I pulled my girl out of the fridge, getting ready to feed and make some bread.
I noticed two red spotches in my starter. Have we gone moldy? This doesn't feel good.
(She is bubbly and smells wonderful still, but I am squinty mcsquints of suspicion here)
by fr0gponds
11 Comments
I can’t find my way to edit:
She had a discard and feed 3 days ago, and I had her in the fridge until now.
I would chuck it if I saw that but zooming in it also looks like some fibres are in there. Is there chance there’s something off of some clothes maybe that’s leaking colour in to the starter?
Were you wearing a red sweater? Because that looks like some fibers just got mixed in.
Is this what you typically store it in? I can’t tell from the photos but it looks like a very shallow deli container. I know people use plastic successfully, but it does harbor more bacteria than glass- especially over time (if you’re not changing it). Also how does it have space to rise and how is it being covered?
Hah I did this same thing but in my case it was a bit of red plastic from a spoon. Glad you worked it out!
Look more like a piece of towel than a spoiled starter.
Toss it and start again. Warm-coloured (yellow, orange, red, etc.) molds are often harmful.
Great to hear it was just thread! My big lesson from something similar (bad outcome) is that I always freeze or dry a bit of starter so I don’t have to go back to zero if something goes sideways.
That red looks like *Serratia marcescens* to me. Looks like some kind of filaments attached to or coming out of the red blobs, don’t know what those are. Sorry!
When mine turned orange it also smelled really bad. Like rotten cheese
I love a happy ending