The Smell from Hell

I’ve had a smell of recent.  One I could not find the source of. 

It was most pronounced when I opened the fridge. 

Logically, you would think that something in there died and is the source. 

So, I started to clean it.  And clean it. And clean it.  And the smell did not go away.

It was not an old food item that had been pushed to the nether regions to melt away into a pile of mold and sludge becoming unrecognizable as to its original form and function.  I made sure to open every food container to check and if it was even remotely questionable it was consigned to the trash can.

It was not something that had spilled and turned into a nasty congealed puddle under one of the drawers although I did find my cheese making rennet did lose its cap and divested itself into a dried crust.  I had pulled all of them and washed them out. More than once. 

It was not something that got into a crevasse and was slowly mutating into a nasty newly formed organic lifeform giving off noxious stink to announce it’s presence in the world.  I pulled all the shelves out and washed them several times. 

What the heck could be making this evil nose curling stench?

After the living history event I recently did, I decided to pull out the sourdough starter that was laying dormant in the fridge.  I needed to fire it up and get a bunch made so I could do another freeze dryer run of it to replace what I had sold.  Plus, I wanted to do some baking with it.

The two jars I had in the fridge were not so very happy with their living conditions in fridge and developed a layer of mold on them.  So they went into the trash. 

I decided to pull out Rob’s ceramic container of starter, also residing in the cool depths of the back of the fridge to see if it was happy enough to grow.

Oh boy…….

Now let me please describe this smell for you so you get an idea of what I am dealing with.

Think pigs in a very enclosed area.

We had acquaintances in Colorado who decided to raise a few pigs to put into their freezer.  These folks had never delt with pigs before.  And it was clear they had not done their research when it comes to pigs.

The put them in an enclosure roughly the size of one of those metal and wood sheds you can build on your own to put your garden tools in.  You know the kind I mean?  Like buy it from Home Depot or Lowes and do it yourself shed?

And it had about a 3’ outside fenced run in front of it.

In other words, a very small area for 4 big pigs to live in.

And it stunk.  We found that out when they asked us to drive their pigs to the locker plant in our stock trailer. 

OMG it was enough to burn the inside of your nose and sinus’s and make sure you never smelled anything again in this life. It made your eyes water to get withing 30 feet of them. No amount of vicks vaporub under your nostrils would have killed that enough to make the air even slightly breathable. It hung over the pig pen like a visible layer of corruption offensive to all who got near.

I have no idea how these folks could deal with that so close to their house.  These pigs had been living in that enclosure for almost a year, so use your imagination as to how much excrement those pigs were wading thru on a daily basis, plus adding more all the time.

Even the butcher was offended when we pulled up to his shop with them after a 60 mile drive thru the country on a sunny dry day. He was going to leave them outside for a few days and have his crew hose them off multiple times before he would let them into his shop.

We had to power wash out the trailer at the local truck wash station before going home.

And we never got paid for our efforts from the now former acquaintances.

It was worse than the 3-day old bodies I had to presume in 100 degree heat with 98% humidity in an enclosed apartment in Hartford when I worked as an EMT.  That one made the fire fighters barf. You know its bad when big strong burly firefighters are bent over the bushes relocating their lunch as the police, who wisely stayed outside to start with, laugh at them.

Do you have an idea now of how bad my sourdough starter smelled?

Yes, pig ass and dead bodies smelled better. 

But I found the source of the fridge smell, thankfully.

And don’t ask me how I missed that with all the cleaning I had done.  Maybe it was a subliminal thing, and my brain chose to overlook that particular container.  Afterall, can sourdough really smell THAT bad?

I speak from experience, that yes indeed, it can and does.

Saying it was unhappy starter is an understatement.  Saying it was akin to the bowels of hell when the Imodium ran out best describes it’s temperament.

Pure evil.  Concentrated for effect.

I ran the ceramic container thru the dishwasher twice after getting all that nastiness out and into the trash.  (Trash left immediately.)  That did not clean out all the stink.  I filled it with vinegar and water and left it to sit for several days.  That seems to have gotten it out.  The container is just sitting there on the shelf looking all cute like, smiling at me like it had no part to play in this smelly event.  I suspect I will not be using that for anything ever again in the future. 

I did take the last bit of the freeze dried I had and fired it up for a new batch of starter.  It’s almost ready to go into the freeze dryer, and I am currently baking a batch of everything bagel bread as I write. 

Never a dull moment!

Blessed Be