4 ms·

For example, let's take a typical formula for French bread: Flour: 100% Water: 66% Salt: 2% Instant yeast: 0.6% Total: 170% My brain will not stop t

For example, let's take a typical formula for French bread: Flour: 100% Water: 66% Salt: 2% Instant yeast: 0.6% Total: 170% My brain will not stop telling me that the total is 168.6%.

nsb1 4y ago
Exactly this. It's this sort of thing that annoys me about recipes in general, but bread recipes in particular.
ycombinete 4y ago
You get used to it. In practice it makes things very simple! Especially if you have a scale with a % option [0], but even without if you’re cooking with nice round metric weights. I just chuck some flour on the scale, whack the % symbol, and use the set percentages for everything else. [1] https://myweigh.com/product/kd8000/ https://myweigh.com/product/kd8000/
- sva_ 4y ago
  I just use 80% hydration, it makes things easier and tastier.
  - JustSomeNobody 4y ago
    A bit messy though.
    - ycombinete 4y ago
      For me, anything over 65% usually requires stretch and fold technique, as opposed to a knead. It's not messy at all when done that way.
  - AlecSchueler 4y ago
    Depends a lot of ambient humidity. When I lived in the North of Ireland (rainforest humidity) I always had to vastly reduce the humidity level of every recipe, sometimes by as much as half, otherwise I'd be drinking my baguettes.
    - ericbarrett 4y ago
      So true, I just ruined a rye loaf by under-hydrating it at 65%, but I live in the desert. Lesson learned! I find it also depends on your flour, even batch to batch (we buy 50 lb bags). Some have higher moisture content and one needs to adjust by a few % even in the same external conditions.
- SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
  > You get used to it. You do. The single most important factor is "what does the dough feel like - how stiff and hard, or how loose and wet?" The water % captures this in 1 number. e.g. A 60% hydration pizza dough is much stiffer than a 80% hydration focaccia dough. Just by seeing that one number, I get an idea of how the dough is going to be to work with.
  - nsb1 4y ago
    Yeah, but what you're saying is essentially "I don't need the recipe anymore - I can do this by feel", which is awesome, but who then is the recipe for except people who are trying to learn? Maybe throw us a bone :)
    - SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
      > Yeah, but what you're saying is essentially "I don't need the recipe anymore - I can do this by feel" I'm really not. I don't do it "by feel", I measure everything in grams, including water. I hate recipes in "cups" since a cup of flour or salt is not a fixed quantity - it depends on grain size, how hard you pack it down, the weather etc. But 10g salt is a fixed amount. I'm just saying that "500g flour, 60% hydration" tells me a lot about both how to measure it accurately (300g water), and how it will feel (fairly stiff). It's an accurate part of the recipe, expressed in the fewest numbers. The % is scale-invariant.
      - foobarian 4y ago
        If ambient humidity can affect moisture content of flour, then you have more unknowns than constraints and hydration % is not enough. Doing it by feel would seem to be required to get an end-to-end result.
        SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
        Yes, though that isn't such a big deal for me, as I'm not in a desert or a rainforest, the ambient humidity here is middling and doesn't vary so much. Minor changes are not very important. Flour gets stored in sealed containers, and compensations for the changes during baking are minor. e.g. the cloth over the dough is moistened during summer. Ambient humidity maybe matters like a 1-2% difference here, not a 10% difference. I do notice seasonal changes, but that's IMHO more due to changes in ambient room temperature than anything else. Also, I would say that measuring in grams allows you to notice and more accurately quantify that "it's dryer than usual today for the same quantities - must be due to the ambient conditions that require an adjustment".
tromp 4y ago
The article mentions "rounded to nearest gram" but clearly they also round to nearest percent...
- SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
  If you're working with 500g or 1000g of flour, then to the nearest gram is easily precise enough. If you're measuring 8g of salt, then yeah, maybe you want 8.0g - to the first decimal point. If you're going beyond that, then where did you get your scale, how much did it cost, what are the benefits and how do you find using it? Do you tweezer salt grains, for instance?
jameshart 4y ago
Think of all the numbers as only having two significant figures
2b3a51 4y ago
Think of it as a ratio(+) not percentages so Flour 100 parts, water 66 parts and so on (+) because that is what it is
- JadeNB 4y ago
  > Think of it as a ratio(+) not percentages so > Flour 100 parts, water 66 parts and so on > (+) because that is what it is It is! But it's a ratio to a standard 100 … and that's literally what a percentage is ("per centum" = "by the hundred").
mcdonje 4y ago
Yeah, the total is wrong. It's not a weird bakers' math total. It's a wrong total. If you used the formula with a base of 1000 grams of flour, that's: water: 660g salt: 20g yeast: 6g That adds to 1686g of dough. Usually, bakers allow for a reasonably large margin of error, and they'll also intentionally diverge from a formula based on circumstance or whim. Getting to 1700 from 1686 would take an intentional diversion.

For example, let's take a typical formula for French bread: Flour: 100% Water: 66% Salt: 2% Instant yeast: 0.6% Total: 170% My brain will not stop telling me that the total is 168.6%.

nsb1 4y ago

Exactly this. It's this sort of thing that annoys me about recipes in general, but bread recipes in particular.

ycombinete 4y ago

You get used to it. In practice it makes things very simple! Especially if you have a scale with a % option [0], but even without if you’re cooking with nice round metric weights. I just chuck some flour on the scale, whack the % symbol, and use the set percentages for everything else. [1] https://myweigh.com/product/kd8000/ https://myweigh.com/product/kd8000/

sva_ 4y ago
I just use 80% hydration, it makes things easier and tastier.
- JustSomeNobody 4y ago
  A bit messy though.
  - ycombinete 4y ago
    For me, anything over 65% usually requires stretch and fold technique, as opposed to a knead. It's not messy at all when done that way.
- AlecSchueler 4y ago
  Depends a lot of ambient humidity. When I lived in the North of Ireland (rainforest humidity) I always had to vastly reduce the humidity level of every recipe, sometimes by as much as half, otherwise I'd be drinking my baguettes.
  - ericbarrett 4y ago
    So true, I just ruined a rye loaf by under-hydrating it at 65%, but I live in the desert. Lesson learned! I find it also depends on your flour, even batch to batch (we buy 50 lb bags). Some have higher moisture content and one needs to adjust by a few % even in the same external conditions.
SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
> You get used to it. You do. The single most important factor is "what does the dough feel like - how stiff and hard, or how loose and wet?" The water % captures this in 1 number. e.g. A 60% hydration pizza dough is much stiffer than a 80% hydration focaccia dough. Just by seeing that one number, I get an idea of how the dough is going to be to work with.
- nsb1 4y ago
  Yeah, but what you're saying is essentially "I don't need the recipe anymore - I can do this by feel", which is awesome, but who then is the recipe for except people who are trying to learn? Maybe throw us a bone :)
  - SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
    > Yeah, but what you're saying is essentially "I don't need the recipe anymore - I can do this by feel" I'm really not. I don't do it "by feel", I measure everything in grams, including water. I hate recipes in "cups" since a cup of flour or salt is not a fixed quantity - it depends on grain size, how hard you pack it down, the weather etc. But 10g salt is a fixed amount. I'm just saying that "500g flour, 60% hydration" tells me a lot about both how to measure it accurately (300g water), and how it will feel (fairly stiff). It's an accurate part of the recipe, expressed in the fewest numbers. The % is scale-invariant.
    - foobarian 4y ago
      If ambient humidity can affect moisture content of flour, then you have more unknowns than constraints and hydration % is not enough. Doing it by feel would seem to be required to get an end-to-end result.
      - SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
        Yes, though that isn't such a big deal for me, as I'm not in a desert or a rainforest, the ambient humidity here is middling and doesn't vary so much. Minor changes are not very important. Flour gets stored in sealed containers, and compensations for the changes during baking are minor. e.g. the cloth over the dough is moistened during summer. Ambient humidity maybe matters like a 1-2% difference here, not a 10% difference. I do notice seasonal changes, but that's IMHO more due to changes in ambient room temperature than anything else. Also, I would say that measuring in grams allows you to notice and more accurately quantify that "it's dryer than usual today for the same quantities - must be due to the ambient conditions that require an adjustment".

tromp 4y ago

The article mentions "rounded to nearest gram" but clearly they also round to nearest percent...

SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
If you're working with 500g or 1000g of flour, then to the nearest gram is easily precise enough. If you're measuring 8g of salt, then yeah, maybe you want 8.0g - to the first decimal point. If you're going beyond that, then where did you get your scale, how much did it cost, what are the benefits and how do you find using it? Do you tweezer salt grains, for instance?

jameshart 4y ago

Think of all the numbers as only having two significant figures

2b3a51 4y ago

Think of it as a ratio(+) not percentages so Flour 100 parts, water 66 parts and so on (+) because that is what it is

JadeNB 4y ago
> Think of it as a ratio(+) not percentages so > Flour 100 parts, water 66 parts and so on > (+) because that is what it is It is! But it's a ratio to a standard 100 … and that's literally what a percentage is ("per centum" = "by the hundred").

mcdonje 4y ago

Yeah, the total is wrong. It's not a weird bakers' math total. It's a wrong total. If you used the formula with a base of 1000 grams of flour, that's: water: 660g salt: 20g yeast: 6g That adds to 1686g of dough. Usually, bakers allow for a reasonably large margin of error, and they'll also intentionally diverge from a formula based on circumstance or whim. Getting to 1700 from 1686 would take an intentional diversion.