What feeding ratio should I use for sourdough starter?
Use 1:1:1 only for the first couple of days while you are creating the starter and there are not many microbes yet. Once it is established, switch to 1:5:5 (one part starter, five flour, five water), or 1:10:10 if it is older or your kitchen is warm. A lower ratio gives the microbes a cleaner environment to rebalance, which is why 1:1:1 is not ideal for a mature starter. So Loafy is right for the first days, and the 1:5:5 is right after that.
Answered by Hendrik, The Bread Code
From the book
Some people use a 1:1:1 ratio to refresh the starter. This would be one part of the old starter (10 g for instance), 1 part of flour, and one part of water. I think this is utter rubbish. As mentioned your starter is a miniature dough. You would never opt for a 1:1:1 ratio to make dough. You might use a maximum of 20 % starter to make dough. That’s why I advocate using a 1:5:5 ratio or a 1:10:10 ratio depending on how ripe your starter is. As I almost always use a stiffer sourdough starter due to its enhanced yeast fermentation advantages (see Section 4.4 (Stiff starter) ) my ratio is never 1:5:5. My ratio would be 1:5:2.5 (1 part old starter, 5 parts flour, 2.5 parts water). If it is very warm where you live you could opt for the aforementioned 1:10:5 or 1:20:10. This way you slow down the ripening of your starter. You can also use this trick to make starter feeding work with your schedule. If your starter is typically ready in 6 hours but today you need it ready later, simply increase how much flour/water you feed your starter. These are all values that you need to experiment with on your own. Every starter is unique and might behave slightly differently.
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