April 23, 2007 - 5:07pm
Pate fermente sitting for 4 days, maybe longer.
This past friday night I decided to make a pate fermente so that I could bake something hopefully tasty this weekend. Well, this weekend became a bit hectic and I never got around to do anything with it. Hopefully I'll be able to bake something this week but with work and finals coming up, I might not be able to until this weekend. Is there anyway that I can store the pre-ferment or should I just toss it and start over in a few days. I took it out of the fridge last night and it's smelling very very yeasty so I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
-Ryan
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I think if it's still got bubbles it's usable. I have run into similar situations a couple of times with poolish, and had good results just throwing in a bit more flour, maybe a quarter cup. That seemed to keep it fresh and happy for a while.
However, never having tried a biga, I don't know if the same thing would work for you, given the greater density you have to work with.
"I am not a cook. But I am sorta cooky."
I keep a chunk of dough from my weekly rye bread in the refrigerator for 6-8 days (over the Easter weekend 13 days) with no problem. As long as it smells OK (yeasty or flour-y but not rotten or mouldy) I figure it is OK. I don't know how much leavening power it has at that point, but it doesn't seem to hurt the flavour. YMMV.
sPh