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My starter went super sour after a 3 day neglect during a work trip
Left it on the counter without feeding for 72 hours last month and came back to a hooch layer that smelled like a chemistry lab, but after stirring it back in and two feeds it's giving my loaves this tang I never got before has anyone else accidentally made their starter better by ignoring it?
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miles7221d ago
Used to be one of those people who panicked if my starter went even 24 hours past feeding, thought it was ruined for sure. Then I came back from a long weekend trip, found a thick grayish liquid on top, and almost dumped the whole jar. Decided to just scrape off the hooch, feed it twice, and give it a chance. Now my bread has this deep tangy flavor that I could never get before, even with longer cold proofs. That neglect turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to my starter, totally changed my mind about babying it so much.
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the_piper18d ago
Wait is this actually some kind of breakthrough or are we just hyping up a normal thing that happens? I mean yeah starters get sour when you neglect them, thats literally just biology doing its thing. The hooch is just alcohol and bacteria waste, stirring it back in isnt some magic trick. If you like the tang that's fine but acting like it's this wild discovery seems overblown. Lots of people get sour dough just from regular maintenance without letting their starter go rancid for three days. Maybe you just finally got the hang of your feeding schedule and the timing lined up right. I bet you could get that same flavor without the near-death experience if you played around with your ratios and temps.
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