Howdy! And thank you so much for chiming in. I went through a whole thread of excitement, deflation and woe (it was quite a t.v. drama) over my 1.0 starter which, after about Day 7, was clearly not working. Norcal patiently held my hand, and then gently suggested I start over with a more reliable recipe. If those helping me here had been physically with me as I peered at that 1.0 starter, I'm sure they would have been exchanging looks and head shakes behind my back
Any-hoo, Norcal's advice certainly paid off.
Do you have pictures of your starter?
Happily, I do! I was worried I wouldn't, but things radically changed this evening.
They can be very weather dependent and depending where you store yours adversely affected by too much heat or being too cold.
You are probably right. I'm near the ocean and the weather in my area is about 15 degrees colder than the sunny warm weather nearby. Downright chilly at night and this weather was even cooler with my first attempt at a starter. That might have helped inhibit it, along with too little water. Also, frankly, my ignorance on what it was supposed to be doing or look like. Now that I've seen what *supposed* to happen, I maybe-sorta-might be a little better equip to give the starter what it needs if it gets sluggish.
My starter lives in the fridge 24/7 unless I feed it
I hope to keep my starter in the fridge as well as I'm a weekend baker. Fingers crossed that I get to that point. I want my starter to be one of those that lasts for years.
I have never seen a starter go mouldy
Norcal has had experience with from-scratch-starter that got moldy due to the unique environmental circumstances in her area, so that's why I mentioned mold. It's not that I expect my from-scratch-starter to get moldy, but I'm doing this completely new with no idea what contaminates (if any) might be in the air in my area or in my home. I figured it wise to check for mold along with smell and the rest. So far, so good.
The starter if done properly should smell sort of turpentine (although it should be noted that my sense of smell has been destroyed by horrific allergies over the years.)
The changing smell of the starter has been interesting. It was only a little unpleasant at the start of day 4 when it smelled a little "sulfur-ish." But this evening I finally got that sour smell everyone talks about. Yay! Very exciting and I liked it.
PS as for the whole cheese cloth covering
There's been a lot of talk about the cheesecloth covering. Most websites seem to favor it for a beginning starter, which this is. The cheesecloth seems to be doing fine for now, but I'll probably keep the starter covered with a regular lid if/when it gets into the refrigerator—so if it gets knocked over, as things sometimes do in the fridge, it won't spill out.
And I'm glad to hear that white plastic storage works fine for starters, as I have a nice little white plastic quart container I hope to keep my starter in once it goes into the refrigerator.
