Starting sourdough is a tedious process that requires you to attend to it each day, at least for the first 10 days. My sourdough starter was alive and well for a total of four days before I missed a day of feeding and, unfortunately, it died. However, I have taken away some valuable lessons from this and have a better chance at keeping it alive during my second attempt.
Throughout the past week, I made two mistakes that lessened the chance of my starter staying alive. My first mistake happened right at the beginning. I started my sourdough after 12am on the weekend, not thinking about how the starter works on a 24hr clock. This made it so that when I fed my starter each day, it would have to be the very last thing I did before bed, and it was often still too early. I was feeding my starter at the wrong time and also forgot on the last night because of the schedule I had created. This time, I began the starter at 6pm, a time that i am always home and usually cooking dinner, making it convenient for me to feed it.
The second mistake that I made was the type of water I was using. To properly start your sourdough, you must use distilled or bottled water due to the harmful chemicals that are present in tap water. When I first used tap water in my sourdough, there were almost no bubbles, which signified that the yeast was not activated and fermentation was not happening. When I switched to bottled water, the mixture seemed to ferment much faster and also produced a better smell than my previous one.
See tip #2 of Abigail’s Oven to learn more about the water you should be using in your sourdough (the other tips are helpful too!)
