Baker's percentages explained

Flour is always 100%

In baker's math, the flour weight is the reference: it's always 100%, and every other ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the flour. So "65% hydration" means 65 g of water for every 100 g of flour; "2.8% salt" means 2.8 g of salt per 100 g of flour.

The percentages add up to more than 100% — that's normal and expected.

Why bakers use it

Percentages make a recipe scale-independent and easy to compare. Two recipes with the same percentages produce the same dough at any size — whether you're making two balls or two hundred.

That's exactly why this site puts the whole recipe in a shareable link: change the quantity and the ratios stay identical.

A worked example

Say you want four 280 g balls — 1,120 g of dough — at 65% hydration, 2.8% salt and 0.3% yeast. Add the percentages: 100 + 65 + 2.8 + 0.3 = 168.1%.

Divide the total dough by that (1,120 ÷ 1.681) to get the flour: ≈666 g. Then water = 65% × 666 ≈ 433 g, salt = 2.8% × 666 ≈ 18.7 g, and yeast ≈ 2 g.

Typical pizza numbers

Hydration usually runs 55–70% (higher for airy, wetter styles); salt 2–3%; instant dry yeast 0.2–0.5% for a slow ferment; oil and sugar 0–3% in some styles, none in classic Neapolitan.

Preferments and levains are also expressed as a percentage of the total flour.

Let the tool do the math

You don't have to calculate any of this by hand — the calculator solves for flour from your target dough weight and percentages, then weighs out every ingredient. Understanding the percentages just lets you read, tweak and trust the recipe.