THE SOURDOUGH REFERENCE
Explore ingredient choices, formula percentages and the differences between baking methods.
These articles explain how ingredients and quantities fit together. Browse the recipe reading list for complete methods from the original publishers.
31 guides
Formula & ingredient guides
Whole-grain flour is a category, not a single ingredient. A wheat-heavy blend and a rye-heavy blend can share a hydration percentage without producing the same dough structure.
Formula & ingredient guides
A kamado is a baking environment, not a dough formula. Loaf mass, vessel, distance from the heat and the grill’s operating instructions all matter.
Formula & ingredient guides
Banana bread is a quick bread. Banana, discard, eggs and butter each contribute to the batter, so the water percentage of a plain flour-and-water loaf is not a useful direct comparison.
Formula & ingredient guides
Beer is not pure water. Treating its entire mass as water gives a water-equivalent comparison, rather than an exact measurement of dough hydration.
Formula & ingredient guides
Tang and leavening are separate questions. Yogurt or buttermilk can contribute acidity; a sourdough starter or baker’s yeast supplies a different route to a risen loaf.
Formula & ingredient guides
A chocolate discard quick bread uses chemical leavening rather than a long starter-driven rise. Cocoa, buttermilk and the chosen leavener belong to the same formula system.
Formula & ingredient guides
Whole-wheat tortilla dough combines flour, water, fat and salt. Changing oil to butter changes the ingredients as well as the dietary description.
Formula & ingredient guides
Injera recipes differ in grain mixture and fermentation method. A teff-and-wheat version with commercial yeast and baking powder should not be confused with a teff-only fermented version.
Formula & ingredient guides
Oil, butter, lard and shortening are different ingredients. A tortilla formula that lists only “fat” leaves an important part of the comparison undefined.
Formula & ingredient guides
Dried fruit and nuts add weight without contributing flour to a conventional baker’s-percentage calculation. Keep their percentage separate from dough hydration.
Formula & ingredient guides
A gluten-free flour blend is not a single interchangeable ingredient. Rice, sorghum, oat flour, starch and binders have different roles.
Formula & ingredient guides
Feeding by retained starter weight makes the daily arithmetic clear. “Discard half” can describe a changing amount if the jar’s total changes after each feeding.
Formula & ingredient guides
A flour-and-starch blend needs its own handling method. A water percentage can describe quantities without describing flexibility or how the tortilla holds together.
Formula & ingredient guides
Lamination places a butter layer inside dough. The roll-in butter percentage and the base dough hydration describe different parts of the formula.
Formula & ingredient guides
Total dough weight divided by the number of pieces gives portion weight before cooking. Cup-to-gram conversions are approximate and depend on the masa product and measuring method.
Formula & ingredient guides
Starter percentage needs a denominator. Starter mass divided by the added flour is different from prefermented flour divided by total flour.
Formula & ingredient guides
A feeding ratio is written by weight as starter:flour:water. Equal flour and water additions do not necessarily mean equal amounts of all three components.
Formula & ingredient guides
Biscuits use fat and chemical leaveners differently from a fermented loaf. Discard is one ingredient in the formula, not a reason to copy a bread’s rise schedule.
Formula & ingredient guides
Cracker formulas combine discard, flour, fat and seasoning. Thinness and even rolling are important when comparing baking results, so a liquid percentage is only part of the description.
Formula & ingredient guides
Discard pizza can include both sourdough discard and commercial yeast. In that case the yeast is part of the leavening system; the presence of discard does not make it a starter-only fermentation.
Formula & ingredient guides
Pancakes and waffles can share ingredients without sharing the same equipment settings or finished texture. Discard, buttermilk, egg and melted butter all affect the batter.
Formula & ingredient guides
Starter contributes flour and water even when a short tortilla method does not rely on a long rise. This makes its hydration relevant to the dough’s arithmetic.
Formula & ingredient guides
Baking and deep frying are separate cooking methods with different oil quantities and equipment. A spoonful of oil for coating chips is not a deep-frying quantity.
Formula & ingredient guides
Whole wheat, rye and oats contribute different properties. Rolled oats and oat flour are not interchangeable descriptions of the same flour component.
Formula & ingredient guides
A flour blend described as 70% whole wheat usually refers to the directly added flour. The starter’s flour can change the percentage of whole grain in the complete dough.
Formula & ingredient guides
Water weight divided by flour weight is a useful starting comparison for tortilla formulas. It does not include oil and does not predict how every whole-wheat flour will roll.
Formula & ingredient guides
Zucchini adds water whose amount depends on the vegetable and its preparation. “A cup of zucchini” can mean different weights and different amounts of retained moisture.
Formula & ingredient guides
An overnight schedule is a planning choice, not one universal fermentation time. Separate the quantities in the formula from the conditions that determine its progress.
Formula & ingredient guides
Masa harina is nixtamalized corn flour. Different products have their own water recommendations, so measuring the specified product in grams makes comparisons clearer.
Formula & ingredient guides
Discard chocolate quick bread belongs to the chemically leavened quick-bread family. It differs from a cocoa-flavored loaf that relies on a sourdough rise.
Formula & ingredient guides
Counting starter flour and water changes the percentage from the one obtained by dividing only the added water by the added flour.
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