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Appreciation post: I started using a 3 year old sourdough starter from a bakery in Portland last month, and it makes a better loaf than any new one I've tried.
Everyone says you need to feed a starter daily for the best flavor, but this one gets fed once a week and still gives my bread a deeper, more complex taste than my daily-fed starters ever did, so what's the deal with that rigid feeding rule?
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dakota_rodriguez6mo ago
That "microbes doing their own slow thing" is key. A hungry starter might develop different acids and flavors than a constantly fed one. The rigid rule probably just comes from a fear of the starter dying, not from what actually makes the best bread.
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finley_walker574mo ago
Look at it this way though. I had a starter die on me after I left it in the back of the fridge for two weeks during a vacation. That was a real bummer, turned into a science experiment gone wrong. The regular feeding schedule is basically a safety net for people like me who don't want to lose their culture. Sure, a ten day cycle might build some wild tang, but it also builds a much higher risk of mold or a total crash if the temperature shifts. Most home bakers just want a reliable loaf on Saturday morning, not a gamble with their only starter.
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felix_martin566mo ago
You're onto something there. My best starter came from a friend who only fed it every ten days, and it had this amazing tang that my daily one never got. The rigid rules never made much sense to me either, since the microbes are just doing their own slow thing.
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