February 28, 2014 - 8:21am
Slightly moldy starter
Hello all :)
I've been making sourdough's for a while, but I'm an irregular baker - so after a phase of baking I tend to bin my starters, and make a new one whenever the next baking phase strikes! Anyway, I began making a new wheat flour starter 6 days ago; it bubbled after 24 hours, and looked/smelled right after about 4 days. It's been refreshed daily and kept in a sealed tupperware container, unrefrigerated.
It's now day 6 - the starter looks right and smells right, but there's a few small patches of green mold developing around the rim of the container? This isn't something I've experienced before - is the starter safe to use, or do I need to bin and begin again?
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First, here is a link to another post on TFL dealing with moldy starter:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5372/mold-inside-my-starter-jar-friend-or-foe
Bottom line: you can scoop, scrape, or otherwise excavate out the moldy parts and push on, if you think your starter seems otherwise healthy. If the mold is actually on your container, maybe scoop the good portion of your starter out instead, moving it to a clean container to continue developing. Once you get a stable starter and do a few discards and refreshments, it will be as if mold never happened.
Secondly, why are you throwing away your good, healthy starters? You can spread some out on parchment paper or wax paper, let it dry, and keep it for almost forever in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. Then you will never have to "start" a starter again, simply re-activate the one from cold storage. It's quicker, easier, and less wasteful than starting over.