Just found out my starter is basically a 5 year old petri dish of doom

I was reading this food science blog last night, got deep into a rabbit hole about sourdough starters. Apparently a 5 year old starter like mine has thousands of different bacteria strains living in it, some of which can actually make you sick if the pH gets out of whack. I always thought the older the better, no questions asked. But this article said after year two, the risk of bad bacteria taking over goes up by like 30% if you don't feed it right. Now I'm paranoid, I've been baking with this thing for years and never once checked the pH. Has anyone else tested their starter's acidity levels or am I just overthinking this whole thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

danieltaylor7d agoMost Upvoted

Friend of mine @kevin_bailey had a five year old starter he swore by, then one batch of bread sent his whole family to the bathroom for two days straight. Sometimes old is just old until it isn't.

kevin_bailey7d ago

Realized something reading this - it's just like how people treat old cars or old houses. Everyone thinks old = better but nobody checks the actual condition. My neighbor's got a '65 Mustang sitting in his garage, swears it's a classic, but that thing hasn't run in 15 years and the fuel lines are probably rusted solid lol. It's easy to get attached to something just because it's been around a while, but you gotta actually maintain it or it goes bad. Same with your starter, same with anything really. Time alone doesn't make something good.