Ingredient Ratio Calculator

Ingredient ratios are proportional relationships between components in a recipe. Unlike specific quantities, ratios remain constant regardless of batch size — making them the foundation of professional kitchen formulas. Shortcrust pastry is always 3 parts flour to 2 parts butter to 1 part water, whether you're making a single tart shell or 50 canapé cases.

Understanding ratios lets you scale recipes without needing to find the exact original version. If you know bread dough is roughly 5 parts flour to 3 parts water, you can make any quantity without a specific recipe. The calculator takes your ratio and distributes a total weight across the ingredients.

Professional bakers use baker's percentages — a ratio system where flour is always 100% and other ingredients are expressed as percentages of the flour weight. 60% hydration means 60g water per 100g flour. This makes it easy to adjust one variable (like hydration) while keeping others constant.

Classic cooking ratios worth knowing: shortcrust pastry (3:2:1), choux pastry (2:1:1:2 water:butter:flour:eggs by weight), vinaigrette (3:1 oil:acid), and crumble topping (3:2:1 flour:butter:sugar). These ratios form the backbone of countless recipes and are the first things trained cooks memorise.