33
Just tried to make a 'quick' sourdough starter from a TikTok hack
I saw a video saying you could get a starter going in 3 days by using pineapple juice instead of water. I mixed my flour with the juice and left it in my kitchen in Phoenix. By day two it smelled so bad, like rotten fruit, and never bubbled up at all. I learned that shortcuts with wild yeast usually just make a stinky mess. Has anyone actually had a fast starter work, or is it always a week-long wait?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
elizabeth9001mo ago
My starter in Tucson took a full 10 days last summer. I mean, the heat is supposed to help but it just made it smell worse for longer. Those hacks always skip the part where the bad bacteria has to die off first before the good yeast shows up. That rotten smell is exactly that phase. Maybe it's just me but I've never seen a real starter work in under a week. You just have to wait it out with regular water and flour.
3
kim3731mo ago
Oh man, "smelled like old gym socks" is the perfect way to put it. My first starter smelled so bad I was convinced I was just farming a new kind of mold. I kept feeding it out of pure stubbornness, like a bad relationship. It finally turned the corner on day nine, right after I'd already told my partner I was giving up.
6
victorb741mo ago
That Tucson heat story is spot on. My first starter in Mesa smelled like old gym socks for a solid eight days before it finally turned the corner. All those hacks try to rush the acid build up that kills the bad stuff. Using pineapple juice just throws the whole pH balance off and you get a different kind of rot. The waiting is the whole process, you can't cheat a natural fermentation that needs to establish its own balance.
0