Site tour
Three reading paths through sourdough math
The site has 540+ pages. You don't need most of them. Pick the reading path that matches where you are right now — first-time baker, improving your craft, or back-engineering the math. Each path is a 4–6 step sequence linking the calculator + reference + guides in coherent order. No signup, no email gate.
First-time baker
You've never made sourdough before — or your loaves are inconsistent and you want a system.
For: Bakers with 0–6 weeks of experience. You have flour, water, salt, and a starter (or want to make one). You don't yet have a feel for how percentages translate to grams.
Time: ~20 minutes to read · then your first bake
- 1. Glossary (5 min skim)20 terms in plain English. Skim the first 5 (baker's percentage, hydration, levain, autolyse, bulk fermentation). Re-visit when you hit unfamiliar words later.
- 2. Hydration overview12 hydration levels from 55–95%. Read the descriptions; understand why 75% is the baseline country-loaf target.
- 3. Sourdough at 75% hydrationThe most-baked hydration in the world. See what 75% looks like, smells like, and how to handle the dough.
- 4. Country loaf recipeA complete formula at 75% hydration. Use the calculator to scale to whatever flour quantity you have. Bake.
- 5. If your dough was too stickyDiagnostic guide — hydration vs. technique vs. flour mismatch.
Improving your craft
You can already bake an OK loaf. You want to understand the variables that separate OK from excellent.
For: Bakers with 1–12 months of experience. You know what a windowpane test looks like; you want to understand how temperature, flour choice, and starter activity interact.
Time: ~45 minutes to read · then iterate over 3–5 bakes
- 1. Temperature and timeThe piecewise-linear model from Modernist Bread vol 3. Why a 78°F kitchen bulks twice as fast as 68°F.
- 2. Temperature ranges (8 reference points)From 38°F cold-retard to 95°F summer kitchen. Pick yours; bookmark the page.
- 3. Flour types (15 specs)Protein %, absorption multiplier, hydration range, source citations per flour. Compare bread flour to whole wheat to einkorn.
- 4. Whole-grain hydration adjustmentsWhy 100% rye drinks 95%+ water and bread flour drinks 70%.
- 5. Starter types (5 reference)Liquid 100%, stiff lievito madre 50%, rye 100%, whole-wheat 100%, gluten-free rice. Picking matters.
- 6. Decision framework — choosing hydrationFlour + flavor + skill-level matrix. When to push 85% vs. stay at 70%.
Bake the math
You want to understand why every number on every page exists — and how to compute your own formulas from scratch.
For: Spreadsheet-leaning bakers, recipe developers, people who want to invent their own bread instead of copying others'. The math behind the math.
Time: ~30 minutes to read · then build your own formula
- 1. Baker's percentage explainedFlour = 100%, everything else is a percentage of flour. Worked examples + scaling math.
- 2. Starter discount mathWhy you subtract starter-contributed flour + water from the recipe totals — and what happens if you don't.
- 3. Reverse calculatorYou have a flour-and-water weight; what's the hydration? Useful for adapting recipes that hide the percentages.
- 4. Levain build timingHow long to wait before peak in a hot vs. cold kitchen. Builds on the temperature multipliers.
- 5. Public JSON APIPOST your flour weight + target hydration + (optional) flour mix; receive computed gram weights with starter-discount math applied. Power-user / spreadsheet integration.
If you prefer to wander
Every page on the site is bookmarkable + cross-linked. The 8 top-level hubs are the canonical entry points — pick whichever matches your question.
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