Welcome back everyone! I am so glad that you are here!
Over the course of the first few days of my starter’s lives, my house started calling them Larry, as we all know that I put a cucumber in the experimental starter, and if any of you all know of or watched the children’s cartoon “Veggietales” when you were little, you should get the reference as Larry is the name of the cucumber, the main character of the show. But enough of that, let us talk about science, shall we!
Over the course of the week after I put Larry together, lots of interesting things happened, so lets start where we left off.
After feeding Larry 24 hours after I first assembled them (August 27th – 10:40am – Day 2), the starters had very excitedly and seemingly immaturely rose and bubbled over the course of the day and when I went to check on them and feed them the next day (August 28th – 10:20am -Day 3), they were so riddled with bubbles and air pockets and divots over their entire surface, that what was visible to the eye could not even be counted. While I did not think to measure how tall the starters rose throughout the day, it was clear that they had almost doubled in size over the course of the previous day as they dropped at least two centimeters over the course of the night. What I found rather interesting about the starters after the second 24 hour time period was that they had developed a layer of hooch, however the layer of hooch was found underneath a majority of the starter itself rather than resting on the surface of the starter like one would expect (3/4 of a centimeter of hooch for the control and 1.2 centimeters for the experimental). Now in terms of the smell, let me just say that you guys are glad that you were not present for that aspect of the feeding as after feeding the starters, I had to light candles throughout my house in an attempt to cover up the horrific stench. The starters smelled horrible with the control starter smelling like fermented, moldy, sour batter, not bread anymore but like moldy batter, and the cucumber starter smelling still gross but better than the control as it smelled more like a mix of old cheese and moldy batter. But when I say this is not the first thing I wanted to smell in the morning, I mean it!
Below are some images and videos of the starters at 48 hours after being created (August 28th – 10:20am -beginning of Day 3) and just before their second feeding (control is always on the left and the experimental is always on the right).
Aug 28-3 (video of the starters for a more close up view, control always on left and experimental always on the right)
PS. The experimental starter had completely eaten the cucumber; all that is left of the cucumber in the starter is a weak form of the skin that was once encasing the fruit of the cucumber. It is kind of scary to think that the microorganisms in the starter ate a huge chunk of cucumber in less than 48 hours!
On the morning of August 29th (9:45 am), I woke up to a sad sight for my starters. They had done nothing over the course of the past 24 hours other than separate into watery sourdough sludge on the bottom of the starter and a thick layer of hooch on the surface (1/2cm for the control and 8/10cm for the experimental). Both of the starters had turned into a goo or glue like substance, almost like a completely watered down version of the mixtures of water and flour. Again, in terms of smell, the starters were still retched smelling; the control smelled like strong stinky, sour feet and the experimental starter smelled like rotting fruit and a sour starter. It was at this feeding that I realized that I might have accidently killed my starters, with my suspicion being that I might have starved them after their huge rise between 24 to 36 hours after I had created them and then fed them for the first time (this immense rise does not normally occur so quickly after putting the starters together). So in an attempt to save my starters, I switched the starters to a 12 hour feeding cycle in an attempt to jump start their growth and here is what I saw . . . . .
August 29th (9:40am – Day 4) (For the image on the left, the starter on the top is the control and the starter on the bottom is the experimental)
August 30th (11am – Day 5) (for the image on the right, the starter on top is the cucumber starter and the image on the bottom is the control)
August 31st (11am – Day 6)
So as you can see, with these images (control on the left and cucumber on the right) only picturing the starter at the morning feedings, keep in mind that I also was feeding them in the evening and also experiencing no true change at those times either, it was clearly obvious that the twelve hour feeding schedule had not jump started Larry, my starters. However, let me explain some specifics about what I saw. I did start feeding my starters outside in my garage because their smell was still so retched. The smells of both the starters were so sour and pungent that they smelled almost acidic, like stomach acid, especially that of the experimental starter which to me smelled exactly like stomach acid and made me feel nauseas to smell or honestly be anywhere near to. In terms of the appearance of the starters, they looked almost the exact same as each other and throughout every feeding for those three and a half days, except of course for the obvious pieces of cucumber in the experimental starter. Between every feeding, they developed a layer of hooch that was consistently between 1/2 to 3/4 of a centimeter thick, and when stirred, it felt like stirring a substance that was only slightly thicker than water, almost like watered down glue. The starter did not thicken at all or form any more bubbles as they did the first couple of days; the starters simply separated twice a day and stunk up my kitchen 24/7, nothing changed over the course of these past few days.
So I guess it is time; I regret to inform you that Larry, my original starters, after three and a half days worth of attempts to revive them, were pronounced dead officially and thrown away on the morning of September 1st, 2020 only six days after being made. I learned a lot from these starters, not only did I get the to learn the procedure like it was the back of my hand, but I also came up with theories on how to slightly alter my conduction of the experiment in order to keep my starters alive. Thus, Larry’s life was not lost in vain as I learned a lot from his existence and put together a new set of starters, and using what I have learned from Larry, have been able to keep them alive and actively functioning, rising and falling, and most excitingly, smelling, like real sourdough starters. So stay with me while I continue to share the story of my new sourdough starters; I hope to see you at my next blog post!