The first time someone told me they fed their starter “1:5:5,” I nodded like I understood and then went home and googled it in a mild panic. Ratios sound like chemistry class, but they’re really just a recipe shorthand — and picking the right sourdough starter feeding ratio is one of the highest-leverage skills in bread baking. It controls how fast your starter peaks, how sour your bread tastes, and whether your feeding schedule fits your actual life.
If you’re still learning the physical act of feeding, start with my walkthrough of how to feed a sourdough starter — this guide is the reference manual for the numbers behind it. New to starters entirely? Start with the complete sourdough starter guide.
Sourdough Starter Feeding Ratio: What It Actually Means
So what is a feeding ratio, really? Just the weight proportion of existing starter to fresh flour to fresh water — written starter:flour:water. 1:1:1 means equal weights of all three (say 30g starter + 30g flour + 30g water). 1:5:5 means five times as much flour and water as starter (20g + 100g + 100g). And yes — always by weight. Never by volume.
That three-number format trips people up because the first number isn’t “1 gram” — it’s one part. A 1:2:2 ratio with 25 grams of starter means 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. It took me an embarrassingly long time to internalize this; I once carefully measured out “1 gram” of starter for a 1:5:5 feed. Don’t be me. The ratio describes proportions, and you scale the actual grams to however much starter you want to end up with. My workshop students always ask about this first. Always.
The ratio also quietly controls your hydration percentage. When flour and water are equal (as in all three ratios here), your starter stays at 100% hydration — the standard for most recipes on this site. Stiff starters use more flour than water, but that’s a different beast.
The 1:1:1 Ratio — The Everyday Standard
The 1:1:1 feeding ratio means equal weights of starter, flour, and water — for example, 50 grams of each. It’s the most common maintenance ratio, recommended by King Arthur Baking’s test kitchen, and a healthy starter fed 1:1:1 at room temperature will reliably double within six to eight hours, making it ideal for daily bakers.
This is my default. Every normal morning, Bubbles gets 30 grams of herself kept, 30 grams of flour, 30 grams of water. Simple, cheap on flour, and predictable.
King Arthur Baking’s guidance for a 100% hydration starter is to feed twice daily at room temperature and at least once a week when refrigerated — and as their bakers put it, they “recommend feeding twice daily at room temperature and at least once a week when stored in the refrigerator.” That twice-daily rhythm pairs naturally with 1:1:1, because a 1:1:1 feed runs out of food in roughly 8–12 hours in a normal kitchen.
When to use 1:1:1: your starter lives on the counter, you bake most days, and you don’t mind feeding morning and evening. It’s also the best ratio for a young starter still building strength — the frequent, gentle feeds keep the culture active without overwhelming it. And in February 2026, King Arthur updated their starter recipe around smaller ~50-gram feedings at this same 1:1:1 ratio, specifically to cut the flour waste home bakers complained about. Smaller seed, same math.
Watch out for: in a warm kitchen (above 75°F/24°C), a 1:1:1 feed can peak and collapse in as little as 4–5 hours. If you can’t feed that often, move up to 1:2:2 or 1:5:5 instead of letting it sit hungry.
The 1:2:2 Ratio — The Middle Path
The 1:2:2 ratio means twice as much flour and water as starter, by weight — think 25g starter plus 50g flour and 50g water. That extra food buys you roughly 10–14 hours before peak at room temperature, which makes it the sweet spot for once-a-day feeding.
Think of 1:2:2 as 1:1:1 with a longer leash. Same total simplicity, but the extra food stretches the fermentation curve so one morning feed carries the starter to the evening — or an evening feed carries it to the next morning.
I use 1:2:2 when I’m building toward a bake without wanting a huge jar. Say I need about 120 grams of ripe starter tomorrow morning: tonight I keep 25 grams, feed 50 and 50, and wake up to ~125 grams at peak. No waste, no second jar.
When to use 1:2:2: you feed once daily, your kitchen runs warm, or you’re doing a pre-bake build the night before. It’s also a gentle step up if your 1:1:1 starter keeps peaking before you’re home from work.
Watch out for: nothing dramatic — this is the most forgiving ratio. Just remember that a bigger feed means a longer wait to peak, so don’t use it when you need ripe starter in three hours.
The 1:5:5 Ratio — The Long Game
At 1:5:5 you’re feeding five parts flour and five parts water to one part starter — say 20g of starter plus 100g flour and 100g water. All that fresh food stretches the peak to roughly 12–16 hours at room temperature and keeps acidity low. It’s why Maurizio Leo of The Perfect Loaf runs his starter this way, fed twice daily.
This is the ratio of the “big feed” school. Over on The Fresh Loaf, bakers have long debated the two camps: one favoring small ratios like 1:1:1 or 1:2:2 (Jeffrey Hamelman and Tom Cucuzza among them), the other favoring large ratios fed twice daily — with Maurizio Leo’s 1:5:5 as the flagship example. Both produce good bread; they just manage acidity differently.
Why does a big ratio mean less sour? With so much fresh flour relative to the existing culture, the yeast gets a long, comfortable ferment before acids accumulate. The result is a milder, sweeter loaf — great if your family finds very sour bread aggressive. The tradeoff is flour: 200 grams per feed adds up, which is why Leo’s method pairs with keeping a small seed.
There’s also a more extreme version worth knowing: 1:10:10, described by Stanley Ginsberg in The Rye Baker for rye sour cultures. That’s revival-and-rebuild territory — I use it when waking up a neglected starter, which I cover in my guide to reviving a sourdough starter.
When to use 1:5:5: hot kitchens where small feeds collapse too fast, bakers who want milder flavor, or anyone who feeds twice daily and wants each feed to last a full 12 hours.
Peak-time reference table
Approximate hours to peak after feeding, by ratio and kitchen temperature (100% hydration, mature starter, all-purpose flour):
| Ratio | Example feed | 65°F / 18°C | 70°F / 21°C | 75°F / 24°C | 80°F / 27°C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:1:1 | 30g + 30g + 30g | 8–10 hrs | 6–8 hrs | 5–6 hrs | 4–5 hrs |
| 1:2:2 | 25g + 50g + 50g | 12–14 hrs | 10–12 hrs | 8–10 hrs | 7–8 hrs |
| 1:5:5 | 20g + 100g + 100g | 16–20 hrs | 12–16 hrs | 10–12 hrs | 8–10 hrs |
| 1:10:10 | 10g + 100g + 100g | 20–24 hrs | 16–20 hrs | 14–16 hrs | 12–14 hrs |
One asterisk: whole wheat or rye flour shaves 1–3 hours off every one of these times. Extra minerals, extra enzymes, faster everything. And a young starter (under a month old) runs slower than the table until its culture matures.
When to Use Each Ratio
Here’s the short version: 1:1:1 for daily counter maintenance and young starters. 1:2:2 for once-a-day feeding or overnight pre-bake builds. 1:5:5 for warm kitchens and milder flavor with twice-daily feeds. 1:10:10 for reviving neglected starters. Match the ratio to your kitchen temperature and your schedule — honestly, the “best” ratio is the one you’ll actually keep up.
Here’s the decision matrix I wish someone had handed me in 2018:
| Your situation | Best ratio | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bake 4–7 days a week, starter on counter | 1:1:1, twice daily | Frequent gentle feeds, minimal flour waste |
| Feed once a day, moderate kitchen | 1:2:2, once daily | One feed covers ~12 hours |
| Kitchen above 75°F / warm climate | 1:5:5, twice daily | Big feed resists collapsing in heat |
| Want milder, less sour bread | 1:5:5 | More fresh flour dilutes acids |
| Starter under 1 month old | 1:1:1, twice daily | Young cultures need frequent, gentle food |
| Building for tomorrow’s bake | 1:2:2 or 1:3:3, evening | Wake up to starter at peak |
| Starter in the fridge, weekly routine | 1:1:1 or 1:2:2, weekly | Cold slows everything; small feeds suffice |
| Neglected for weeks, smells like acetone | 1:10:10, twice daily for 3–5 days | Aggressive dilution rebalances the culture |
Notice the fridge row: cold storage changes the game entirely. A refrigerated starter ferments so slowly that even 1:1:1 lasts a week. My feeding schedule guide maps the daily-counter and weekly-fridge routines side by side, and how to store sourdough starter covers the fridge protocol in full.
Does the Ratio Change the Flavor?
Yes — larger ratios generally produce milder bread and smaller ratios produce more sour bread, because the ratio controls how long acids accumulate before the next feed. A 1:5:5 starter spends most of its cycle in fresh flour with low acidity, while a 1:1:1 starter that sits past peak builds up acetic acid, which reads as sharp sourness.
This was a revelation for me. For a year I thought sourness was mostly about the cold retard — the overnight fridge proof — and it is, partly. But the starter’s own acidity is the foundation. When I switched Bubbles from 1:1:1 to 1:2:2 during a hot Portland August, my husband immediately asked what I’d changed about the recipe. Nothing in the recipe — just the ratio.
Two levers, one principle: yeast likes it fresh, bacteria make acid over time. A big, fresh feed favors the yeast (mild, vigorous rise). A small feed left to sit favors the bacteria (tangy, sharper). Neither is “correct” — San Francisco-style tang and mild country loaves are both delicious. But now you know which dial to turn.
If your starter smells like nail polish remover no matter the ratio, that’s excess acetic acid from chronic underfeeding — the fix is a few days of larger, peak-timed feeds, not a different flour. The revival guide walks through the full reset.
Ratio, Hydration, and Stiff Starters
All the ratios above assume equal flour and water (100% hydration). Some bakers maintain stiff starters — roughly 50–60% hydration, more flour than water — which ferment slower, produce milder bread, and survive neglect better, but they’re a separate maintenance system from the liquid starter most recipes expect.
You’ll see stiff starters in books like Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread, where a firmer levain brings its own character to the loaf. They have real advantages: slower fermentation means a missed feeding is no crisis, and the lower acidity suits sweet enriched doughs.
But — and this matters for this site — nearly every recipe I publish, from the everyday sourdough to the discard crackers, assumes a 100% hydration liquid starter. Converting between systems mid-stream throws off every dough formula. My advice: master the liquid starter and its ratios first. Experiment with stiff starters once your bread is consistently good, not before.
Can You Overfeed a Starter?
Yes — feeding a starter before it has peaked, repeatedly, dilutes the culture faster than the microbes can multiply, and over days this weakens it. The fix is simple: always feed at or just after peak, never on a rigid clock. One early feed is harmless; a week of them is a problem.
This usually happens with enthusiastic beginners running a twice-daily schedule in a cool kitchen. The starter needs 14 hours to peak, but it’s being fed every 12 — so each feed discards half the progress the culture just made. The starter gets progressively weaker, the baker feeds more often “to help,” and the spiral continues.
The symptoms of chronic overfeeding look a lot like underfeeding, which is what makes it confusing: sluggish rise, weak bubbles. The tell is the smell — an overfed starter smells bland and floury rather than acidic, because acids never get a chance to accumulate.
If you suspect you’re overfeeding, skip one feed. Let the starter go a full 24 hours (room temperature), watch it peak and just begin to fall, then resume feeding at peak. One skipped cycle resets the rhythm. Then match your ratio to reality using the peak-time table above — if your kitchen needs 14 hours, feed 1:2:2 once daily, not 1:1:1 twice.
FAQ
What does 1:1:1 mean in sourdough?
It means equal weights of starter, flour, and water. Keep 30 grams of starter, add 30 grams of flour and 30 grams of water. It’s the standard maintenance ratio for a 100% hydration starter.
Is 1:2:2 or 1:1:1 better?
Neither is universally better — 1:1:1 suits twice-daily feeding and young starters, while 1:2:2 suits once-daily feeding and overnight builds. Choose based on how often you can feed and your kitchen temperature, not on which sounds more “advanced.”
How do I calculate a feeding ratio?
Weigh the starter you’re keeping, then multiply: for 1:2:2 with 25g starter, flour = 25 × 2 = 50g and water = 25 × 2 = 50g. A kitchen scale makes this trivial — never use volume cups for ratios, since flour weight varies wildly by scoop.
Can I change my starter’s feeding ratio?
Yes, freely. Ratios aren’t a commitment — switch from 1:1:1 to 1:5:5 whenever you want. Just give the culture two or three feeds to settle into the new rhythm before judging; the yeast-bacteria balance shifts a little with each change.
What ratio does Maurizio Leo use?
Maurizio Leo of The Perfect Loaf maintains his starter at 1:5:5, fed twice daily about twelve hours apart, kept around 72–78°F (22–25°C). It’s a high-food, low-acid regimen that produces a vigorous, mild starter.
What ratio for a starter kept in the fridge?
1:1:1 or 1:2:2, fed once a week — the cold slows fermentation so much that a small feed lasts for days. Feed it, let it start rising for an hour or two at room temperature, then refrigerate.
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