Starter-care advice has a fatal flaw: it assumes you are home. Twice-daily feedings, float tests, discard schedules — written by people whose calendars are their own. The fix is arithmetic, not devotion: a small jar, high-ratio feeds, and the fridge doing the babysitting.
The small-jar method
- Keep 20–30 g of starter. That is the entire permanent colony — a film at the bottom of a 750 ml jar.
- Feed 1:5:5 when needed — 100–150 g flour and water. The culture multiplies 11× per cycle; small bases make big starters in one feed.
- Between bakes, the fridge holds it — one feed a week keeps it alive; cold slows the culture 20×, not to zero.
- Baking week: two consecutive room-temperature feeds (12 hours apart), then use at peak.
The feeding calculator turns your recipe and calendar into the exact feeds — flour consumed, discard produced, schedule sized.
The math that makes it work
| Feed ratio | Peak time (24°C) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1:1 | 3–4 hrs | Rapid revival, warm kitchens |
| 1:2:2 | 4–6 hrs | Day-before-bake builds |
| 1:5:5 | 8–12 hrs | Maintenance — feeds fit workdays |
| 1:10:10 | 12–16 hrs | Overnight builds, mild flavor |
Higher ratios dilute the culture, so each cycle takes longer — which is a feature when your day is the constraint: feed at 10 pm, bake-ready at 10 am.
The revival protocol
A fridge-slack starter comes back in exactly two feeds: 1:2:2 in the morning, 1:2:2 at night, bake tomorrow at the dome. Sleepy starters fail bakes, not because they are dead (they are nearly indestructible), but because single-feed revivals skip the population rebuild.
The discard ledger
Small-jar maintenance produces 10–20 g of discard weekly — pancakes once a month covers it. The guilt-free version of starter care is arithmetic: keep less, feed bigger ratios, use the fridge, and let the culture live at your pace. It has survived millennia; it can survive your job.