How long can dough last?

[Hassouni]

I made up some 72-hour pizza dough a while ago, fully planning on making pizza during lockdown. On the 2nd or 3rd day, my oven broke and needs to be replaced. So here I am  now with 12 day old pizza dough...and I just cooked it on my Baking Steel Griddle, stovetop (cooking both sides) and it was fine, I guess. Flavor was certainly VERY developed! How long is it safe to keep dough in the fridge? Can it actually spoil?

 

For reference, it's a 70% hydration dough with bread flour, 3% salt and 0.2% yeast.

 

Thanks!

[teonzo]

It's hard to give a precise answer, since it depends on too many factors. There are "good" (not harmful) micro-organisms that prevent the "bad" (harmful) ones to proliferate in the dough. So it depends on the balance of the micro-organisms that live in the dough, which depends on the recipe, on the kind of yeast / starter you used, on how it was stored (temperature and humidity), so on.

I heard of various people forgetting sourdough starter in the fridge for weeks, it going dormant / dying, but never heard about it developing molds or other. The risks with sourdough / levain / natural starters are almost null, since that's the natural balance in those conditions.

But I heard of some doughs made with yeast that developed molds, that happened after 2-3 days.

In your case I would say the micro-organism balance went towards the natural starter conditions, both due to the low starting quantity of yeast and the long time in the fridge. If it developed molds then you should have been able to see and smell them after 12 days.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Hassouni]

So in other words, at this point, it's good forever?

[keychris]

No. I find my sourdough dough generally doesn't last more than 3 days in the fridge before the gluten starts getting degraded and you end up with rubbery bricks. But sourdough is more enzymatically active than commercial yeast (in my anecdotal experience) so YMMV.

[teonzo]

15 hours ago, Hassouni said:

So in other words, at this point, it's good forever?

 

"Good" in the sense that it won't harm your health? Most probably yes.

"Good" in the sense that while eating it you'll say "this tastes good"? Most probably not.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Hassouni]

Yeah, I mean safe to eat. I don't want to throw it away if it's edible

 

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Hassouni (log)