Saving Your StarterA neglected starter can sometimes look dramatic: a layer of liquid on top, a strong, alcohol-like smell, almost no rise, and barely any activity after feeding.It often looks worse than it really is. In most cases, a starter can be brought back with a little patience.The Difference Between Hungry and SpoiledThis is the most important question to answer before you do anything: is your starter simply starving, or has it actually gone bad?Hungry can look like: a greyish or dark layer of liquid (hooch), a strong sour, alcohol-like or even acetone-like smell, a sunken or flat surface, and few or no bubbles.Unpleasant, perhaps, but not necessarily a problem. This is a starter that has simply gone too long without feeding.Spoiled can look like: obvious mould, fuzzy patches, vivid discolouration such as pink, orange, green, black or blue, or a truly rotten smell that has nothing to do with sourness.This is not something to rescue — see Starter Health & Safety for when you really need to start again.Not sure? Don’t take the risk. If you have any doubt about mould or unusual discolouration, throwing it away and starting again is a far better choice than taking a chance.How to Save a Hungry StarterPour off the layer of liquid (hooch) if you prefer, or stir it back in — either is fine.Take a small portion of the starter, for example 25 g.Feed it with fresh flour and water, using a ratio such as 1:2:2.Leave it at room temperature and watch how it responds.Does it become more active than before? Repeat the feeding the following day.Is the activity still weak? Feed it again, possibly for several days in a row.The most important thing to look for is this: does the response become stronger after each feeding?If so, you are heading in the right direction, even if recovery takes several days or even a week.Why Some Starters Take Longer to RecoverA long period without feeding means that part of the microbial population has declined.Recovery is essentially a miniature version of the original starter-making process: the culture needs to rebuild itself into a stable balance.With a starter that has only been neglected for a few weeks, this usually happens fairly quickly — perhaps a day or two, with a few extra feedings.With a starter that has been sitting untouched for months, recovery can take almost as long as creating a starter from scratch.Wholemeal or rye flour can help speed up the process, for the same reason it can help when making a new starter: it provides more nutrients and can encourage faster development.See Starter Science for more about why this works.When Should You Give Up?If a starter still shows very little response after a week of daily feeding — no bubbles and no increase in volume — the chances of further attempts being worthwhile become quite small.This is unusual for a starter that was previously mature and healthy, but it can happen.In that case, starting again from flour and water — see Starter Making — is often quicker than continuing to try to revive it.The TakeawayA starter that looks bad is almost never automatically a lost cause.Its smell and appearance can be alarming, but as long as there is no mould or unusual discolouration, patiently feeding it again is usually all that is needed.Part of the Starter Hub.Read next:Starter Problems · Starter Health & Safety · Starter FAQ