This little guy. We made pancakes on July 4th, leaving just a little remnant left in the stainless steel starter bowl but forgot to refeed him. While I drove off to run some errands, my mother in law saw the “empty” bowl and tried to wash it out, leaving it to soak in the kitchen sink.
So you could imagine the shock and horror when I came back and saw the bowl filled with dirty dishwater. But there was still some stuff crusted on the sides and a dollop of starter maybe the size of a small candy corn at the bottom of the bowl. So we threw out the dirty water and dumped 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water back into it.
Must have been a rough day for him cause nothing really happened that night (usually you get a nice ferment by eight hours), but I decided to wait till the morning to give him his last rites.
I woke up the next morning planning to start anew but I looked in the bowl and l he was good – frothy and poofy! There was the minor issue of the gnarly dishwater soak, so I tossed and refreshed him a few times before throwing him into the fridge….and then pulling him out to make this lovely loaf.
So for those keeping score at home he’s now survived death by boiling (threw in too hot water one day, but was able to rescue him by pulling off some dough before I baked my loaf) and now death by dishwashing. I had wanted to say “Don’t mess with Mr. Mianbaobao!”, but honestly, he can take it.