Calculate water, starter, and salt from the flour you weighed and the hydration you like.
| Water | – |
| Levain | – |
| Salt | – |
Use this sourdough calculator on mix day: you know the flour and you want baker’s numbers without spreading a spreadsheet.
Water is flour × hydration percent. Levain is flour × levain percent; that percent is preferment as a fraction of formula flour, not counting flour already in the jar. Salt is flour × salt percent. If your starter is 100% hydration and you want true dough hydration, you still need to account for the water in the levain yourself. Flour, water, levain, and salt can be grams, ounces, or pounds.
Flour: Bread flour that goes in the final dough (formula flour). 500 g is a typical loaf.
Hydration (%): Water as a percent of that flour. Type 70 for a medium-soft dough; 65 is tighter, 80 is very wet.
Levain (% of flour): Preferment as a percent of formula flour. 20 means 100 g levain on 500 g flour.
Salt (%): Salt as a percent of flour. 2 is the usual bread figure (10 g on 500 g).
Water, levain, salt: Masses to weigh for the mix.
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