Ratios in Cooking & Baking
Professional chefs and bakers rely on weight ratios rather than rigid volume measurements to achieve consistent, repeatable results at any scale.
1. Classic Culinary Proportions (By Weight)
Mastering culinary ratios lets you prepare foundations from memory:
🥗 Vinaigrette Dressing
3 parts extra virgin olive oil to 1 part vinegar or citrus juice (e.g. 75 ml oil : 25 ml vinegar).
🥖 Traditional Shortbread
100g sugar, 200g butter, 300g all-purpose flour.
🍲 Classical Roux
Equal parts melted butter or oil and flour by weight (e.g. 50g butter : 50g flour).
🥧 Basic Pie Dough (Pâte Brisée)
300g flour, 200g cold cubed butter, 100g ice water.
2. Baker's Percentages & Dough Hydration
In professional baking, all ingredient weights are expressed as a percentage relative to the total flour weight (always 100%):
Sourdough Bread Formulation (70% Hydration)
- Bread Flour (100%): 500 g
- Water (70%): 500 × 0.70 = 350 g
- Sourdough Starter (20%): 500 × 0.20 = 100 g
- Salt (2%): 500 × 0.02 = 10 g
- Total Dough Weight: 960 g (sum of all components)
3. How to Scale a Recipe Proportionally
To scale a recipe from serving size S1 to serving size S2, calculate the scale factor:
Multiplier = Target Servings ÷ Original Servings.
If a soup recipe yields 4 servings with 600 ml stock, scaling up to 10 servings requires a multiplier of 10 / 4 = 2.5 → 600 ml × 2.5 = 1,500 ml stock.