5 minute read: Fix my sourdough starter! It smells like nail polish remover!

I'm reviving my dried starter (the one that is pure bread flour as opposed to the one that's mixed dark rye and bread flours) and it's not going too well.

I followed my usual protocol:

Day 1:

5 g starter in small jar and stir in 25 g lukewarm (use distilled) water.  Mix and let sit for an hour, stirring once.  After an hour mix in 20 g of flour.  Move to a warm spot as above. Warm here means about 65 to 75 degrees Fahreheit.

Day 2 and beyond:

For the next 5 or so days, discard all but 10 g of starter and mix it vigorously with 25 g of water and 25 g of flour.  By about day 5 it should be very bubbly after 12 to 24 hours.

Day beyond:

Start feeding your starter in a 1:1:1 ratio until it doubles in 8 hours. If you are still at the doubling in 12 hours, I'd recommend that you stay small to not have to waste so much. So, maybe keep 30 g starter and add 30g flour and 30g water.

At that point, build it up to the amount for your recipe. Let's say that your recipe calls for 227g of ripe starter, if you're starting at the 90g total like above, do not discard.

Keep all 90g of starter and add 90g of water and 90g of flour. Once you start your bread, the extra 270g - 227g = 63 g of starter can be refed for next time or refed once and dried (that's a future blog post).

So far so good. But what do I do when my starter smells like nail polish (acetone)? First, don't worry. It happens. Happening to me as I write this. Let's fix your sourdough starter.

When this happens, there are generally a couple things going on. One, your starter is young and out of balance. Be patient. The yeast and bacteria are figuring out how to get along and they'll sort it out. Keep up with your feeding as above. Two, it could be that it's telling you that you need to give it more flour and water than you are currently.

That's what I'm doing with mine. I'm at the day 5 and beyond step and it's still not at the doubling in 12 hours stage. And when I open the lid to sniff, it nearly knocks me to the floor with that acetone smell!

I'm right now going up in my ratios. So instead of 10g:25g:25g of starter, water, flour, I'm upping the ratio to 10g:35g:35g so that the yeast has more food and can perhaps get a little more ahead of the bacteria.

If you get stuck like I did and have something you'd rather use to remove nail polish than bake with, try upping your ratio and remind yourself that sometimes natural starters work on their schedule not ours!