Hot take: That sourdough starter exchange at the county fair changed my whole approach

I was at the county fair last August and this older lady named Dorothy handed me a jar of her 30 year old starter and said "this one's been through two divorces and three floods, it'll never let you down." She was right - my bread has doubled in height and has this tangy flavor I couldn't get from my own starter no matter how long I fed it. Has anyone else had a random baker just give them something that completely shifted how you bake?

2 comments

2 Comments

shah.shane1mo ago

Two divorces and three floods" is absolutely wild. I'd be half expecting the jar to start telling me its life story. But honestly, that tangy flavor you're describing is probably from decades of wild yeast and bacteria building up a really complex ecosystem. My grandpa had a starter he got from a neighbor in the 80s that survived a house fire, and that bread had a sourness you just can't fake with store-bought yeast. I'm still trying to get my own starter to that point but it just tastes flat no matter what I do.

grantnelson1mo ago

I'm gonna push back on that a little. That "complex ecosystem" idea sounds good but in my experience older starters can be just as inconsistent as new ones. I had a friend who swore by her great-grandma's 80 year old starter and her loaves would fail about half the time because the yeast balance had shifted over the decades. The tangy flavor you're chasing probably has more to do with your feeding schedule and flour choice than the age of the starter. Your grandpa's house fire starter might have been good but I bet it was the specific way he maintained it, not just because it survived a disaster.

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