Help! I accidentally spilled about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of salt into my starter! I gave it a larger than normal feed and am hoping for the best...is it doomed?
The salt will slow things down a bit, but won't kill off anything you care about. To minimize the impact you might thin out the starter with some water since it is ionic strength that impacts growth rate. If you are maintaining it at 100% hydration, you might go a couple of refresh cycles at 200%. A larger feeding as you already did will help dilute the salt as well, perhaps 8:1 or 16:1 since the higher hydration will speed up growth rates anyway. It is not a big deal. Even if you do nothing the salt will be diluted geometrically every time you refresh and by the end of the week you won't be able to taste it (which is a good test).
Thanks Doc! I guess I can start breathing again :-) You should have seen the looks on my kids faces at the words coming out of my mouth when I spilled it in!! I will do just as you say and refresh at 200%.
Starter is apparently very resiliant. Last week I inadvertantly added a little egg white to mine, when I recycled some leftover dough from making pasta as a starter feeding and forgot I had tried some egg white in the recipe this time. I watched carefully for some sign, like foaming-at-the-container-top, that I had ruined the starter, but it just went on doing its normal thing and never smelled a bit different either.
Yep, i do believe it is. My starter is fully back on track with 2 lovely whole wheat batards snoozing away in my fridge, waiting to be baked up bright and early tomorrow morning!
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You are OK
Krista,
The salt will slow things down a bit, but won't kill off anything you care about. To minimize the impact you might thin out the starter with some water since it is ionic strength that impacts growth rate. If you are maintaining it at 100% hydration, you might go a couple of refresh cycles at 200%. A larger feeding as you already did will help dilute the salt as well, perhaps 8:1 or 16:1 since the higher hydration will speed up growth rates anyway. It is not a big deal. Even if you do nothing the salt will be diluted geometrically every time you refresh and by the end of the week you won't be able to taste it (which is a good test).
Doc
Thanks Doc! I guess I can
Thanks Doc! I guess I can start breathing again :-) You should have seen the looks on my kids faces at the words coming out of my mouth when I spilled it in!! I will do just as you say and refresh at 200%.
Cheers!
~Krista
Starter is apparently very
Starter is apparently very resiliant. Last week I inadvertantly added a little egg white to mine, when I recycled some leftover dough from making pasta as a starter feeding and forgot I had tried some egg white in the recipe this time. I watched carefully for some sign, like foaming-at-the-container-top, that I had ruined the starter, but it just went on doing its normal thing and never smelled a bit different either.
Hi Mango! Yep, i do believe
Hi Mango!
Yep, i do believe it is. My starter is fully back on track with 2 lovely whole wheat batards snoozing away in my fridge, waiting to be baked up bright and early tomorrow morning!
Cheers!
~ Krista.