Well, today I sure have a treat for you… And by treat, I mean not. Actually, it’s the most disgusting and vile thing I may ever share on my blog. It’s just plain gross.
I know you are so very excited to read what I’ve got to share with you but hold on. Let’s jump back a few years. Bare with me while I tell you a rabbit-trail of a story…
During the summer of 2017, I not only jumped on the cast iron bandwagon, but I two-stepped it on the sourdough express as well. I fell hard, and fast for all things cast iron and sourdough. Oh, the recipes. The blogs. The Youtube channels dedicated to these ancient beauties.
I made the starter and the pancakes that tasted blissfully like pretzels. I made the cracker-crunch pizza and the disturbingly disappointing brownies. Maybe it was my starter? Maybe, it was me. Who knows, really. I’ll take the blame, because all those bloggers wouldn’t lie right? Nope…
Fast forward to, oh about last year. I finally conquered the sourdough. And began transforming every recipe to use about a cup of cold, unfed starter. Pancakes. Waffles. Biscuits. Pie Crusts. German Pancake (or Dutch Baby, depending on your country of origin.) Pillowy pizza dough. Cinnamon Rolls.
I knew I had arrived to Sourdough Bliss! And then, we sold our house. I knew it would look a little odd if I brought my starter cross-country with me. So, I decided to let that almost 3-year-old starter hibernate for a few weeks in a friends’ refrigerator.
We moved into our new home, and within days, I pulled out the starter. Gotta warm that baby up! We got back to making all the yummy foods. And, because it was winter, we added a weekly loaf of bread to the schedule. Everything was fine and dandy until that fateful day a few weeks ago…
I took the starter from the fridge and let it warm up to room temperature on the counter. As I have done so many times, I assumed everything was going swimmingly in that large glass jar… I planned to add flour and water the next day, but forgot. No biggie, I thought, I’ll just do it tomorrow. Jump ahead several “tomorrows” and maybe you can figure out where this is going….
I removed the lid and noticed the funkier-than-normal smell. Then, I noticed the pink speckles around the top. And, then, then!! I noticed the wiggly things in my starter!!! (I told you this was gross.)
Gnats had made their way into the starter and laid eggs. Which, gloriously turned into maggots. Maggots in my starter! (Look in the picture, you can see one near the top rim!)
I really almost lost it. I debated throwing the entire container away, but I loved this special-shaped Ball mason jar. So, I dumped the nasty contents into several layers of plastic bags and took it immediately to the outside can.
I soaked, scrubbed and boiled the jar to clean it! Then, cleaned it again. I am not taking any chances!
Once it was finally dry, I started the sourdough process all over again. Check that tutorial out in my next post!
