Disaster
I had to tell someone about the nearly disastrous mistake I made, and nobody at home seems to understand why I was distressed. This seemed like one of those things that couldn't have happened to just me, so I had to post here.
I pulled my starter from the refrigerator and began building it up on Thursday for a bread that was to be done on Saturday. My starter responds very well to refrigeration, probably because it was grown during the cold months here in Seattle. Usually I have it back to doubling in 4-6 hours after one refresh. So I built it up from the 40g nugget that I keep in my refrigerator to two cups (about 450g) between Thursday morning and Friday morning, made my bulk ferment, and by Friday night I had about 2200g of dough in the refrigerator overnight to be shaped and baked Saturday.
Saturday morning comes, I bake four loaves of bread, take two of them to my in-laws who probably only like me because I bring them food. Get home on Saturday night, look around for what's left of my starter to give it one tiny refresh and put it back in the fridge and.....it's gone.
The container I keep it in is empty but for a bit of dried dough on the side. I panicked. I almost broke down. The starter I had been growing for nearly a year now...gone, due to my carelessness.
But...I had to try. I scraped the dried flakes from the container my starter had been in, plus what I could scrape from the bowl my bulk ferment had been in. Enough to get maybe 10g. I mixed it with 50/50 rye flour and AP. It bubbled a bit, but didn't rise. I fed it again...after twelve hours, it rose! It didn't double, but there was definite lift! It smells similar, but much more sour. I believe, but am not certain, that this is because of the rye flour? Anyway...my starter seems to be on the slow road to recovery. It might be a bit different now, but I can hope.
I too had a somewhat strange starter observation this weekend when I was baking. Fed my rye starter (like yours behaves well in the fridge, and 4-6 hour peak). I built if over two days from 25 gr to about 300, similar time line to yours. I then decided to double the recipe late on the second day, with baking intended for the morning of the third.
I started another glass container with about 3 tbs of mature culture from the first starter, shooting for 300gr so (I would have 600 total grams for about 7 pounds of dough - 20% pre ferment). Next morning comes bake time and the newer starter was not all that active, while the original one was going crazy with gluten strands, airy holes, looking real good. Nonetheless, I combined all and the bread rose just fine. I thought for sure the second batch would be crazy like the first given the overnight rest...
I can only conclude that building the starter slowly over several stages and two days will give a better build than starting with say one ounce, and adding enough to hit your target pre-ferment, and letting it build over say 5-8 (overnight) hours... Any thoughts on this are welcome. thank you!
Rest assured! Good thing you could scrape up 10g. That is what I normally feed... one teaspoon starter, a little water and some flour. So long it's not diluted too thin, it will bounce back right away. Twelve hours or overnight is about right. If you don't normally feed it with rye flour then the extra aromas come from the rye as it speeds up fermentation. (Love that rye!) Go ahead and build it up for another loaf, that little bit of rye goes a long way!
Mini
I can understand that you've been pretty scared about you starter being almost gone. But you absolutely did the right thing to scratch all the leftovers from the wall of your container and collected it for feeding. Even if you have just a pinch of starter left, there is a good chance you will be able to revive it. It's like doing a poolish (a yeasted predough). You only need about 0.3 grams of fresh yeast or so to turn a dough of 200g of flour into a bubbly mass within 12 hours of fermentation at room temperature. It's similar with sourdough starters. The cultures are still present in every little portion of it (given that it hasn't starved too much).
I actually do this all the time to only use about 10 grams of starter and feed it in three stages over about 20 to 24 hours (first feeding with 40-50g of water and 40-50g of flour and then either keeping or increasing the amount for the next two feedings, depending on the targeted amount of ripe sourdough). Especially since I often only manage to feed my two starters every one or two weeks (while keeping it in the fridge) the starters may show signs of being old (fluids on top of the starter and things like that). With using only a tiny amount of the old starter and doing a multi-stage feeding I reduce the risk of bringing a lot of unwanted substances into the sourdough and it slowly grows to a fresh and healthy culture again, showing more and more signs of activity with every feeding. Over the months its strength (in the sense of ability to rise a dough) and resistance to being slightly neglected increased significantly and it is still in the process of doing so.
Using rye flour to feed your collected starter leftovers, as you did it, can be a good idea. Rye sourdough (which indeed smells significantly more sour) tends to be more stable than white wheat sourdough, it has the best ability to fight against molding and things like that. But generally, if you neglected you starter for a longer period or if you get into situations like you have described then just try to feed your starter for several stages and it should come back to its former life over the days. It may need some time to gain back its full aroma and activity, but it should be ready to use again very quickly.
Good luck with your starter! But I think it will be fine, so just give some more love to it and it will thank you by being perfectly active again.
It sounds like you're on the road to starter recovery, but if not, I'm in Seattle and have had a healthy starter for a couple of years. You're welcome to some of it (and, like yours, mine does well in the fridge).
This is precisely the reason I never use my "mother" starter to build up, always the discard from a fresh feed. So Mother is always safe and away from the actual bread process.
If I were to leave it to memory to keep back a teaspoon or so of starter before making a batch of bread, I absolutely KNOW that I'd forget and bake up the last of the starter. That's practically guaranteed what with me plain ol' forgetting and Murphy's Law on top of that.
This is why I have been drying out a discard now and again. Just as a back up plan in case something does happen to my active batch, be it forgotten for way too long, tossed or cleaned out by mistake, baked totally or whatever other disaster it may encounter.
And I'm absolutely positive you'll have your yeasty dude back in no time. My regular feed always begins with just 10 grams of the old starter (10:20:20g). No reason yours won't perk back up.
I'd say "good luck" but I am certain you won't need it, you did all the right things.
You all helped me a great deal. I am pleased to report that last night my starter produced the same amount of activity I had come to enjoy before this last weekend, doubling at the six hour mark, right before I went to bed. bnom, it is very good to know that even if I lose everything, all hope is not lost. Thank you so much for the offer of some of yours!
I will dry some out and save it as advised, just in case. I can't trust myself not to do this again even if I do remove some from the mother before building to a dough. Accidents happen and I am just forgetful enough to have one mistake be the final word on my starter.