My sourdough starter has not been looking or smelling too good the past few days. I took the decision today to split it right back down, throw most of it away and feed it to see where that gets me. Apparently the yellowy liquid appearing on the top means that it’s being starved.
I also split some more off and I’m feeding it a higher ratio of flour to water and splitting it more aggressively. FOR SCIENCE!
We’ll see what it looks like tomorrow. Both Spawn and MiniSpawn.
I read on a Facebook group full of artisan bakers that a if a wholewheat starter smells like vomit for a few days it’s probably ok and is just going through the process of fighting off the bad bacteria that you don’t want. For science I’m going to stick with this. It’s also looked very sad and lifeless over the last 24 hours, but I’m assured by people on ‘the internet’ that’s ok too.
So I fed it and it looked like this. The same as every other day except more of it. There are some bubbles already, so what I might do this evening is split it down and feed it again. The recipe I’m following doesn’t call for you to split it, but lots of others do.
That’s what it looked like this morning. Slightly grey. A little stinky when opened the lid. Slimy looking.
I dutifully added my 75g of flour and 75ml of water and it looked thick and pasty again, like this.
Crossing fingers.
So I decided to have a go at making a sourdough starter and hopefully then sourdough bread. Today I went and brought scales, a jar and some wholemeal flour and shall henceforth be known as THE SPAWNING.
It’s strangely what I imagine having a small child would be like. But with less swearing, pain and stretch marks.
75g of flour and 75ml of water are go.