Sourdough Starter - Smells like nail polish remover
HI! I am a complete beginner to sourdough baking and as the title suggests, I am having a couple of “complications” with my starter… He’s 9 days old today and I will first try to explain my process for establishing it. I’ve been feeding him every 24h as per the instructions I’ve been following.
Day 1
100g of rye flour and 150g of lukewarm water. By the next day, he had developed bubbles and even rose a little bit. The smell was kind of like yogurt.
Day 2
I saved 70g of my starter and discarded the rest. Then I added 50g rye flour/50g white flour and 115g of lukewarm water. There was a huge rise of activity that day, as he had tripled (I though he was gonna overflow my jar lol) in size and then deflated. The smell was normal.
Day 3-5
Same steps as day 2 - saved 70g of starter/50g rye and 50g white flour/115g lukewarm water. On days 3 & 4, the starter didn’t rise too much but there was activity in the form of bubbles. The smell was normal.
There were some bubbles on day 5 too, but he started smelling like nail polish remover.
Day 6
According to the instructions I’ve been following, I had to save 50g of starter and add 50g rye/50g white flour then add 100g lukewarm water. Again, by the next day, there was quite a few of bubbles in the jar, the starter rose a little bit, but the smell was still there.
Day 7
I saved 25g of starter and added 50g rye/50g white flour and 100g lukewarm water. The activity was the same as the day before, but the smell persisted.
Day 8
At this point, I conducted a bit of a research and learned, that the acetone smell could mean the starter is hungry and needs to be fed more often. I saved only 20g of starter and added in 10g rye/10g white flour and 20g lukewarm water.
Day 9
Today (12hours from his last feed) I am supposed to start feeding him more often. But the problem I am seeing is, from the last feeding yesterday, where I saved and added very little flour/water to it, there hasn’t been any rise from my starter and he had developed only a few tiny bubbles as opposed to nice ones from the first few days. The acetone smell is still as present as ever.
Did I accidentally kill my starter and should I start over? Or should I persist and feed him every 12 hours to see if there’s any more activity from him? I am worried I’ll end up overfeeding him, as there’s not much activity to see at all…
Thanks for your help! A
Day 7
I saved 25g of starter and added 50g rye/50g white flour and 100g lukewarm water. The activity was the same as the day before, but the smell persisted.
Day 8
At this point, I conducted a bit of a research and learned, that the acetone smell could mean the starter is hungry and needs to be fed more often. I saved only 20g of starter and added in 10g rye/10g white flour and 20g lukewarm water.
I'm not understanding something. Acetone means hungry so you fed it less?
Without taking anything out of your starter add in 40g flour (can be a mix if you wish) and 40g water. Give it a very good stir and keep warm. See what it does in 12-24 hours.
For a healthy starter running on white flour or whole wheat, usually you will smell alcohol after it has peaked and has begun falling. The hungrier it gets, the more it will transition into a sour/acidic smell.
With rye flour, I have noticed that the starter can smell like a mixture of alcohol and acetone. I would not worry about that, it is normal. That smell should disappear when do a refresh. Is that not the case?
Day 9? OMG! Seems you got one of the many bad methods from the web.
Stick with this easy, simple, 4 day, no waste method: https://www.bakewithjack.co.uk/blog-1/2018/6/14/making-your-own-sourdough-starter
Now to your nail polish remover: Relax. It's quite normal. Aceton smell happens when the sourdough lacks oxygen. Nothing wrong. Stir it.
Also, many starter use a 1:1 ratio. But you can use easily 1:5 to make it much more liquid. I use about 1:2 or 1:3, it makes the smell much nicer too.
I also have the other extreme, a 2:1 starter, thick like pasta dough. But it give white breads a nice mild taste.