Are you ignoring or neglecting your sourdough starter? Beware! This is what happened to me.
© Viktoriia Kurchavova | Dreamstime.com
Story of a Rogue Starter
(Originally published on my old blog. I learned this lesson quickly, it hasn’t been repeated!)
I’ll admit I’ve been a little slack with my sourdough starter this winter. My kitchen stays cool — rarely above 65°F during the day and even cooler at night — so I left the starter on the counter and fed it only once or twice a week while baking a loaf or two. The reassuring thing is that a well-established starter tolerates a fair amount of neglect. The warning is that neglect eventually catches up with you.
Springtime and Sourdough
Then spring arrived with a run of warmer days. It wasn’t dramatically warmer, but enough to coax bulbs into bloom, send kids outside with baseball gloves, and nudge microbial activity in my starter. That small rise in temperature made a noticeable difference.
What Is That Smell?
One afternoon I came down from my upstairs office and was immediately hit by a strong, unpleasant odor. I emptied the trash, cleaned dishes, and scrubbed the sinks, but the smell persisted. Finally I noticed the container of sourdough starter. I’d been sick earlier in the week and had skipped a bake, so the starter hadn’t been tended for a few days. When I removed the cover, the source of the aroma was obvious.
If you’ve ever opened a teenager’s gym bag after a long absence and been nearly knocked backward by a potent, sour stench, you know the kind of smell I mean. For everyone else, consider yourself fortunate you haven’t experienced it firsthand.
Is Something Dead?
The starter itself looked overripe and was sluggish, but the real problem was the sides of the container: a thick, discolored, dried layer of old starter with visible mold in places. When starter is poured, some residue clings to the jar walls, and over time that buildup can spoil. I nearly tossed the whole jar.
I didn’t want to discard this starter — it’s been cultivated long enough to have the balanced sourness I prefer — but I wasn’t about to bake with visible mold. This was clearly not a desirable culture to preserve.
Time for a Revival
I carefully transferred the healthy-looking portion of starter into a clean container, avoiding any moldy parts, and fed it. The original jar was foul; rinsing barely reduced the smell. The dried residue resisted scraping and needed a long soak in soapy water before I could run it through the dishwasher. The kitchen required a few hours with the windows open before the air felt normal again.
Since then, the starter spends most of its time in the refrigerator, where cooler temperatures slow activity and reduce the frequency of feedings. That said, warmer spells still happen, and I’ve learned to check the starter more often when the weather shifts. If a jar looks neglected and lifeless, it’s often possible to revive it — I’ll share those methods another time.
For now, I’m off to bake a loaf. What are you baking this week?
More About Sourdough
Make Your Own Sourdough Starter
How to Keep a Sourdough Starter Alive
How to Make Rye and Other Specialty Sourdough Starters