ever used Rye to make your starter to make sourdough Rye bread?
2 Esdras 2: 31 -100 ''''''''''''''''
No way ..Big gaps ..Overproofd
..