Question about switching from instant yeast to sourdough starter

I have been using instant yeast for years and just last week my neighbor brought over a loaf from her starter and it was so much more flavorful that I am rethinking everything. She told me her starter is 12 years old and that got me wondering if I have been missing out on depth of flavor this whole time. Has anyone else made the switch and regretted having to maintain the feedings every day?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewgonzalez10d ago

...so my buddy Mike made that exact switch last year and he said the first month of feedings was a total drag, he kept forgetting and had to dump out half a jar of science experiment. But after the second month he told me the flavor on his sourdough blew his old instant yeast loaves out of the water, and he got used to the routine pretty quick. Now he barely thinks about it, just feeds it while his coffee brews and swears he'd never go back.

adams.troy10d ago

...wait, your buddy Mike just dumps half a jar of starter science experiment? Like, he's letting it rot in the fridge for a month and then scraping off the fuzzy parts? That's insane, man. I've been doing this for years and I never let mine get that bad, I just toss a spoonful in the trash before feeding if it's been a lazy week. But the flavor part though, that's real. Once you get that deep tang from a mature starter, instant yeast just tastes like cardboard. I get how he hooked on it after that second month.