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How to Store Sourdough Starter In the Fridge Long Term. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

How to Store Sourdough Starter In the Fridge Long Term and How to Revive Your Starter

If you want to know how to store sourdough starter when taking a break from baking or you want to send someone some of your precious starter, I’ve tested three ways to store sourdough starter for a long period, including the freezer method, drying method, and fridge method. These are the pros and cons of each method, and how to troubleshoot when your starter doesn’t come back to life.

Many sourdough bakers who mainly bake on the weekend put their sourdough starters in the fridge during the week, bringing it out on Thursday night for a feeding before baking a boule for the weekend. But what do you do when you’re going on holidays or simply want a break from baking for more than a week? Is your starter going to die? Can this starter that you’ve spent so much time maturing ever produce great bread again?

My break from sourdough baking was initially enforced by moving apartments for a second time during the pandemic – where now at three times thanks to a bunch of mature age anti-vaxxers who loved to party like they were in a backpacker hostel. Having to pack up the apartment, move, and then unpack everything again took around two weeks, which meant two weeks when I couldn’t bake. On top of this, the small oven at the new apartment couldn’t fit my baking/pizza stone and could barely fit my Dutch oven.

I surrendered and fed my sourdough starter for what I thought could be one last time. I dated it and put it in the back of the fridge, not knowing how long it would sit back there with the kimchi and grainy mustard, and whether I’d ever be able to bake another sublime loaf of sourdough bread from it again.

How to Store Sourdough Starter In the Fridge Long Term and How to Revive Your Starter

So it was back to store-bought bread again. How bad could it be? Well, sadly, despite the French influence in Cambodia, Siem Reap does not boast many decent bakeries. While there are local bakeries that can bake a decent baguette (we have a bakery around the corner that bakes okay French baguettes several times a day, along with pink lamingtons), most bake one of two types of ‘baguettes’: one that goes hard as a rock within an hour and can be used to hammer nails, and the other that’s doughy and soft and, rather alarmingly, never goes mouldy.

It’s impossible to find fantastic sourdough or any loaves made without bakers yeast and sugar. Sourdough is more digestible than other breads and sourdough baking is the oldest method used to leaven dough, so it makes me very sad to have to go to the supermarket and buy white bread made with loads of sugar (3.5%), milk (10%) and shortening (5%). I just find eating anything with this bread deeply unsatisfying. It’s too sweet for sandwiches, doesn’t toast properly, and barely performs the function of filling your belly.

During the first year of the pandemic (I can’t believe I just typed that), I had been baking sourdough bread every couple of days with excellent results. However, by the middle of 2020, our local supermarkets had run out of good bread flours, including the whole wheat flour that I use for my sourdough starter and mix in with my bread dough.

In the last month, a huge shipment arrived from the USA and once again Bob’s Red Mill flours was back in stock on Siem Reap’s supermarket shelves. There was no excuse for me not to pull my sourdough starter out of storage and start baking sourdough bread again – apart from my tiny oven.

Before I tell you how that turned out, let me share the methods of storing sourdough starter for the long term in case you find yourself in a similar situation.

Storing Sourdough Starter Long Term

Freezer Method for Storing Sourdough Starter

The freezer method for storing sourdough starter is a good way to store your starter if you don’t want it taking up precious fridge space. You simply feed your starter and when it’s active pour it into a couple of zip-loc freezer bags – don’t forget to label and date it. It can stay in the freezer for up to 12 months.

To defrost and reactivate your sourdough starter, treat it like any other frozen food and place it in the fridge to thaw. When it has thawed, take it out to room temperature and then feed your sourdough starter as normal. You’ll need to keep a normal feeding schedule for a couple of days before your sourdough starter is active enough to bake with.

If your sourdough starter is slow to reactivate, do a couple of double feeds where you feed it, wait eight hours, and feed it again. You can make some sourdough discard recipes with the discarded starter in the meantime.

Drying Method for Storing Sourdough Starter

The drying method for storing sourdough starter is a fantastic way to store a sourdough starter in a cupboard in case something goes wrong with your active starter. It’s also a great way to transport starter and many people even sell starter in this form as it retains yeast and bacteria better than the other methods.

If you’re moving abroad or interstate and are catching planes, having starter in a plastic container is a great way to take it with you – customs willing! Make sure you check in advance if it’s possible to take starter into a country with you.

To make ‘dried starter’, feed your starter as per normal, then as it is rising place a tablecloth on a workbench, and cover it with a sheet of parchment paper (or baking paper). When the starter peaks, spread the starter thinly over the parchment paper using a wide palette knife. Let it dry overnight.

The next day, your sourdough starter should be brittle enough to break up with your hands. Place the pieces in a zip-loc bag, label, and store it in a cool dry place. This will last indefinitely. To refresh the dried starter, weight it and place it in a container. Add the same weight of water and stir. Leave this for a few hours before refreshing with a normal starter refresh.

Fridge Method for Storing Sourdough Starter

This method is how to store sourdough starter in the fridge and it’s how I’ve stored my sourdough starter in recent months as an experiment. It’s quite simple too. Before you store your sourdough starter in the fridge, refresh your starter as per normal. Give your sourdough starter an hour or so to get the feeding going, then place the starter in the fridge with a solid lid (don’t use cling wrap). Date the jar and make a note that you need to check your starter in two months time.

Your sourdough starter can stay in the fridge for up to two months or more without a refresh. Some bakers don’t like this method because the starter takes up space and you need to remember to refresh it. Note that the longer you leave the starter, the more chance it will be a little funky when you go to refresh or use the starter.

If there’s any mould on the starter or it’s super funky, then your sourdough starter is probably spoiled – perhaps by using utensils that were not perfectly clean to mix the starter. You should discard this batch of sourdough starter if this is the case.

If there’s just a little water on top of the sourdough starter (it may be brown-ish), then tip this out and place the container on the countertop for 12 hours before feeding. This gets the starter back to room temperature and ready to take on the new feeding. It may take at least a couple of feeds before it’s ready to bake with again. See my notes on our personal experience below.

Tips to Activating Your Stored Sourdough Starter

Depending on how strong your sourdough starter was, it may take more effort to revive due to the bacteria and yeasts not being strong enough. I recommend not storing a starter that is less than 3 months old.

To give your sourdough starter a boost, try increasing the frequency of feed to twice a day for a couple of days. If this doesn’t work, change the type of flour you’re using. I recommend a wholewheat flour or a less-processed flour to try and kick-start your sourdough starter.

If that doesn’t work, try the brute force method of discarding most of your sourdough starter. You can try feeding the sourdough starter discard separately as well. Just feed the starter as per normal. The brute force method has worked for me with only 15 g of stater fed with 50 g of water and flour. Amazing when it works!

My Experience Reviving My Starter Using the Fridge Method

My sourdough starter sat in the fridge unattended for 73 days. When I pulled it out the other day, it wasn’t looking too promising to be honest. There was a grey watery substance on the top of the starter and it looked pretty dead. It didn’t smell pleasant either.

I scooped the top layer off the starter and gave it a stir before placing it on the counter top. I fed it the next morning at 8am – a ritual that I follow so that I can start shaping bread by 4pm – and it rose and had bubbles in it, but nowhere near the 2 1/2 to 3 times rise I get with a healthy starter. It also had a slightly funky aroma – and not in a good way as it was very vinegary.

Over the next couple of days, using wholewheat flour to feed the starter, it came good. The aromas were fresh and yeasty and the starter peaked at triple the size of the starting point. The only thing was, it wasn’t terribly bubbly on the surface. I did a float test that showed the starter was very buoyant and after feeding the sourdough starter next day, I shaped my first batard.

Now, because my oven maxes out at 220°C (as opposed to a normal 250°C), I needed to compensate by creating a much tighter shaping of my batard. Most bakeries do their shaping very quickly and don’t take time to push the tension of the dough to the limit as the skin of the dough might split. I carefully made mine as tight as possible to get the most oven spring – and as you can see by the photo, it worked out great!

My Formula for Baking Bread After Activating Your Stored Sourdough Starter

To get a good first loaf of sourdough I used 20% wholewheat flour and 80% white bread flour. The hydration level was 77%. I make quite small batards and boules. I use an online app called BreadCalc to calculate my formula and hydration levels. This is my formula for this bread, I know it makes quite a small batard or boule, but there is only two of us. Note that with this formula the 20% wholewheat flour is 67 grams and 80% white bread flour is 266 grams.

I would love to hear from you if you have any tips on how to store sourdough starter in the fridge long term or how to revive your starter. You can leave comments below, email us or connect with us on social media.

An update on my Sourdough Starter – from failure to fully-blown

If you’ve read through this post we’ve now moved three times during the pandemic – now into its third glorious year of making our lives abnormal. This third residence had everything, except an oven. The reason is that unless the apartment block is run by French expats, they don’t understand the importance of an oven in Western cooking or baking. All local home cooks just use a couple of gas burners and a rice maker!

Thanks to a generous donation by some friends we now have a big ‘toaster oven’, or a tabletop electric oven as the owners manual states. It’s an Electrolux EOT56MXC (not on Amazon that I can see), that’s big enough for my Dutch Oven and my pizza stone.

This meant brewing up another new starter as the old one did not survive the move. But it didn’t work so well. Double feeding, distilled water, several different flours, placing it in different areas in the apartment – nothing worked. It bubbled occasionally and lazily. It never quite reached doubling in volume. But I was still not yet about to give up and buy the whitbread “sugar loaves” or poor baguettes that could double as baseball bats before you took a tuk tuk home.

Enter, rather sheepishly, Wessex Mill Strong White Bread Flour. With black & white packaging that looks like it was ‘crafted’ by a forklift driver who smokes too much weed, the actual flour is fantastic. It’s not just my strong (13 g protein) flour, I use it for all my loaves now, even if I throw in a little wholewheat flour with it. Using very old mills in the UK, local grains and grinding the wheat slowly, it’s fantastic.

So what was wrong with my previous attempts? I literally have no idea. Was the flour too old? Was the water (both tap and bottle) different? Was the storage temperature wrong?

It’s hard to say, even after going through each individual element of the starter. So the moral of the story is, try everything. Make notes. Don’t change more than one thing at each attempt. And, persevere. We’re now making what Lara considers to be the best bread of my nearly four years of making sourdough bread.

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About Terence Carter

Terence Carter is an editorial food and travel photographer and infrequent travel writer with a love of photographing people, places and plates of food. After living in the Middle East for a dozen years, he settled in South-East Asia a dozen years ago with his wife, travel and food writer and sometime magazine editor Lara Dunston.

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About Grantourismo

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Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check o Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check out our seafood recipe collection, especially if you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with a fish focused meal in the Southern Italian tradition, transformed by Italian-Americans into the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or like Australians, who celebrate Christmas in the sweltering summer, feast on seafood for Christmas Day lunch, we’ve got lots of easy seafood recipes for you.

Our recipes include a classic prawn cocktail, blini with smoked salmon, a ceviche-style appetiser, and devilled eggs with caviar. We’ve also got recipes for fish soup, seafood pies and pastas, salmon tray bake, and crispy salmon with creamy mashed potatoes.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/seafood-recipes-for-christmas-eve-and-christmas-day-menus/
(Link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas if you’re celebrating!! 

#christmas #christmasfood #seafood #fish #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #grantourismo #grantourismotravels #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you’re still looking for food inspo for Chris If you’re still looking for food inspo for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day meals, my smoked salmon ‘carpaccio’ recipe is one of dozens of recipes in this compilation of our best Christmas recipes (link below). 

The Christmas recipe compilation includes collections of our best Christmas breakfast recipes, best Christmas brunch recipes, best Christmas starter recipes, best Christmas cocktails, best Christmas dessert recipes, and homemade edible Christmas gifts and more.

My smoked salmon carpaccio recipe makes an easy elegant appetiser that’s made in minutes. If you’re having guests over, you can make the dish ahead by assembling the salmon, capers and pickled onions, and refrigerate it, then pour on the dressing just before serving. 

Provide toasted baguette slices and bowls of additional capers, pickles and dressing, so guests can customise their carpaccio. And open the bubbly!

You’ll find that recipe and many more Christmas recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/best-christmas-recipes/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas!! X

#christmas #christmasfood #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #salmon #smokedsalmon #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels 
#xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I sh If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I shared a collection of recipes for homemade edible Christmas gifts — for condiments, hot sauces, chilli oils, a whole array of pickles, spice blends, chilli salt, furakake seasoning, and spicy snacks, such as our Cambodian and Vietnamese roasted peanuts. 

I love giving homemade edibles as gifts as much as I love receiving them. Who wouldn’t appreciate jars filled with their favourite chilli oils, hot sauces, piquant pickles, and spicy peanuts that loved-ones have taken the time to make? 

Aside from the gesture and affordability of gifting homemade edibles, you’re minimising waste. You can use recycled jars or if buying new mason jars or clip-top Kilner jars, you know they’ll get repurposed.

No need for wrapping, just attach some Christmas baubles or tinsel to the lid. I used squares of Cambodian kramas (cotton scarves), which can be repurposed as napkins or drink coasters, and tied a ribbon or two around the lids, and attached last year’s Christmas tree decorations to some.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/homemade-edible-christmas-gifts/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Yes, that’s Pepper... every time there’s a camera around... 

#christmasgiftideas #ediblegifts ##christmasfoodgifts #foodgifts #giftideas #homemadegifts #christmasfood #ediblegiftideas #hotsauce #chillisauce #sriracha #pickles #homemadepickles #recipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood 
#blackcat #blackcatsofinstagram #picoftheday 
#christmas #christmastree #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas #cambodia #siemreap
This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’ This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’s perfect if you’re just back from the fish markets armed with luxurious fresh crab meat. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and very, very moreish.

Our crab omelette recipe was one of our 22 most popular egg recipes of 2022 on our website Grantourismo and it’s no surprise. It’s appeared more times than any other egg recipes on our annual round-ups of most popular recipes since Terence launched Weekend Eggs when we launched Grantourismo in 2010.

If you’re an eggs lover, do check out the recipe collection. It includes egg recipes from right around the world, from recipes for classic kopitiam eggs from Singapore and Malaysia and egg curries from India and Myanmar to all kinds of egg recipes from Thailand, Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, USA, Australia, UK, and Ireland.

And do browse our Weekend Eggs archives for further eggspiration (sorry). We have hundreds of egg recipes from the 13 year-old series of recipes for quintessential egg dishes from around the world, which we started on our 2010 year-long global grand tour focused on slow, local and experiential travel. 

We’re hoping 2023 will be the year we can finally publish the Weekend Eggs cookbook we’ve talked about for years based on that series. After we can find a publisher for the Cambodia cookbook of course... :( 

Recipe collection here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio):
https://grantourismotravels.com/22-most-popular-egg-recipes-of-2022-from-weekend-eggs/

If you cook the recipe and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either in the comments at the end of the recipe or share a pic with us here.

#recipe #recipes #eggs #eggslover #breakfasteggs #WeekendEggs #egg #breakfast #brunch #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #lookingforapublisher #writingacookbook  #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angko I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angkor Archaeological Park, home to stupendous Angkor Wat, pictured, celebrated 30 years of its UNESCO World Heritage listing. 

That’s as good an excuse as any to put this magnificent, sprawling archaeological site on your travel list this year.

While riverside Siem Reap, your base for exploring Angkor is bustling once more, there are still nowhere near the visitors of the last busy high season months of December-January 2018-2019 when there were 290,000 visitors. 

Last month there were just 55,000 visitors and December feels a little quieter. A tour guide friend said there were about 150 people at Angkor Wat for sunrise a few days ago.

If you’re looking for tips to visiting Angkor, Siem Reap and Cambodia, just ask us a question in the comments below or check Grantourismo as we’ve got loads of info on our site. Click through to the link in the bio and explore our Cambodia guide or search for ‘Angkor’. 

And please do let us know if you’re coming to Siem Reap. We’d love to see you here x

#siemreap #cambodia #asia #travel #instatravel #traveldeeper #slowtravel #localtravel #experientialtravel #exploremore #neverstopexploring #goexplore #igtravel #angkorwat #angkor #temple #temples #angkorwithoutcrowds #unesco #unescoworldheritagesite #unescoworldheritage #archaeology #archaeologicalsite #traveladdict #beautifuldestinations #beautifulplaces #travelgram #wanderlust #picoftheday📷 #grantourismotravels.
Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky, flavourful and succulent chicken thighs that are fantastic with steamed rice, Chinese greens or a salad, such as a Southeast Asian slaw. 

The chicken can be marinated for up to 24 hours before cooking, which ensures it’s packed with flavour, then it can be cooked on a barbecue or in a pan.

Terence’s soy ginger chicken recipe is one of our favourite recipes for a quick and easy meal. I love the sound of the sizzling thighs in the pan, and the warming aromas wafting through the apartment. 

It’s amazing how such flavourful juicy chicken thighs come from such a quick and easy recipe.

Recipe here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio): https://grantourismotravels.com/soy-ginger-chicken-recipe/

If you cook it and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either here or in the comments at the end of the recipe on the site or share a pic with us x 

#recipe #recipes #chicken #soygingerchicken #asianfood #southeastasianfood #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #cookingtime #recipe #recipes #comfortfood #foodblog #food #foodstagram #healthyfood #instafood #healthy #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re mak Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re making with my market haul from Psar Samaki in Siem Reap — all for a whopping 10,000 riel (US$2.50)?! 

Birds-eye chillies thrown in for free! They were on my list but the seller I spent most at (5,000 riel!) scooped up a handful and slipped them into my bag. She was my last stop and knew what I was making.

My Khmer is poor, even after all our years in Cambodia, as I don’t learn languages with the ease I did in my 20s, plus I’m mentally exhausted after researching and writing all day. I have a better vocabulary of Old and Middle Khmer than modern Khmer from studying the ancient inscriptions for the Cambodian culinary history component of our cookbook I’m writing.

So when one seller totalled my purchases I thought she said 5,000 riel but she handed back 4,500 riel! The sum total of two huge bunches of herbs and kaffir lime leaves was 500 riel.

Tip: if visiting Siem Reap, use Khmer riel for local shopping. We’ve mainly used riel since the pandemic started— rarely use US$ now as market sellers quote prices in riels, as do local shops and bakeries, and I tip tuk tuk drivers in riels. I find prices quoted in riels are lower.

Psar Samaki is cheaper than Psar Leu, which is cheaper than Psar Chas, as it’s a wholesale market, which means the produce is fresher. I see veggies arriving, piled high in the back of vehicles, with dirt still on them — as I did on this trip. 

The scent of a mountain of incredibly aromatic pineapples offloaded from the back of a dusty ute was so heady they smelt like they’d just been cut. More exotic European style veggies arrive by big trucks in boxes labelled in Vietnamese (from Dalat) and Mandarin (from China), such as beautiful snow-white cauliflower I spotted.

Note: the freshest produce is sold on the dirt road at the back of the market.

#cambodia #siemreap #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodphotography #igfood #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #instadaily #picoftheday #market #siemreapmarket #psarsamaki #marketfresh #vegetables #healthyfood #marketshopping #traveltips #foodtravel #culinarytravel #localtravel #cooking #cookingtime #curry #homemade #currypaste #grantourismotravels
My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recip My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recipe makes tender meatballs doused in a delightfully tangy-sweet sauce, sprinkled with crispy fried shallots, with carrot-daikon, crunchy cucumber and fragrant herbs. 

The dish is inspired by bún chả, a Hanoi specialty, but it’s not bún chả. No matter what Google or food bloggers tell you. Names are important, especially when cooking and writing about cuisines not our own.

This is an authentic bún chả recipe:  https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-bun-cha-recipe/ You’ll need to get the outdoor BBQ/grill going to do proper smoky bún chả meat patties (not meatballs).

My meatball noodle bowl is perhaps more closely related to dishes such as a Central Vietnam cousin bún thịt nướng (pork skewers on rice noodles in a bowl) and a Southern relation bún bò Nam Bộ (beef atop rice noodles, sprinkled with fried shallots (Nam Bộ=Southern Vietnam) though neither include meatballs. 

Xíu mại= meatballs although they’re different in flavour to mine, which taste more like bún chả patties. Xíu mại remind me of Southern Italian meatballs in tomato sauce.

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, home to millions of Khmer, there’s bánh tằm xíu mại. Bánh tằm=silk worm noodles. They’re topped with meatballs, cucumber, daikon, carrot, fresh herbs, crispy fried onions. Difference: cold noodles doused in a sauce of coconut cream and fish sauce. 

Remove the meatballs, add chopped fried spring rolls and it’s Cambodia’s banh sung, which is a rice noodle salad similar to Vietnam’s bún chả giò :) 

Recipe here: (link in bio) https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-meatballs-and-rice-noodles-recipe/

For more on these culinary connections you’ll have to wait for our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history. In a hurry to know? Come support the project on Patreon. (link in bio)

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It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour matches the furnishings of our rented apartment. So, no, I did not colour-coordinate the interiors to match our cat’s eyes. 

I keep getting DMs from pet clothing brands wanting to “partner” with Pepper and send her free cat clothes and cat accessories. Although she did wear a kerchief for a few years in her more adventurous fashion-forward teenage years, I cannot see this cat in clothes now, can you? 

#pepper #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #blackcatsmatter #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #catlover #catlovers #catlove #catoftheday #catphoto #catpic #catpics #cambodiancat #cambodiancatsofinstagram #catlife #catloversclub #catoftheday #catgram #catstagram #cats_of_instagram #catphotography #catsofig #catsoftheworld #catsofinsta #cats🐱 #siemreap #cambodia

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