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Rant: My sourdough starter died after 2 years of feeding it every single day
I came home from a 3 day trip to visit my sister in Portland and forgot to leave my starter with a neighbor, so it basically turned into a science experiment in my fridge lol. The smell was so bad I almost gagged when I opened the jar, and I had to toss the whole thing. Has anyone here successfully revived a starter that looked this dead, or am I just out of luck and starting fresh?
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aaron7403d agoMost Upvoted
Oh man, hard disagree here. Honestly I don't get the whole backup starter thing. You're basically running a mini sourdough daycare at that point with extra jars taking up fridge space. Just dry some starter out on parchment paper next time and stash it in a drawer. That stuff keeps for months or even years, no feeding, no worrying about it dying while you're gone. A three day trip shouldn't kill a healthy starter anyway unless it was already struggling. Maybe your routine had it too weak to bounce back from a little neglect.
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That's rough losing a two year old starter, I feel your pain. It's wild how the smallest things can throw off a routine you've had for ages. Makes you wonder what else in life we take for granted until it's gone, right?
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the_tessa3d ago
Honestly I've been there and the trick that saved me was starting a backup jar with just a few spoonfuls of my active starter every time I fed it. That way if something goes wrong with the main one you've got a tiny backup that's still alive and kicking. I keep mine in the back of the fridge with a tight lid and just check on it once a month to make sure it's still bubbly. It's a pain to remember at first but once you do it a couple times it becomes second nature just like the original routine. Seriously that little extra step has saved me twice now when I knocked my jar off the counter or forgot to feed it for too long.
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