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My sourdough starter went from bubbly to dead in 4 days flat | Baking Fails And Wins - HW Forums

My sourdough starter went from bubbly to dead in 4 days flat

I fed it organic rye flour at 1:1:1 ratio every 12 hours like always, but after I left town for a weekend it got this weird pink spot on top by Monday morning. I tried scraping it off and feeding it fresh but now it smells like nail polish remover instead of sour. Has anyone else brought a starter back from pink mold or should I just dump it and start over?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_sarah2mo ago

Wait, you left town for a weekend and came back to a pink mold rave party? I mean, that starter was already on a one way trip to the compost bin. @sage_lewis10 is right with that zombie nurse analogy, I've been there and it's just sad watching a jar slowly turn into toxic waste. Baking a loaf with that stuff would be like putting expired milk in your coffee and hoping for the best. Dump it, give it a proper funeral, and start fresh. Your kitchen will thank you.

amymartinez4mo ago

Dumping a starter feels like a breakup with extra steps honestly. I murdered my first three starters before I got one that didn't try to die on me. That pink mold is bad news though, trust me on this one. Nail polish smell means it's starving or infected too. Just start a new one and pretend the old one went to a farm upstate.

sage_lewis104mo ago

Honestly this whole comment kinda shifted how I look at it. I used to think dumping a starter was just wasteful, like you're giving up on free food. But @amymartinez you got me thinking about how the pink mold and that nail polish smell really are red flags you can't fix. I had a starter once that smelled like acetone for a week and I kept feeding it thinking it would bounce back. Nope, it just got worse and started looking fuzzy. Next time I'll just toss it and start fresh instead of playing zombie nurse with a jar of dead flour.