Calculator
Baker's percentages, hydration, salt and starter.
Flour, water, salt and starter in grams: the real hydration with the starter's own flour and water counted, the salt and starter shares, and the recipe scaled to any dough weight.
The recipe, in grams
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%
Scale it
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Hydration, counting the starter
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Total flour-
Total water-
Salt-
Flour already fermented in the starter-
Dough weight-
Scaled: flour, water, salt, starter-
Baker's percentages count every ingredient against the total flour, which is 100%. Here the flour and water inside the starter are counted too, so recipes with different amounts of starter can be compared honestly. The example is King Arthur's naturally leavened sourdough, which makes two loaves.
How it is counted
A starter at 100% hydration is half flour and half water by weight. So total flour = flour + starter × 100 ÷ (100 + hydration), total water = water + the rest of the starter, and every other ingredient is divided by the total flour. Hydration is total water as a percentage of total flour.
What the numbers tell you
- Higher hydration means a stickier dough that is harder to shape, and usually a more open crumb. Lower hydration is easier for a first loaf.
- Whole-grain flour drinks more water than white flour, so the same hydration feels stiffer with more whole wheat in it.
- Salt sits in a narrow band in most bread recipes; a figure far outside the recipe you are adapting is worth a second look.
- The share of flour already fermented in the starter drives the timing: more starter, faster rise.
Scaling keeps every percentage the same, so a recipe for two loaves becomes one loaf, or a loaf that fits a smaller pot, without changing how the dough behaves.
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