Hydration percentages?? | The Fresh Loaf

Hello all! Can anyone point me to a good, resource that clearly and simply explains how hydration percentages work? I'm new here, and am blown away be how generous you all are with your guidance. But I get lost when the topic of hydration comes up.

A couple of years ago, I was given some starter and, little by little, I and have become really good at making beautiful loaves with my ONE-AND-ONLY sourdough recipe. But I'd like to move on to new things, and I want to get a deeper understanding about how the formulas work.

Many thanks!

I’m not sure exactly what you want to know about hydration, but I’ll take a stab at it.

Hydration, whether in a starter or a dough is the percentage of total water in the dough compared to the total weight of all flours in that same dough. For example if your total flour in your starter or dough is 100 grams and your water is 65 grams, then the hydration is 65%. To calculate this divide the weight of the water by the weight of the flour. (65/100=0.65 or 65%)

Here is a resource. http://weightloss-slim.fit/handbook/baker039s-math%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EIf this hasn’t answered your question, reply with an example of what you’d like to know.

By the way, any and all other ingredients are calculated the same exact way. Example - salt. It is common to use 2% salt in a bread dough. So, if the total weight of the flour in the dough is 100 grams, the 0.02x100=2, or 2 grams of salt.

We are here to help. Please ask any questions that come to mind. The concept is simple once you get the hang of it. I’m pretty slow, but once I caught on it was simple. Baker’s Percentages makes understanding a recipe or formula very easy to understand quickly.

Danny

Many thanks! I imagine this information will help me make adjustments when I substitute flours of different absorbencies, right? I know it will enable me to be more specific when I describe doughs. I've been a baker for nearly 40 years, and although I've always managed fine without baker's math, I've used ambiguous and goofy terms like "quite wet but not totally shiny," "the stickiness of scotch tape," or "feels sort of like an earlobe." And although I'm sure I'll be a sourdough enthusiast, I'm new to it... Which leads me to my next question:

Do I figure my starter into the liquid percentage or the flour percentage? My white+spelt starter is 100%, but my rye starter is more like 110%.

I am so happy to have found this wonderful resource. What a nice community.

Cheers,

Chana

Yes, the starter flour and liquid counts. Study the image of the spreadsheet below. Notice the ingredients in the Total Formula are subtracted by the Preferment 1 (STARTER OR Levain) and the results are in the Final Dough Column.

Not all bakers calculate their starter/levain this way. But this method gives to the actual hydration of the dough.

Chana, if you are familiar with Excel, I can send you a working spreadsheet.

FYI - the starter /levain is calculated as a Percentage of Preferment Flour (PPF). It doesn’t take into account the hydration. Example - your total flour (including the flour in your starter or levain is 100g. And your starter/levain contains 10g flour. The Percentage of Prefermented Flour is 10%, regardless of the hydration. The more you look at this, the more sense it will make.

Danny