When did bakers first start using decimal? Was it always decimal? I'm surprised, since most things I've seen in the "real world" tend to be fractional.
Baker's Math (2009)
81–90 of 117 posts
Re: Baker's Math (2009)
#82Slightly related and maybe useful to someone: I built a "declarative" (sourdough) calculator which simplifies these calculations, or at least reverses the question so you just fill in what properties of the loaf you want. Link: https://breadfriend.com .
In the first sentence on the start page, there's an unnecessary apostrophe in the word "recipes". It's a plural form, not a possessive. Not everyone will agree or care, but this kind of thing can have an unfortunate effect when people come to the page for the first time and form an opinion about it.
Re: Baker's Math (2009)
#83Commercial baker here. One place where this kind of math gets really weird is when the recipe uses multiple kinds of flours. We make a loaf that uses three kinds of flour, so this means a recipe will have flour percentages that are less than 100%, but that sum to 100% so the hydration percentage works. For example, the recipe might say: Bread Flour 80%, Whole Wheat Flour 15%, and Rye Flour 5%. Personally I prefer jus…
Is there a "Modernist Bread Essentials" that summarizes it and is a bit more affordable?
Re: Baker's Math (2009)
#84Just the other day my wife misread our bread roll recipe and added too much water to the flour. I'm glad, I know bakers math and I'm good at mental arithmetic, so the dough could be rescued easily.
Re: Baker's Math (2009)
#85For me the main reason to use bakers' percentage is to design recipes.
Once I have designed the recipe in bakers' percentage I use my handy spreadsheet to convert this to grams for the final recipe.
When you spend some time making bread you get the hang of how things work together. How much is 80, 90 or 100% of water, what kind of correction in % of water I need depending on flour composition, whether you want 2 or maybe 3% salt for this particular bread, how much sourdough starter you want, etc.
I also use large amounts of starter and of very varying composition (wet starters, stiff starters, etc.), so even if I want to repeat the same recipe I may need to adapt it to a different starter.
So this is making the design a very easy process when it would be kinda hard when looking at grams.
Re: Baker's Math (2009)
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Neat! Im curious - were you in tech before becoming a baker at all, or did you pick up the programming skills to help your baking career? I ask because I'm always interested in hearing how non-programmers end up programming. I've long held the opinion that we (tech that is) should try to make things more programmable by users (e.g. game scripting, excel, the "citizen developer" world of sharepoint), etc and like to h…
Oh, I do software by trade. The bakery is because it started as a family business that I helped get off the ground. My background is in B2B payments and construction software. Even though the bakery doesn’t make as much money as software, there’s a whole other world of experience to be gained by running a blue collar business that runs 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. Very very different that a software shop. But to yo…
I’m always super interested to hear about industries seemingly “neglected” by software. There are so many software product opportunities off the beaten path.
Would you mind sharing the name of that 90s software?
What makes it impossible to recreate with low/no-code tools? It sounds like a relatively standard interface over some calculations which sounds like it should fit.
Re: Baker's Math (2009)
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Autolyse probably is not the best example. I have several bread-making books and I don't think a single one advocates for autolyse. Not Tartine, not Forkish's, not Reinhart's. Lots of youtubers and bloggers love it though, no idea why.
Maybe not, but they do look at that one because a bunch of books are totally in favor, and a bunch are either against it or ignore it, so coming up with a definitive answer was a reasonable thing to do. Other examples of time savers would be when to add fats and salts in a dough, and proofing and punching times. I’d need to double check, but I could have sworn that Tartine did have an autolyse where they have you wai…
You are correct about the Tartine method. Skipping that step was one of the first customizations I made to their process, and I haven’t noticed any difference.
Re: Baker's Math (2009)
#88Commercial baker here. One place where this kind of math gets really weird is when the recipe uses multiple kinds of flours. We make a loaf that uses three kinds of flour, so this means a recipe will have flour percentages that are less than 100%, but that sum to 100% so the hydration percentage works. For example, the recipe might say: Bread Flour 80%, Whole Wheat Flour 15%, and Rye Flour 5%. Personally I prefer jus…
> the Modernist Bread set. It’s pricey... $625 is not "pricey", it's ridiculuously expensive.
Depends 100% on what you're going to get out of it/them.
Re: Baker's Math (2009)
#89Similar for cocktails.
Re: Baker's Math (2009)
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn’t add up that it would just be about managing impressions or controlling a narrative. The fact that there was a law regulating the price of loaves of bread is well recorded. Anyone selling loaves too small but also selling baker’s dozen would be in violation. I regret trying to say buying a dozen would be uncommon. It’s more that even if they sell a dozen, of course there’d frequently be orders smaller than…
Bakers were under constant suspicion of cheating customers and the regulations. Adulterated flour was a big concern too, not just loafs too small or airy. To manage their reputations, I think bakers would rationally take any edge they can get.
> Bakers were under constant suspicion of cheating customers and the regulations.
I once found a book of old German jokes and basically every third one the joke's essence was some kind of slander against the town miller.