On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 09:30:03 -0200, amateur amateur@home wrote:

smells of baby vomit

Maybe the problem here is the meaning of the term "vomit". My reaction
to something like that is conditioned heavily from my beer making
experiences - as I explained in earlier posts.

I have just begun to make "natural starters" so my experience is very
limited. Perhaps I have already experienced this "vomit" smell and did
not characterize it as such.

Nevertheless, I am going to play it safe and only accept starters that
smell "fresh". Flour is so cheap and the risk of getting something
that has "emetic" qualities, as you pointed out, are not worth it. It
is no big deal for me to toss a "bad" starter and begin a new one.

And I am in no big hurry. As soon as I get a starter established that
I like - which will be in a few more days - I will have all the time
in the world to experiment with other starters - and toss those I do
not like.

Perhaps it's part of the cult nature of the starter mystic that
compels people to abandon common sense and fool around with starters
that are likely contaminated but can otherwise be recovered. I do not
care to become a member of that cult.