After years of failing, and seeing people on here posting beautiful “first” loaves. I took a break and came back strong. I did 113g of whole wheat flour, 113g of water on day 1. This is day 2 after discarding half and adding 113g of all purpose and 113g of water. I also have a kombucha heater that I use to sit loosely around the starter to keep it warm.
My biggest lesson? Stop being cheap. I never wanted to discard half so I would only remove a little because it felt wasteful. But learned it’s not about waste, it’s about the right chemical balance. And I also didn’t want to use whole wheat flour because I was being cheap. (Granted I have plenty of money to use whole wheat, literally just being a cheap ass 🤣)
by RegularAd1121
2 Comments
Hate to break it to you, but if this is literally day 2 of your starter, this is what we call a false start. It probably smells cheesy or like stinky socks. Good news is that it is a good sign but the good bacteria needs to fight the bad bacteria that is currently in there. Keep with it though! It’ll stop rising then will start again after a while
This is the bacteria war – do not eat this or bake with it. Over the next few days, this will stink like vomit, old cheese, stinky feet, you name it. Let it happen and just maintain the daily feeds. You might have a few days of inactivity – that’s fine.
For now, continue daily feedings or the next 2-3 weeks. You can even cut back on the flour by doing 25g starter, 50g flour, 50g water – 1:2:2.
Also, you really want to discard because fresh flour is food for your starter. If you have too much old starter, that’s less food.