I don't know why, but it's true: plastic is evil ... at least as a vessel for sourdough. Many years (decades!) ago, I watched my mom tend her starters in glass jars, and when I started mine a little over a year ago, I naturally reached for members of the Mason family. It's all I've ever used for mother starters or levains ... until today. This morning, I wanted to build a levain and found that I didn't have a glass jar of an appropriate size at hand. There were several new ones in a box in the basement, but they hadn't been washed and sterilized, and I didn't have time to do that this morning. I paused just momentarily, and then reached for the drawer where my tupperware resides. "How bad can it be?" I thought. Bad, very, very bad.
I mixed my hard wheat mother starter with flour and water, closed the lid and left the house. When I returned this evening, I could see that the levain had more than doubled, but collapsed back completely, and on removing the lid ... oh my! The "levain" was a soup, covered by an evil-smelling orangy liquid. I'm intimately familiar with baker's hooch, but this was certainly not it. Both the look and the smell were more reminiscent of something a drunk might produce after a good night out. And I don't remember a levain ever peaking and then so completely disintegrating within the space of 11 hours, at room temperature.
Needless to say, this stuff went down the drain, I sterilized a Mason jar, and I'll start again. But I'm curious if this has ever happened to any of you when using plastic (or perhaps you've always been wise enough not to), and whether any of you know exactly why plastic and sourdough starter are seemingly such a disastrous combination? Come to think of it, I've seen many a video of levain being built in plastic buckets - so perhaps it's the type of plastic that's at fault? Or maybe my starter was just feeling the effects of Blue Monday... Has this ever happened to any of you?
I exclusively use plastic bins for my starters and all doughs. I have never had a problem. I don't think the material is the culprit. I keep 10-15 kg starter at a time, and every bakery I have seen keep a starter has kept it in a plastic bucket or bin. I think you just had a bad day.
Never had this problem. I suppose it depends on what plastic you're using.
I've used plastic, the only drawback I know is plastic can't retain heat the way glass can sometimes, I've had a bad rise when temperatures were too low and I think in ur case, its probably just crossover of flavours common when storing acidic ingredients in plastic... so better to use a new container only for ur starter.
Have used plastic exclusively for years for both starter and bulk ferment, no problems.
I use plastic all the time for starters and have never had a problem.
containers from Pillsbury and Bety Crocker. I love theor plastic lids that snap on and pop off when the elvain is rreally cranking out the gas:-) They are perfect for storing starters and levain in the fridge
I use plastic with no problem. I suspect that there was something left on the plastic during its manufacture that caused your problem. Send the dishes through the dish washer and rinse well. I think you will have no problem.
Ford
I use mason jars for my starter. I use leftover clean 5 qt ice cream buckets for a polish/levain/ and 1st proof (microwave - after nuking 2 cups water for 2 min).
it has worked so far
Good luck,
Claudia
The consensus seems pretty clear that plastic works well, and that is certainly consistent with all the videos from professional bakeries as well as artisan home bakers, who use plastic tubs for their starters and/or levains. In my case, it was decidedly not a lack of washing the tupperware. I would never use unwashed tupperware (or anything else, for that matter) and in fact, I'm a bit pedantic about these kinds of things. Laugh at me if you will, but I actually keep two "streams" of tupperware in my kitchen - one for dry goods such as flour, nuts seeds, etc., another for cooked/spicy/strong-smelling foods. I just cannot imagine storing flour (for example) in a tupperware container previously used for something like chicken Tikka Masala. No matter how thorough the wash, I think the flavour/scent would linger in the plastic. So that wasn't the problem. And I'm having second thoughts about it being the wrong sort of plastic, because I have always used larger containers from self-same type of tupperware for bulk fermentation and S&F, without any issues at all. Sure, the sourdough is diluted at this point, but it's there nonetheless, hopefully active.
I'm beginning to think that whatever happened to my levain yesterday was down to some evil rogue beastie just passing through. It seems very random, I know, but I think something nasty must have got in when I was mixing up my mother starter with flour and water. I have no other explanation for the curious (and disgusting) development thereafter. Whatever that was yesterday, tonight, I was greeted by a fluffy levain happily bubbling away in a glass jar, and the Whole-Wheat-Sunflower-Caraway boules produced from it are currently snoozing in the fridge, puffing up nicely for tomorrow's bake. I may give plastic another try some day, but for now, I think I'll stick to glass. There seem to be plastic-activated, levain-destroying, nasty beasties lurking in my kitchen. :(
Once again, thank you all for your input.
Vivien