I just found out my 'secret ingredient' was actually a big mistake

So for the last two years, I've been adding a teaspoon of baking powder to my sourdough starter when I feed it. I read it in some old forum post and just ran with it, thinking it gave my loaves a better rise. My bread was always good, but sometimes it had this weird, almost bitter aftertaste I could never pin down. The tip off came last week when my friend's kid, who's in a high school chemistry class, was hanging out at my shop. He saw me do it and said, 'Wait, isn't that just making it more acidic and killing the wild yeast?' I stood there with my little jar of starter, feeling like an absolute fool. I did a test batch without it, and the flavor was so much cleaner and brighter. I was basically fighting my own starter this whole time. Has anyone else ever followed a piece of baking advice for way too long before realizing it was totally wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

wrenh791mo ago

My grandma swore by adding sugar to her starter for forty years.

miles_roberts221mo ago

Remember my uncle who would only use bottled water for his starter, said tap water would kill it. Turns out he lived in a town with famously soft water, while my hard water actually needed the minerals.