I have a couple of jars of very old starter in the fridge and would
like to know if they can be rejuvenated and what would be the best
method.

Thanks.

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 21:46:54 GMT, John G. <JohnGospel@no-site> wrote:

>I have a couple of jars of very old starter in the fridge and would
>like to know if they can be rejuvenated and what would be the best
>method.

Try feeding a small portion as though it was a new starter. Work with
small portions so you won't ruin the whole batch with one experiment.

The feeding schedule I got in an article from the National Baking
Center has served me well. The schedule is 22, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6 hour
intervals from the the first activation of the new starter.

When the starter from your fridge comes to room temperature in a
couple hours, feed it as though is has already gone 22 hours, then
feed it according to the remainder of the schedule. That is, your
schedule consists of a total of 6 feedings at 0, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6 hour
intervals.

For each feeding add the same amount of flour and an equal volume of
water as there is starter. As the volume builds you can discard some
to retain a useable amount. If you start with 1/8 cup, then add 1/8
cup flour and 1/8 cup distilled water. Now you will have 1/4 cup so
for the next feeding, add 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup distilled water.
Then since you have 1/2 cup, consider retaining only 1/4 cup and feed
it the same as the last time.

I am not an expert on this matter, so I recommend you wait until the
Real Experts check in, if at all. But if I could not revive a starter
in the manner described above, I would consider removing it from my
starter inventory, unless it was so precious I could not part with it.

You can also consult the official r.f.s.FAQs:

http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughfaqs.html

"John G." wrote:
>
> I have a couple of jars of very old starter in the fridge and would
> like to know if they can be rejuvenated and what would be the best
> method.
>
> Thanks.


We don't use ours as often as we should so probably don't take very good
care of it, it goes for months languishing in the back of the 'frige.

Mom would "feed" it and it comes right back. :-)

Mom died about a year and a half ago.... <sigh> I probably should feed
the poor thing...... I'd kinda forgotten about it before I joined this
list. This starter is over 20 years old and was made "wild" in Colorado.
It's wonderful too.

I'm lurking here for recipes so I can start using it again. I want it
for waffles and pancakes.

K.
--
>^,,^< Cats-haven Hobby Farm >^,,^< >^,,^<

"There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they are
all owned by cats" -- Asimov

Custom handcrafts, Sterling silver beaded jewelry
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...s&userid=katra

"Katra" > wrote in message=20
...

> ... Mom died about a year and a half ago.... <sigh> I probably should =
feed
the poor thing......=20

I think you waited too long. She is probably not hungry any more.

> I'm lurking here for recipes ...

You might try the FAQs. Most of the news-group discussion is banter
and pleasantries.

> "There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they =
are
> all owned by cats"=20

Thanks for that. "Carlos" will like it.

"Bob" will seriously answer your post presently.=20

---
DickA

P.S. Good luck with your trinkets. No advertising here!

"Dick Adams" > wrote in message =
...

> ... Most of the news-group discussion is banter and pleasantries ...

Oops!

Except about rye bread!

The discussions about rye bread are quite serious.

(And rightly so!)

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:50:33 GMT, "Dick Adams" >
wrote:

>You might try the FAQs. Most of the news-group discussion is banter
>and pleasantries.

LOL

>> "There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they
>>are all owned by cats"

>Thanks for that. "Carlos" will like it.

Sign over our beagle Artemis Cuojo's dog house:

"CATS FLATTENED WHILE YOU WAIT!"

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:58:27 GMT, "Dick Adams" >
wrote:

>> ... Most of the news-group discussion is banter and pleasantries ...

>Oops!

>Except about rye bread!

>The discussions about rye bread are quite serious.

>(And rightly so!)

So are the ones about weight vs volume measure and the ones about
whether starter organisms come from the flour or the atmosphere. Like
the rye bread problem, those too are largely unresolved(*).

(*) I have successfully made bread with volume measure and can adjust
the degree of hydration to my liking manually every time. You want 60%
hydration - I can make that without weights or cups. In addition I
have successfully made "natural" starters solely from organisms
contained in flour. But since I am not an "expert" around here, no one
pays any attention to the results of my experiments.

"Bob" > wrote in message=20
...

> [ ... ]

> since I am not an "expert" around here, no one
> pays any attention to the results of my experiments.

The inquiry
was about pancakes etc. Those kinds of questions are at
the level of startermuckery. You can handle that! Pancakes=20
are what one does with the results of failed experiments with
starters or with residues from wasteful propagation techniques. =20

Right up your alley!

If all else fails, the inquirer can be advised to search the FAQ
documents and the Internet with the keywords <pancakes>
and <sourdough>.

Once you bake, you can feed the results to birds and squirrels,
maybe your dog if he is not too particular. But you have to=20
work your way up to that. =20

--=20
Dick Adams
<firstname> dot <lastname>at bigfoot dot com

Dick Adams wrote:
>
> "Katra" > wrote in message
> ...
>
> > ... Mom died about a year and a half ago.... <sigh> I probably should feed
> the poor thing......
>
> I think you waited too long. She is probably not hungry any more.

Ok. ;-)
Guess that was funny.....

I do have to check that culture and see if it is salvagable.
If not, mom did teach me how to make a wild culture, and those have
always yielded excellent results.

>
> > I'm lurking here for recipes ...
>
> You might try the FAQs. Most of the news-group discussion is banter
> and pleasantries.

That's the fun of reading the lists. :-)

>
> > "There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they are
> > all owned by cats"
>
> Thanks for that. "Carlos" will like it.

Kewl. :-) Good to meet a fellow cat lover.

Oh, cats like sourdough too...

>
> "Bob" will seriously answer your post presently.
>
> ---
> DickA
>
> P.S. Good luck with your trinkets. No advertising here!

<hurt look> It's just a sig. file.....
I snipped the spam tho' this time, if it is really going to offend
folks, I'll try to remember to do that here.

K.

--
>^,,^< Cats-haven Hobby Farm >^,,^< >^,,^<

"There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they are
all owned by cats" -- Asimov

Bob wrote:
>
> On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:50:33 GMT, "Dick Adams" >
> wrote:
>
> >You might try the FAQs. Most of the news-group discussion is banter
> >and pleasantries.
>
> LOL
>
> >> "There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they
> >>are all owned by cats"
>
> >Thanks for that. "Carlos" will like it.
>
> Sign over our beagle Artemis Cuojo's dog house:
>
> "CATS FLATTENED WHILE YOU WAIT!"

Another of my favorite cat quotes, "Thousands of years ago, cats were
worshiped as gods. They have never forgotten this..." --anon.

K.

--
>^,,^< Cats-haven Hobby Farm >^,,^< >^,,^<

"There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they are
all owned by cats" -- Asimov

Bob wrote:
>
> On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:58:27 GMT, "Dick Adams" >
> wrote:
>
> >> ... Most of the news-group discussion is banter and pleasantries ...
>
> >Oops!
>
> >Except about rye bread!
>
> >The discussions about rye bread are quite serious.
>
> >(And rightly so!)
>
> So are the ones about weight vs volume measure and the ones about
> whether starter organisms come from the flour or the atmosphere. Like
> the rye bread problem, those too are largely unresolved(*).
>
> (*) I have successfully made bread with volume measure and can adjust
> the degree of hydration to my liking manually every time. You want 60%
> hydration - I can make that without weights or cups. In addition I
> have successfully made "natural" starters solely from organisms
> contained in flour. But since I am not an "expert" around here, no one
> pays any attention to the results of my experiments.


This is usenet...
All posters are experts! ;-)

My mom taught me to make a wild starter using flour and milk, and
setting the jar in the windowsill for a week covered with just cheesecloth.

Worked every time, no mold, nada.

K.

--
>^,,^< Cats-haven Hobby Farm >^,,^< >^,,^<

"There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they are
all owned by cats" -- Asimov

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 15:33:04 GMT, "Dick Adams" >
wrote:

>Once you bake, you can feed the results to birds and squirrels,
>maybe your dog if he is not too particular. But you have to=20
>work your way up to that. =20

My beagles are not particular - they will even eat cats if given a
chance.

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 12:02:40 -0600, Katra >
wrote:

>Oh, cats like sourdough too...

That's not all the filthy creatures like to eat. <yuk>

As you undoubtedly surmised from my comments, we are dog people, and
therefore have no use for cats, unless the dogs need some exercise.

Don't take it personally - I used to be a cat person half a century
ago until the dumb thing crawled up into the wheel well of the car and
became "Splat the Flat Cat".

Now the beagles are in charge of flattening cats.

Bob wrote:
>
> On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 12:02:40 -0600, Katra >
> wrote:
>
> >Oh, cats like sourdough too...
>
> That's not all the filthy creatures like to eat. <yuk>
>
> As you undoubtedly surmised from my comments, we are dog people, and
> therefore have no use for cats, unless the dogs need some exercise.
>
> Don't take it personally - I used to be a cat person half a century
> ago until the dumb thing crawled up into the wheel well of the car and
> became "Splat the Flat Cat".
>
> Now the beagles are in charge of flattening cats.


We like dogs too. We have 4. 2 1/2 shelties and a border collie....

They get along with the cats too.

Beagles??? My neighbor has a beagle. :-P
Noisiest dog on the block, but she is too lazy to train it.

I also have yard birds including ducks, chickens, pigeons, doves and
emus. :-)

They like sourdough too. <G>

K.
--
>^,,^< Cats-haven Hobby Farm >^,,^< >^,,^<

"There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they are
all owned by cats" -- Asimov

Custom handcrafts, Sterling silver beaded jewelry
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...s&userid=katra

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 12:25:05 -0600, Katra >
wrote:

>Beagles??? My neighbor has a beagle. :-P
>Noisiest dog on the block, but she is too lazy to train it.

That's because they are extremely territorial. My beagles lie in the
patio with their heads to the concrete. The patio is in the back. When
some kid so much as steps one foot on out front lawn, they are out of
there like missles, running to the front of the house barking as if we
were being invaded by aliens.

How they know that the kids stepped on the lawn is am mystery, but I
have observed it far too many times for it to be coincidence. It's as
though they have a radar map of the entire property and can "see" in
their minds what is going on even though there is an entire house in
between them and the kids. If the kids do not step on the lawn, the
beagles stay put. The sidewalk is public property and the beagles
sense that.

Bob wrote:
>
> On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 12:25:05 -0600, Katra >
> wrote:
>
> >Beagles??? My neighbor has a beagle. :-P
> >Noisiest dog on the block, but she is too lazy to train it.
>
> That's because they are extremely territorial. My beagles lie in the
> patio with their heads to the concrete. The patio is in the back. When
> some kid so much as steps one foot on out front lawn, they are out of
> there like missles, running to the front of the house barking as if we
> were being invaded by aliens.

Lilly bugles for no reason, mainly annoying the neighbors dogs.
She is not too bright, she nearly got her tail ripped off thru the fence
by the neighbors rottie's! She deliberately annoys and teases them. The
rottie owners strung some hot wires after that so that the rott's could
not get close enough to the fence to hurt the little dipshit again. ;-)

>
> How they know that the kids stepped on the lawn is am mystery, but I
> have observed it far too many times for it to be coincidence. It's as
> though they have a radar map of the entire property and can "see" in
> their minds what is going on even though there is an entire house in
> between them and the kids. If the kids do not step on the lawn, the
> beagles stay put. The sidewalk is public property and the beagles
> sense that.

I think as a general rule, beag's are pretty smart if you take the time
to train them! My neighbor has not. :-(

K.

--
>^,,^< Cats-haven Hobby Farm >^,,^< >^,,^<

"There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they are
all owned by cats" -- Asimov

Custom handcrafts, Sterling silver beaded jewelry
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...s&userid=katra

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 18:12:05 -0600, Katra >
wrote:

>I think as a general rule, beag's are pretty smart if you take the time
>to train them!

Beagles are libertarians - they cannot be trained.

To paraphrase Robert Heinlein:

"You can't conquer a beagle; the most you can do is kill him."

"John G." <JohnGospel@no-site> wrote in message
...
>
> I have a couple of jars of very old starter in the fridge and would
> like to know if they can be rejuvenated and what would be the best
> method.
>
> Thanks.


Your old culture will probably be very sour and thin I am sure.

This is a crude technique but others "will fine tune my suggestions! "

This has worked very well for me.

Anyway, scrape down sides of jar , everything into the jar, and whisk/
shake really well. You may even want to split the contents into several
jars if you wish.

Bring to room temperature.

Start refreshing by adding some ( may be 1/4 cup each ) warm bottled water
and equal amounts of bread flour on a daily basis, keeping the culture in a
nice warm place.

Where there are bubbles ( no matter how tiny ) there is life.

Eventually the small bubbles will get larger with refreshing. . One may have
to do this several weeks to get a good active culture again. The refreshed
culture may be less sour and more active . You can then use and fine tune
the culture to where you want the flavor and rinsing abilities.

regards

Joan

On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 12:23:35 GMT, "Joan" > wrote:

>This is a crude technique but others "will fine tune my suggestions! "

>This has worked very well for me.

>Anyway, scrape down sides of jar , everything into the jar, and whisk/
>shake really well. You may even want to split the contents into several
>jars if you wish.

>Bring to room temperature.

>Start refreshing by adding some ( may be 1/4 cup each ) warm bottled water
>and equal amounts of bread flour on a daily basis, keeping the culture in a
>nice warm place.

>Where there are bubbles ( no matter how tiny ) there is life.

>Eventually the small bubbles will get larger with refreshing. . One may have
>to do this several weeks to get a good active culture again. The refreshed
>culture may be less sour and more active . You can then use and fine tune
>the culture to where you want the flavor and rinsing abilities.

Ed Wood has a similar method for rejuvination which I believe he calls
"washing". It's discussed in his book "Classic Sourdoughs".

Bob wrote:
>
> On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 18:12:05 -0600, Katra >
> wrote:
>
> >I think as a general rule, beag's are pretty smart if you take the time
> >to train them!
>
> Beagles are libertarians - they cannot be trained.
>
> To paraphrase Robert Heinlein:
>
> "You can't conquer a beagle; the most you can do is kill him."

But I thought you _liked_ beagles?!?!? :-)

Think I'll stick with the working breeds...
They seem to have better attention spans.
Even this doofy, hyperactive young border
collie I got from the shelter in April has
learned some basic discipline.

There is another girl on the dog lists that
has beagles in addition to a couple of other
working type dogs that I can't think of the breed
right now, but she says that beeeeegggssss as she
likes to call them are only good for holding
down the furniture. <G>

K.

--
>^,,^< Cats-haven Hobby Farm >^,,^< >^,,^<

"There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they are
all owned by cats" -- Asimov

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 04:40:57 -0600, Katra >
wrote:

>Think I'll stick with the working breeds...

Our beagles work - they guard the property. They act as another layer
of defense.

>They seem to have better attention spans.

Have you ever seen a beagle around food? Their attention span is 100%
- as long as there is food still available.

>she says that beeeeegggssss as she
>likes to call them are only good for holding
>down the furniture. <G>

Beagles are outdoor dogs. It is a mistake letting them live inside.