My first real sourdough starter finally took after 14 days

I tried 3 times before with different flours and it always went moldy. An older baker at the farmers market told me to just use plain bread flour and be patient. He said "stop babying it, leave it on the counter and feed it once a day no matter what." Day 12 it finally doubled in size and smelled like yogurt instead of nail polish. Anyone else have a starter that took way longer than the blogs say?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor.betty16d ago

That thing about it smelling like nail polish really got me. My first starter took like 3 weeks and it smelled so bad I thought I was making poison. My grandma told me to just keep going and one day it switched from smelling like throw up to smelling like fruit. I think the blogs make it sound way too easy. They dont mention the part where you gotta ignore it for a week when it goes dead looking. I left mine in the back of the cabinet and forgot to feed it for 2 days and that actually helped more than anything.

andrew716d ago

Had the same thing happen with my starter, @taylor.betty. That nail polish smell is brutal. I was convinced I'd made something toxic. What finally turned it around for me was switching to half whole wheat flour. Gave it something real to eat and the smell flipped to like overripe apples in about 4 days. Also stopped obsessing over the schedule. Fed it when it looked hungry, not when the clock said so. The whole process is way more forgiving than people make it seem.