Most of us who delve into flour dough probably use a preferment of different varieties to start our recipe either a levain, sour dough starter or others.
When storing these for future use one would store in a refrigerator, right? right. On the last couple of pizza doughs, I saved a piece of raw dough and used for the next time when making dough. Obviously saved another piece and put in the refrigerator.
To my question, Can or does anyone store their dough in flour at room temps for an extended period of time? I did it once, let sit in flour for 1 week and it worked fine, smelled great and tasted pretty good. Im just wondering if its actually safe to do. I assume the ancients did it this way.
i do not know the answer, but we do not know for certain what any “ancients” did, unless it is explicitly written (then we may assume they are telling the truth). just because they did do something, this doesnt necessarily mean its safe either.
however, from what i remember reading about poolishes and sour doughs, they are left at room temp, and i think putting them in the fridge is actually not an optimal way to store them long term, but i could be wrong.
You can do either, but at room temp you need to feed the starter more often. Some daily, some say very 2-3 days. The general advice is that unless you bake often, fridge is preferable. I do that and feed it once a week. You also develop more flavor from the slower ferment in the fridge.