Wasted $40 on a fancy sourdough starter kit off Amazon

Ordered this kit from Amazon with a special jar and scales and everything. Thought it would make my sourdough come out perfect. First loaf was a dense brick so I tried again with the same starter and it molded over in 4 days. Turns out all you need is flour water and a regular jar. Has anyone else fallen for those starter kits?

3 comments

3 Comments

blairm774d ago

Oh man, I totally fell for one of those too. Ended up with a jar that had a little thermometer strip on it and everything. What actually worked for me was just dumping a cup of whole wheat flour and a cup of water in an old pasta sauce jar and leaving it on the counter. Fed it the same amount of regular flour and water every day and it was bubbling like crazy in about a week. My first few loaves were still kind of flat and gummy though. Took me a solid month of feeding it twice a day and learning to trust my eyes over recipes before I got that nice open crumb.

nathan_kim4d ago

...and here I am with my $70 dehydrator I bought to make fruit leather for my kids. Used it twice. Now it's just sitting on the counter next to the bread machine I got at a garage sale for $5 that actually makes decent bread. Sometimes the cheap stuff does the trick.

simonlee4d ago

Nah man, that cheap bread machine is probably full of plastic gears ready to strip out any day now.