Had a butcher in Denver tell me my starter was too wet for 6 months

He grabbed my jar at the farmers market and said "this isn't sourdough, it's paste." Cut my hydration from 120% to 75% and suddenly I got real bubbles. Anyone else get a reality check from a random pro?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

kim_brown4mo ago

Wait, is this really that big of a deal though? I mean yeah, a 120% hydration starter is basically soup, but it'll still work if you're patient enough. I've kept mine around 100% for years and it bubbles fine. The whole "too wet" thing feels like one of those rules people love to gatekeep about. If your starter was alive and rising bread, who cares if some butcher calls it paste?

5

miles_campbell394mo ago

Your starter was too wet for 6 months" - man, that's brutal. I had a baker at a local pie shop tell me my starter smelled like "old sweat and regret," which was harsh but fair. I was feeding it with tap water that had way too much chlorine, and my hydration was probably around 130%. When I switched to filtered water and dropped to 80%, the thing finally stopped being a sticky disaster. Sometimes we need a stranger to point out the obvious, even if it stings a little.

1