I have heard the gurus around here talking about hydration in relation to starters, can someone give me a quick explanation as to how this works.
Is this percentage based on the flour quantity or the starter quantity
Sourdom,
Excellent explanation. I'm wondering if you could you give an example of how you determine the grams of flour and water in a starter that is not 100%? For example a 55% starter or a 166% starter. I think many folks have trouble with this.
Thanks Gary
Gary, I have designed a starter calculator that I will ask Maedi to put in the calculator section.
It is a calculator for a two stage starter that will let you make any amount, any hydration, and with any combination of flours in it.
Give me a day to pretty it up and write the instructions and I will submit it to Maedi.
OK Bill thanks, I'll watch for it.
I just wondered in general how you folks determine the flour and water in non 100% starters. I probably should have started a new thread asking the question.
Thanks Gary
Hydration 101. 
In a recipe or a starter the flour is considered to be a figure of 100%. Now if you have a starter as in this case at 80% hydration then the figures are flour 100% water 80%. So adding the two together you get a figure of 180.
You have a starter weight of 1000g so divide 1000 by 180 = 5.555555. So multiply 5.555555 x 100(flour) = 555.55g flour, multiply 5.555555 x 80(water) = 444.44. So add the two together as a double check 555.55 + 444.44 = 999.99. Check again if you want (444.44/555.55) x 100 = 80% TA DA!
This is just an example
OK Bill, thanks again. I understand it and it makes sense to me.
Anyone else do it a different way?
Thanks Gary
thanks Bill for your starter calculator, and for helping with the above.
one of the advantages of 100% hydration starters is that it makes calculations a lot easier!
For a given starter, the "true proportion" of water is going to equal
(Percent hydration)/(percent hydration+100)
(Because the flour is always 100 percent)
therefore a 55% starter will contain 55/155 water
multiply this by the amount of starter that you have
thus for 200g starter
'55% hydration starter' - the weight of water = (55/155)*200 = 71g
'166% hydration starter' - the weight of water = (166/266)*200 = 125g
(subtract the water from the total amount of starter to give you the weight of flour)
cheers
Dom
Thanks Dom, just wanted to make sure I was getting the right answer. I
find the flour weight first by dividing the starter weight by 1 plus the
hydration percent (in decimal form). Then subtract the flour weight from
the total for the water weight.
Thus for 200g of starter
For 55% starter: Flour = 200/1.55 = 129g, Water = 200 - 129 = 71g
For 166% starter: Flour = 200/2.66 = 75g, Water = 200 - 75 = 125g
This gives the same result as you and Bill get but in a little differnt form.
Thanks Gary
Thanks Dom, just wanted to make sure I was getting the right answer. I
find the flour weight first by dividing the starter weight by 1 plus the
hydration percent (in decimal form). Then subtract the flour weight from
the total for the water weight.
Thus for 200g of starter
For 55% starter: Flour = 200/1.55 = 129g, Water = 200 - 129 = 71g
For 166% starter: Flour = 200/2.66 = 75g, Water = 200 - 75 = 125g
This gives the same result as you and Bill get but in a little differnt form.
Thanks Gary
oh that is very nice and clear
Bake Me !
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