Brothh

What it means

Baker's percentage is a scaling system used in bread baking where flour is always 100% and every other ingredient is expressed as a percent of flour weight. A 72% hydration dough means 720g water for every 1000g flour.

Standard ranges: salt 1.8-2.2%, instant yeast 0.8-1.2%, active dry yeast 1.5%, fresh yeast 3%, sugar 0-15% (enriched), fat 0-10% (enriched), levain 15-25% (sourdough).

The system lets bakers scale recipes cleanly, compare hydrations across recipes, and troubleshoot — a too-wet dough usually means hydration went above 80% for a given flour.

Examples

Country loaf 1000g flour

720g water (72%), 20g salt (2%), 200g levain (20%)

Ciabatta 500g flour

425g water (85%), 10g salt (2%), 5g yeast (1%)

Do

Always weigh — volume is unreliable at scale.
Start at 65% hydration when learning; push up as you get comfortable.

Don't

Swap flour 1:1 between types by volume — different flours have very different densities.

Related terms

Sourdough Starter

A live culture of wild yeast and lactic-acid bacteria kept alive by regular flour + water feedings. The leavening engine for sourdough bread.

Calculators that use this

Dough Hydration

Baker percentage math for flour, water, salt, and levain — get the ratios right every bake.

Sourdough Starter Feeding

Compute flour, water, and ripe time for any starter feed ratio and target hydration.

Yeast Converter

Convert between active dry, instant, and fresh yeast — with baker’s percentage when you give flour weight.