I had a similar smell mystery with my starter recently - it started smelling like nail polish remover and was off putting, and after some googling it seems like it was probably too much acetic acid production. What did the trick was moving my starter to a new jar. I had gone too long without washing the jar and the jar I had been using had some corners where desiccated starter was accumulating and it must have been affecting the biome in some way. I switched to using straight sided round jars and moving to clean jars more regularly and my starter has been smelling like it’s normal self ever since.
Great article on a healthy starter. Will there be a recorded version available for purchase after the matnakash class is over? I have been looking forward to this class, but cannot attend due to my work
This is so good and so true! It's easy to blame issues on the flour, gluten development, oven, etc. but a majority of the time it's the starter. A hard truth!
I had a similar smell mystery with my starter recently - it started smelling like nail polish remover and was off putting, and after some googling it seems like it was probably too much acetic acid production. What did the trick was moving my starter to a new jar. I had gone too long without washing the jar and the jar I had been using had some corners where desiccated starter was accumulating and it must have been affecting the biome in some way. I switched to using straight sided round jars and moving to clean jars more regularly and my starter has been smelling like it’s normal self ever since.
Great article on a healthy starter. Will there be a recorded version available for purchase after the matnakash class is over? I have been looking forward to this class, but cannot attend due to my work
schedule.
This is so good and so true! It's easy to blame issues on the flour, gluten development, oven, etc. but a majority of the time it's the starter. A hard truth!
I love this post! I feel like so many home bakers can relate. The struggle can be so real!