Why compare by baker's %
Baker's percentage expresses every ingredient as a share of total flour weight, with flour fixed at 100%. That makes batch size cancel out: a 500 g home loaf and a 20 kg bakery batch with the same ratios are the same formula, and it's the ratios — hydration, salt, sugar, fat — that decide how a bake behaves.
Side-by-side percentages answer practical questions fast:
- Diagnose a bake — yesterday's loaf sang, today's was dense. Compare the two versions and the changed number is usually the culprit.
- Learn from references — line your recipe up against a classic formula and see exactly where yours is wetter, saltier, or richer.
- Steal on purpose — like another recipe's crumb? Find the hydration and fat gap between it and yours, and close it deliberately instead of guessing.
How to read the table
- Flour = 100% — every other number is relative to each recipe's total flour weight.
- Δ = Recipe B − Recipe A in baker's-% points. Salt at 2% in A and 2.5% in B reads +0.5%.
- Components group, tap to open — Water, Fat, Sugar and friends are grouped so “butter” and “olive oil” compare as Fat. Tap a component name to see the individual ingredients inside it.
- Grams toggle — switches to gram amounts scaled to the same 1000 g of flour for both recipes, so weights stay comparable regardless of batch size.
- Starters are split — a combined starter (say 150 g at 100% hydration) is counted as its flour and water parts, so hydration and flour totals stay honest.
- “Only in A / B” — flags an ingredient or component the other recipe doesn't have. Often that flag is the difference you're looking for.
- Different types warning — comparing a cookie to a sourdough is allowed, but percentages mean different things across categories, so the tool tells you to read with care.
What more — or less — of each ingredient does
When a Δ jumps out, this is what that gap tends to mean. These are the same component groups the table uses.
Water (hydration)
The single biggest lever. Bagels sit near 55–60%, sandwich loaves 60–68%, ciabatta and high-hydration sourdough 75–85%.
MoreSlacker, more extensible dough; a more open, irregular crumb; thinner crust that blisters and crisps at high heat. Harder to shape and handle.
LessTighter, more even crumb with a denser chew; stiffer dough that holds its shape and machines easily; thicker crust.
Salt
Most breads land between 1.8% and 2.2%.
MoreTighter gluten and slower fermentation — useful control, but past ~2.5% the bake tastes salty and the yeast gets sluggish.
LessFaster, less controlled fermentation, slacker and stickier dough, and flat flavor. Even a 0.5-point drop is noticeable.
Sugar
MoreExtra tenderness and moisture (sugar holds water), faster browning, and more spread in cookies. Above roughly 10% it starts slowing yeast, so enriched doughs proof longer.
LessPaler crust, crisper or breadier texture, and less keeping quality — not just less sweetness.
Fat
MoreShortens gluten strands: softer, finer crumb, richer flavor, longer shelf life. Heavily enriched doughs (brioche territory, 20%+) ferment slower and feel silkier.
LessLeaner and chewier with a crisper crust — the “rustic” direction. Lean doughs also stale faster.
Eggs
MoreRichness plus structure. Yolks bring fat and lecithin — tender, golden, emulsified crumb; whites set and add lift but dry things out on their own.
LessPaler and leaner; structure relies on gluten alone, so the crumb is chewier and less tender.
Leavener
MoreYeast: faster rise but less time to develop flavor, and past ~2% instant yeast the bake can taste yeasty. Chemical leaveners: more lift and spread up to a point, then collapse and a soapy, metallic taste.
LessSlower rise — often a feature: long, cool fermentation with a small yeast dose builds flavor. Too little chemical leavener bakes up dense and flat.
Starter / preferment
MoreA bigger share of prefermented flour means more acidity and aroma, better keeping quality, and a faster final proof. Very high shares can weaken gluten (acid breaks it down).
LessMilder, sweeter flavor profile and a slower final proof; the dough is stronger but the crumb less complex.
Milk / dairy
MoreSofter crumb and a tender, deeply browned crust (lactose browns readily). Cultured dairy adds a slight tang and tenderizes further.
LessLeaner, crustier, chewier — water-based doughs bake up with a more rustic bite.
Chocolate & inclusions
MoreA bigger flavor payload — but inclusions are weight the gluten has to carry: past roughly a third of flour weight the crumb gets heavy and can tear.
LessLighter, more open crumb where the dough itself carries the flavor.
What the numbers can't tell you
- Technique and time — two identical formulas diverge with different mixing, fermentation temperature, shaping, and bake. Percentages set the ceiling; process decides how close you get.
- Flour quality — 70% hydration in a strong bread flour and in a soft pastry flour are different doughs. Protein and absorption don't show up in the ratio.
- Count-based items — ingredients without a usable weight (a pinch, 2 lemons' zest) can't join a weight-ratio comparison and are left out of the percentages.