Rancid Flour
Hi Everyone,
I was baking away from my home and accidentally used some rancid Whole Wheat flour (had a sour taste, no bugs, no mould though), the bread I baked looks great, but has a strange sour note to it (not good sour, more like playdoh smell). After the bake I tasted the WW and it had this same taste/smell to it. I am going to throw the loaves out as I don't think it is worth the risk and am not impressed by the way they taste (interestingly the WW was only 15% of my bake and the flavour still comes through very strongly). However, I fed my starter this rancid WW flour before realizing it was off. Do you think I can just train the rancid flour out of it by feeding it and discarding several times before baking again (with fresh flour)? Or do you think I have altered the composition of it too much by introducing potentially harmful bacteria with the rancid WW? I have old backups in the fridge I can go from, but was really happy with how this starter had been tasting/smelling/performing before introducing the off WW flour.
Input from all you smart bakers would be greatly appreciated!
I should add that my starter is still very active even after being fed the rancid WW flour.
I had this happen once & simply fed it for a couple of days with fresh flour and it was fine.
Rob
Thanks Rob!
As a general rule, I give my flour (especially whole grain flours) a smell test before using it. I don't know if there is any real harm in eating it, but unless you were starving, why would you want to?