Ratio baking

Ratio baking is working from simple weight proportions of ingredients, such as 3 parts flour to 2 parts fat to 1 part water, instead of fixed measured amounts.

Ratio baking: A digital kitchen scale with a bowl of flour on it and, beside it, a smaller bowl of cold butter pieces and a small cup of ice water, laid out in a 3 to 2 to 1 propor
  • Measurement, dietary and professional terminology

Also called: ratios

Professional bakers often think in ratios by weight. Wayne Gisslen's Professional Baking gives the classic example of 3-2-1 pie dough: the numbers refer to the ratio of ingredients by weight, 3 parts flour, 2 parts shortening and 1 part ice water. Because the parts are weights, the same ratio works for a small batch or a large one.

Bread makers use a related idea called baker's percentage. Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread explains that flour is set at 100 percent and each of the other ingredients is expressed as a percentage of the flour's weight, found by dividing the ingredient's weight by the flour's weight and multiplying by 100.

Working by ratio makes it easy to scale a recipe, compare formulas, or adjust one ingredient, such as the water in a dough, without rewriting everything. It depends on weighing ingredients on a scale rather than using cups.

Related entries

Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. 3-2-1 Dough, Professional Baking (Wayne Gisslen), via CKBK reference
  2. Computing Percentages in a Formula, Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes (Jeffrey Hamelman), via CKBK reference