Got told my sourdough starter smelled like a gym sock at a bakery in Portland

I brought my starter to a little shop on SE Hawthorne called Tabor Bread last weekend. The baker there took one whiff and said it smelled like a locker room. I've been feeding it every day for 8 months with no mold or anything, so what gives. Has anyone else had a baker trash talk their starter like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

lisa_brown13d ago

Oh man, I gotta push back on this one a little bit! A funky gym sock smell actually means your starter is packed with the right kind of wild yeast and bacteria that bakers in Europe would kill for. Portland hipster bakeries just have a weird thing for bland, predictable starters that taste like plain flour water.

victor_butler5013d ago

Did they at least tell you what specifically was off about the smell? I used to think a funky starter was a badge of honor until a bakery in my town explained that certain bacteria can make it go sour in a bad way rather than a good one.