UKC

Hello UKC Hive Mind,

I was one of those insufferable people that got really into making sourdough over lockdown. Different loaves, experimenting with hydration levels, the full wanker treatment basically.

Work picked up again and I neglected my starter culture and it went very. very wrong. Black liquid, weird spores, unbelievably vile smell. Like the bottom of yer kit bag after a long trip.

I drained the gak off, binned most of the mix and started feeding it again. It seemed to recover after a few days, but now the surface of the starter looks a bit leperous and is developing weird, small white craters of mould. The bad odour is returning.

Is it totally goosed? I'm prepared to start again but it really was making excellent bread and I'm cursing my lazyness.

Ta, Jim

Was it kept in the fridge? I've recovered a fridge-stored starter after more than a month with no apparent problems - but it only developed a greyish liquid and a bit of a yeasty crust. 'Leperous' sounds a bit more serious. Maybe a week of the standard 'throwing away most, keeping a few spoons and feeding' cycle might bring it back, if that's not what you've been doing already.

Have you tried actually baking a loaf, though? Presumably the process would be enough to kill off anything dangerous, and it might make for amazing flavours.

Yeah, kept in the fridge and I did a throwing away/feeding cycle for a few days.

I'll do a loaf tomorrow, I reckon you're right, a hot oven will hopefully kill anything heinous.

I've revived a started that I neglected for well over a year, although it never smelt disgusting, more of a kind of ketone/pear drops smell.

You are brave carrying on! I binned mine at the black gunk stage.start again or beg off someone else?

Give up. Yeast is wonderful. A no knead yeasted loaf is great. Leave the batter a few days to add flavour before baking it. 
 

I got into sourdough (for the second time in my life) during lockdown. Then rediscovered the joy of yeast! 

Should be rescue-able, but you could always start a second one up and whichever works well the fastest you keep.

We have success by only keeping 25g of inoculated starter each time we feed it with 100g of flour and 100g of water so 225g in total i.e. bin 8/9 of it each time you feed.

A week of daily feeding should see it right, after that I would start again.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2018/03/09/sourdough-starter-troubles...

I need to look at mine.  

Well, I got it out of the fridge this evening and there's now green mould on it so I'm just going to start again. I enjoyed the process so it's not a chore, just annoyed with myself, especially as the loaves were coming out a treat.

Thanks all for replies.

Ahhh. I was looking forward to the experiment. Do it in the name of science. Loads of weird foods only start where you're leaving off. Would Louis Pasteur have stopped at this point? 

Dunno about Pasteur, but Fleming would probably have gone on holiday and come back to see what the sourdough starter had developed into.

Mind you, that could be a new life-form given TechnoJim's reports.

Ah yes, Fleming a much better choice.

Would be the greatest of cosmic jokes were a lifeform from beyond our knowledge of science to be incubated in TechnoJim's fridge then eaten before discovery.

I didn't bin it last night, as I'm ever the optimist, but I checked it again this morning and it's gone well wrong mate, it looks like the thing at the end of Akira. It needs killing with fire before it takes over the kitchen.

The mould / spores sounds dodgy - something must have contaminated it along the way. Did it ever spend a long time with the lid off?  I would bin it and start again.

My sourdough starter spends long periods (months - possibly more than a year one time) languishing in the back of the fridge but is always fine after a good feed.  But it never smells nasty or looks mouldy.

Oh don't eat it, but surely watch what happens to a bit left out in the garden. If London starts to collapse into psychic singularity, we will know where to look.

Starters love wholemeal flour (rye > wheat). The bran has a lot of nutrients and steadies the fermentation. So if you've not already tried, feed with wholemeal for a few cycles (stoneground, fresh and local if you can). 

I never feed mine pure white flour. I like to think of this as not giving it the microbiological equivalent of diabetes!

Indeed. I was successfully baking for several months over spring/summer using a mix of wholemeal and rye.

I think as Becky suggested above, something contaminated the starter when I neglected it or when I tried to rescue it.

I've decamped to Southport for a month for work and I've come armed with 20kg of flour and a determined attitude. 

If London starts to collapse into psychic singularity I'll consider it a good day's work