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Watched my sourdough starter die in a 30 minute window after leaving the lid loose
Hey everyone, just wanted to share a facepalm moment from my kitchen in Boise yesterday morning. I had been babying this starter for about 2 weeks, feeding it every 12 hours like clockwork, and it was finally doubling in 4 hours. Then I got distracted cleaning the oven and left the lid just barely cracked for about 30 minutes. When I came back, the top was dried out and cracked, and there was a weird crusty ring around the jar lip. I scraped off the top layer, moved what looked okay into a clean jar, and gave it a 1:1:1 feed with some warm water. Fingers crossed it bounces back, but I am not holding my breath. Has anyone else had luck reviving a starter after it dried out like that, or am I basically starting from zero again?
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stella12125d ago
Oh man, that crusty ring around the jar lip is the real tell here. That dried stuff is basically dead yeast and flour, and scraping the top does not save the wet stuff underneath if the dry layer pulled water out of it. Here is the thing nobody mentions though: your starter probably was not dead in 30 minutes, it was just shocked. What actually kills it is the dry crust sealing the top so the good yeast underneath runs out of food and oxygen. Move it to a clean jar, feed it, and give it 24 hours before you judge it. Two weeks is young too, so it may just take a few feeds to wake back up.
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