Make the ingredient boundary explicit
Write the separately added flour, separately added water, starter mass and starter hydration as four different inputs. Mark whether a published formula already includes prefermented flour in its total-flour figure. A recipe that lists 500 g flour plus starter is different from one that calls 500 g its total flour. Resolve that distinction before judging two hydration percentages.
Scale the whole recipe deliberately
Choose a target total flour and apply the calculated factor to each ingredient in the original formula. The tool displays scaled flour, water and starter; carry the same factor into a separate salt or inclusion line when appropriate. Keep final dough mass and container capacity as separate checks. A larger batch can require practical changes to mixing or scheduling even when ingredient percentages stay the same.
Work through the numbers
With 500 g separately added flour, 325 g separately added water and 100 g of a 100%-hydration starter, total flour is 550 g and total water is 375 g. Hydration is 68.18%. A 1,000 g total-flour target uses a factor of 1.8182, scaling those three ingredient masses to about 909.09 g, 590.91 g and 181.82 g.
Open the dough hydration & recipe scaling calculator and reproduce the example first. Keep its default inputs unchanged for that check, then replace one value with the value from your own record. Note the resulting difference before changing anything else. This separates a deliberate scenario from an accidental mixture of old and new assumptions.
Compare a second scenario on the same basis
Multiplying each represented ingredient by the same factor retains its relationship to total flour. The target field is total flour, not final dough weight or a pan size. If a recipe contains salt or inclusions, scale those separately using the same factor and document any intentional exception rather than leaving an ingredient unchanged accidentally.
Keep the same unit convention and model boundary when comparing both records. A different tool may represent a different quantity even when its result looks similar. Write down what changed and why, rather than preserving only the final number. If a measurement is uncertain, test a clearly labeled alternative instead of hiding the uncertainty inside an unrelated field.
Use a short review worksheet
- Enter flour and water added outside the starter.
- Enter starter mass and its known water-to-flour hydration percentage.
- Set the desired total flour, including flour inside starter.
- Review hydration and scaled ingredient masses before changing a recipe.
Add the date of the source or measurement where it matters, and keep any rounding decision separate from the unrounded calculation. Before using a result outside the model, return to the source that governs the real situation. This models flour, water and starter by mass. It does not calculate fermentation time, food safety, salt recommendations or flour absorption, and it does not treat other wet ingredients as pure water.
Sources and next steps
These references provide topic context; they are not an endorsement or a claim of continuous monitoring. This guide was prepared with AI-assisted drafting, and its illustrative arithmetic is checked against the supplied calculator. No named expert review, product test or site inspection is claimed.
Continue with the calculator and complete method, read how corrections are handled, or report a reproducible issue. Keep personal identifiers, credentials and private documents out of a calculation report.