Fried Sourdough Starter Recipe — Meadowlark Journal (2024)

FAQs

Can you eat fried sourdough starter? ›

Yes, and there is. Introducing: Fried Sourdough Starter. We have recently discovered that you can turn your leftover sourdough starter into FRIED BREAD! Honestly, it is one of the best inventions to come out of the kitchen recently.

Sourdough baking's history dates back to the ancient Egyptians — and interestingly, a man named Seamus Blackley, alongside a team of archaeology and microbiology experts, managed to revive 4,500-year-old yeast microbes from ancient Egyptian bread-making vessels housed in a Boston museum.

Some early miners were even known to sleep with starters in their pockets on cold nights so that the yeasts and bacteria didn't freeze to death—giving the prospectors a somewhat sour smell, which may also be part of the reason they earned the sourdough nickname.

In a cast iron pan, heat fresh olive oil to medium-high to high. When it shimmers place sliced bread, sourdough is a fabulous option, and fry until golden on one side then flip and fry on the other.

Keep feeding your starter, and you'll see normal activity (bubbles) return in a few days. If your starter has a bit of dark liquid on top, it's not dead! It simply means it's hungry and that it's time to feed it. Unless your starter has a pink or orange hue or is beginning to mold, you probably haven't killed it yet.

If you don't get rid of the excess, eventually you'll have more starter than your feedings can sustain.

You can try to revive it by pulverizing it and adding water, then feeding it on a regular schedule. But if it doesn't respond at all (no growth, no bubbles) after three or four days of twice-a-day feedings, you might as well start over.

Local Alaskans use "sourdough" to describe anything and anyone with experience or longevity — even their fellow Alaskans. Referring to themselves and other long-time residents as "sourdoughs," the use is indicative of the sourdough's historic presence in Alaskan society.

While the age of your starter won't make your bread any better — turns out, only good sourdough practices can do that — it's a link in the long legacy of sourdough, one of the oldest forms of baking that exists. Whether your starter is a week or a decade old, you can become part of that lineage as well.

Olive oil in the dough not only brings another level of flavor; it also inhibits gluten development, resulting in a loaf that's more tender than the average sourdough, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture.

Can you eat sourdough starter discard raw? ›

No, it's not advisable to eat raw sourdough starter. While some people claim to have healed their gut problems by eating probiotic rich sourdough starter, it's not really advisable. Raw sourdough starter contains uncooked flour which can harbor harmful bacteria among other things.

Using a sandwich loaf tin is a great option for baking sourdough bread. It creates a uniform loaf of bread that's perfect for sandwiches and doesn't require a Dutch oven!

You shouldn't eat sourdough discard raw but you absolutely can eat it cooked! This sourdough fried bread uses pure sourdough discard for the dough.

Long term lack of feeding at room temperature can absolutely ruin your starter. Contamination: The yeast and bacteria in your sourdough starter are willing and capable of keeping some contamination at bay.

As a general rule, you should throw out a loaf of sourdough bread when it shows visible signs of mold, when it has an unpleasant odor, or when it doesn't taste right. At this point, mold may be contaminating the bread below the surface, even if you can't see it.

If you have a dormant or 'dead' sourdough starter, or one that has been languishing in your fridge, don't worry! It's possible to revive a sourdough starter from the fridge, and bring back that tangy flavor and airy texture we all love.