Showerthought: My old sourdough starter versus the new one I got from a bakery in Austin

I kept my own starter going for about eight months, but my loaves were always a bit flat and dense. A baker friend gave me a piece of his 5-year-old starter last month, and the rise and flavor are just on a whole different level. Has anyone else had a starter upgrade that made this big a difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

james6722mo ago

Yeah, that totally makes sense. It's like the older starter has a more stable community of yeast and bacteria (the good kind, obviously). My own starter took a solid year before it really hit its stride, flavor-wise. You can baby a young one all you want, but time just does something you can't rush.

jamesmason7d ago

Totally, @james672 nailed it. I had one that took close to two years before it started giving me that real deep sourdough tang, and nothing I did before that made any difference. It's wild how much patience that little jar of flour and water demands.

scott.mia2mo ago

Tell me about it, mine's still a moody teenager.