Baking Ratio Calculator

How it works

A baking ratio gives each ingredient's share by weight. Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio (2009) popularised the idea that bread is 5 parts flour to 3 parts water and pie dough 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat and 1 part water, whatever the batch size.

From the weight of one ingredient, one part weighs that weight divided by the ingredient's parts, and every other ingredient is its parts times that. From a total batch weight, one part is the total divided by all the parts. Salt, leavening and flavourings are not in the ratios; Ruhlman's recipes add them separately.

Formula

one part = known weight ÷ known ingredient's parts   (or total ÷ sum of parts)
each ingredient = its parts × one part
total batch = sum of parts × one part

Example

Bread at 5 : 3 from 500 g of flour: one part is 500 ÷ 5 = 100 g, so water is 3 × 100 = 300 g and the dough 800 g.

Ruhlman's pancake recipe uses 8 ounces of milk at 2 liquid : 1 egg : ½ butter : 2 flour. One part is 8 ÷ 2 = 4 oz, giving 4 oz egg (his recipe says 2 large eggs), 2 oz butter and 8 oz flour, the milk, butter and flour weights in his recipe. His biscuits at 3 : 1 : 2 from 9 oz flour give 3 oz butter and 6 oz milk, again as published.

Assumptions and limitations

• Ratios are by weight. The built-in ratios are the ones stated on Michael Ruhlman's website for bread (5 : 3), pie dough (3 : 2 : 1), cookie (1 : 2 : 3), pancake (2 : 1 : ½ : 2) and biscuit (3 : 1 : 2), and the historical pound cake of a pound each of flour, eggs, sugar and butter as King Arthur Baking describes it (it notes that today's versions use slightly less flour).
• Ratios are starting points, not tested recipes. Ruhlman's pie dough recipes, for example, use 2 to 4 ounces of water for 12 ounces of flour depending on the fat. Egg weight is shelled egg.
• Other ratios (muffins, pâte à choux, custard and so on) can be entered as your own ratio of up to four ingredients.
• Weights are not rounded; salt, leavening and flavourings are not included.

Frequently asked questions