Starter feeding ratios (2024)

FAQs

Starter feeding ratios? ›

The most common feeding ratios for daily maintenance are 1:1:1 or 1:2:2. Your feeding ratio should provide enough food for your starter to make it to the next feeding, without starving. You can keep a very small amount of retained starter. Some people keep as little as 5-10 grams as their carry-over amount.

Typical feeding ratios are 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 (old sourdough: fresh flour: water). However, even extreme ratios like 1:50:50 would still work. In that case, the freshly fed sourdough would just require more or much more time to grow and reach its peak, as judged by the maximum volume increase in the jar (at least doubled).

It's usually given as starter:water:flour, so a 1:1:1 ratio means 1 part starter, 1 part water, and 1 part flour. 1:2:2 means 1 part starter, 2 parts water, and 2 parts flour, and so on.

A 1:5:5 ratio would be 40 grams of starter, 200 grams of water and 200 grams of flour. In the 1:1:1 mixture you start the fermentation with more bacteria and yeast in comparison to the 1:5:5 ratio. This means - your sourdough dough will ferment faster.

Strong Starter

At the beginning, you may be feeding at a 2:1:1 (starter:water:flour) ratio, but if you want to build up its strength, you'll want to feed at the right point in the lifecycle.

To give it a feeding, I discard the ripe sourdough starter in the jar down to 20g, add 70g fresh all-purpose flour, 30g whole rye flour, and 100g water. Then, I give it a thorough mix until everything is hom*ogenous.

There is no single best ratio, but I've found a ratio of 1:5:5 fed twice daily at 12-hour intervals to produce a sourdough starter that's strong and healthy. This ratio corresponds to 20% ripe starter carryover, 100% water, and 100% flour (a mix of whole grain rye and white flour) at each feeding.

Common feeding ratios for sourdough starters include: 1:1:1 Ratio: This ratio means using equal parts of flour, water, and starter by weight. For example, if you have 100 grams of a starter, you would feed it with 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water.

It's important to note that overfeeding can also have negative effects on a sourdough starter if done excessively or too frequently. If the starter is overfed, it can become too acidic or develop an unpleasant odor which is the result of excess food rotting in the jar.

Feed starter 1:2:2 and place into fridge. Take starter out of the fridge, discard and feed 1:1:1, leave on counter.

What if my starter isn't doubling? ›

“My starter was doubling consistently and now it's not, what do I do?” This happens to us all at some point, your starter just seems less active than it was before or isn't rising anymore. Try giving your starter a feeding of whole wheat flour, the extra protein content in the flour will give your starter a boost.

Experts recommend feeding a starter twice daily. And at each feeding, you hold onto 1/2 cup of your original starter, discard the rest, and then add its same weight in water and flour. With this schedule, you'd discard almost a cup of sourdough starter every day.

🌾Remember that a healthy starter fed in a 1:1:1 ratio should be active, double in volume and ready to use in something like 4-5h. Soon after this point, it will start losing volume, become runny and foamy on the surface. Do not leave it for too long before using it.

Take your starter from the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. Feed it with 30g of strong white flour + 30g of water, stir it well, and allow it to become fully active and ready to use, this can take 2-6 hours depending on the room temperature.

Leaving it out on the counter, it will need to be fed equal parts water and flour every 12-24 hours. Warmer homes or frequent baking will require more frequent feeding (around every 12 hours), while colder homes every 24 hours. Storing your sourdough starter in the fridge will require feeding around once a week.

When starting to build your starter you can leave it a bit thinner but once you start making bread you will want it THICK, You want your sourdough starter to be the consistency of thick pancake batter. if it's too thin add a scoop of flour. If it is too thick add water to find the right consistency.

Yes a sourdough starter can be fed too often. As a general rule, a sourdough starter doesn't need to be fed more than twice a day when kept at room temperature. Even if your sourdough starter doubles in a very short amount of time, it doesn't need to be fed again straight away.

The Peak-to-Peak feeding method is a technique for reducing the acidity of a weak, acidic sourdough starter. It is accomplished by discarding and refeeding your sourdough starter as soon as the starter peaks, with three to five short-interval feedings.