That time a home baker showed me my sourdough starter was actually moldy

I went to a community bake sale last spring in Portland and this lady took one look at my loaf and asked if my starter had a pink tint. I told her no, it was just a little orange. She said that's mold and I'd been baking with contaminated starter for 3 months. Threw out my whole batch and started fresh with her discard. Has anyone else had a bakery catch something wrong with their starter that they missed?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_fisher1mo ago

Oh man, that's rough. "A little orange" hit me hard because I totally would've thought the same thing. I've been keeping a starter for like 4 years now and I'm still paranoid about colors. My first starter got tossed after 2 weeks because I didn't know what hooch looked like. It's wild how easy it is to miss something obvious when you're just used to it. Good on that lady for catching it though, better to know now than keep eating moldy bread.

zarar671mo ago

Yeah and what gets me is how fast mold can show up too. I had a jar that looked totally fine one morning and by evening there was this nasty green fuzz I somehow missed until I went to feed it. Now I just do a quick sniff and check every time I open the lid, even if I'm half asleep. If it's orange or pink or anything that isn't white or beige I'm tossing it no questions asked. Better safe than sorry with that stuff, mold can get deep in there before you even see it.