It's a Crock

I've been having some minor problems with my sourdough starter. Normally when not used you get some grey liquid from the used yeast cells. No big deal - you pour that off and keep going. However, I've been getting a (not good) sour smell and slight mold development.

I've taken it out and refreshed completely a few times; that works in the short run, but one of the reasons to keep a culture going is to not have these sorts of problems.

So: drastic measures. I keep my starter in an unglazed crock that I bought oh, over ten years ago. Every once in a while when doing a refresh I'll soak it and clean it out. This time, I soaked it in boiling water; soaked it in salt water; then in boiling water again. Yesterday I baked it in the oven for a few hours.

Wow. Some serious bloom coming out of the crock's pores. Which makes sense; yeast gets in and goes dormant. I'm assuming I have some sort of less-good contamination in there and so I'm effectively trying to sterilize it. On the downside, the crock now has baked-in cracks showing on the surface. Oh well. If this works, it's fine; if not, I'll just have to buy a new one.