Flour is always the 100 percent reference
Baker’s percentages divide each ingredient by flour weight and multiply by 100. Water therefore gives hydration, while salt and yeast receive their own flour-based percentages. The method assumes all flour is counted in the denominator; it is a formula language, not a percentage of finished dough weight.
A 500 g flour formula
With 500 g flour, 350 g water is 70%, 10 g salt is 2%, and 3 g yeast is 0.6%. Total dough mass is 863 g. These values describe one formula cleanly: doubling flour to 1,000 g would call for 700 g water, 20 g salt, and 6 g yeast before any process adjustment.
Preferments need both sides counted
A starter may bring flour and water into a dough before the final mix. Count both contributions when calculating the overall formula. Counting only starter water makes hydration look high; counting only starter flour makes it look low. A separate preferment percentage can be useful, but it does not replace the total flour basis.
Percentage does not predict handling by itself
Seventy percent hydration in white bread flour may feel firmer than the same percentage in whole wheat. Autolyse, mixing, fermentation, temperature, and flour protein alter absorption and strength. Use the formula to reproduce a batch, then document the process that made the dough workable.
Salt and yeast are not secondary details
Keeping salt and yeast on the flour scale allows formulas of different sizes to be compared without changing their balance. Do not divide salt by total dough weight, a common source of mismatched percentages. This page reports amounts; it does not select a fermentation schedule or make a food-safety judgement.
Boundary of baker’s math
Use it to record and scale weighed bread formulas with several ingredients. It does not replace a simple hydration calculation when only flour and water are relevant, and it cannot guarantee texture or rise. Actual dough behaviour remains the test of whether the stated formula suits the flour and method.
Total dough weight is a useful cross-check
The default ingredients add to 863 g: 500 + 350 + 10 + 3. Weighing the mixed dough near that value, after allowing for residue in the bowl, is a practical check that no component was omitted. Total weight cannot replace the flour-based percentages, but it catches a missing water or salt addition before fermentation makes the error harder to correct.
Scale every flour source into the denominator
A formula with 450 g white flour plus 50 g whole-wheat flour has 500 g total flour, so 10 g salt is 2% and 350 g water is 70%. Calling the white flour alone “the flour” would make the same water appear as 77.8%, which misdescribes the dough. List every flour-bearing ingredient, including flour in a starter, before calculating the percentages. The denominator is total flour, not whichever flour was added last.
Use total dough weight as an addition check
The default formula totals 863 g: 500 flour plus 350 water plus 10 salt plus 3 yeast. If the bowl after mixing is far from that mass after allowing for residue, revisit the weighing record before fermentation begins. This sum does not replace baker’s percentages because it cannot show the ingredient balance, yet it quickly exposes a forgotten component. It also helps select a loaf tin or divide dough into equal pieces.
Percentages describe formula, not fermentation outcome
Two doughs can share 70% water, 2% salt, and 0.6% yeast while behaving differently because of flour strength, inoculation source, temperature, mixing, folds, and time. The percentage format makes a formula portable, but it is not a timetable. Pair it with process notes such as dough temperature and fermentation duration when a baker wants another batch to resemble the first.
Read each percentage against the same base
With 500 g flour as 100%, 350 g water is 70%, 10 g salt is 2%, and 3 g yeast is 0.6%. Adding those percentages gives 172.6%, which is normal: the total expresses dough mass relative to flour, not a share of a pie that must total 100. This convention lets a baker compare formulas of different sizes without recalculating every ingredient from total dough weight.
Use percentage arithmetic for a new batch size
If a baker wants 750 g flour, the default 70% water becomes 525 g, 2% salt becomes 15 g, and 0.6% yeast becomes 4.5 g. Those values preserve the formula mathematically, but process may still change because a larger dough warms and ferments differently. Scale the ingredients with percentages, then choose mixing and proofing from the observed dough rather than assuming batch size has no effect.
Calculate a target dough mass from the total percent
The default percentages total 172.6. For a desired 1,000 g dough, flour is 1,000 divided by 1.726, or about 579.4 g; water at 70% is about 405.6 g, salt at 2% about 11.6 g, and yeast at 0.6% about 3.5 g. Small rounding differences are expected. This reverse calculation works only after all formula ingredients have been included in the total percentage.