Sourdough Starter is grey after leaving it out but smells fine...is it okay?

So I went home for a week and meant to take my sourdough starter with me to bake and forgot it out on the countertop of my apartment. For a week. I was sure she'd be moldy and dead when I got home but she wasn't (her name is Mrs. Bubbles). I drained the hooch off the top and started feeding her again every 12 hours and have kept her out at room temperature. She smells fine and is back to being pretty active but she has a tinge of grey kind of everywhere. I don't see any like mold spores she just looks discolored. Can I use it to bake still? I'm not sure what to do!

Oh and I've been feeding her 100% white AP flour the entire time so it's not the flour that's changed colors.

seeabigail
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3 Comments

KLNC
KLNC April 2, 2024
Hello- I had a similar situation. Did yours end up okay? About a week-ish ago; I left it out and forgot about feeding it for almost 3 days. This was a new starter I was trying to get going from scratch. When I remembered I stirred it up, and did a typical feeding 1:1:1. It wasn’t till after I did that; when I read of potential mold. A week later; today- it smells great, is growing and bubbling, and seems to have good color. Is this safe to bake with or should I dump since I didn’t think to check for pink/orange tints after it was left unfed?
 
HalfPint
HalfPint May 26, 2020
According to the King Arthur Flour website: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2018/03/09/sourdough-starter-troubleshooting-2

Grey color is not an indication of a spoilage, but streaks of orange and/or pink is. Do you remember if there were any streaks of pink or orange before stirring it down and feeding?
 
seeabigail
seeabigail May 27, 2020
No, I did look as well but didn't notice anything except the grey. I think I saw that on King Arthur too but I couldn't really find much other information or many other people wondering the same thing as me so it worried me a bit that it seemed so unusual. Maybe it's okay. I just made a scallion pancake with it this morning so we will see if I survive!
 
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