Reverse Sourdough Hydration Calculator

Reverse Hydration Sourdough Calculator FAQ

What is this?

This reverse hydration sourdough calculator can be used to work backwards from a desired total dough weight and final hydration percent to give you the ingredient weight breakdown you need. It's the opposite of the more common baker's percent calculator where you know the ingredient weight breakdown and want to calculate the total dough weight and final hydration percent.

How about an example?

Let's say you're making the Tartine Country Loaf. The recipe has a Total Dough Weight ⓘ of 1,970g. If you're like me, my bannetons and Tovala Steam Oven are better suited to 900g or smaller loaves. To easily scale the recipe down, this reverse hydration calculator comes in handy.

Using the baker's percent calculator we know the final hydration of the Tartine loaf is 77%. With that handy, we can use the calculator to work backwards to get the amount of each ingredient! You can now spend less time doing math, and more time baking.

Why is the final hydration % different than the percent of water in the recipe?

These calculator's assume you're using a sourdough starter. A sourdough starter already has some water in it and that plays into the final hydration percent. Final hydration percent is calculated by totaling the weight of water in your dough and starter and dividing by the total weight of flour in your dough and starter.