Ratios

Baker's percentages across 1,480 pizzas with a parsable dough. Box = middle 50% of recipes, line = median, edge ticks = min and max. The same axis that looks flat for salt (most recipes use 2 to 3%) spreads wide for oil (some styles use 0%, others 15%).

Baker's percentage = each ingredient's weight as a share of the flour weight (flour is always 100%). It is how bakers compare doughs regardless of batch size: “65% hydration, 2.5% salt” describes a 300g ball and a 30kg batch equally.

Hydration Water ÷ flour

median 67.0% · mean 67.7% · n=1480

40.0%95.0%

The texture knob. Under 55% bakes to a cracker (St. Louis, tavern); the low 60s is the classic NY and Neapolitan zone; 70% and up is the open-crumb pan territory (Detroit, grandma); 80% and up is Roman al taglio.

Salt Salt ÷ flour

median 2.00% · mean 2.17% · n=1349

0.00%7.20%

The tightest distribution in baking: below 2% tastes flat, above 3.5% slows the yeast and tastes salty. Nearly everyone lands at 2 to 3%.

Yeast Yeast ÷ flour

median 1.20% · mean 1.38% · n=1093

0.00%6.47%

Inversely tied to time: same-day doughs use 1 to 2%, long cold ferments drop to 0.1 to 0.5%. High yeast plus a long ferment means overproofed.

Oil Oil ÷ flour, dough oil only

median 7.30% · mean 9.02% · n=1060

0.00%29.6%

A style marker. VPN Neapolitan forbids oil in the dough; the 102 Neapolitan doughs here still median 0%. New York doughs median 2.4%, and the pan styles go much further: deep-dish 10.4%, pan 7.5%. Detroit is the exception at 0%: its oil goes in the pan, not the dough.

Sugar / malt Sugar or malt ÷ flour

median 1.80% · mean 2.69% · n=749

0.00%17.8%

Mostly a browning aid for sub-600°F home ovens. High-heat styles skip it; the oven supplies the color.

Bake temp Stated oven temperature, all recipes

median 428°F · mean 444°F · n=2778

300°F1000°F

Only recipes whose page states a temperature. The bulk sits at 425 to 550°F because home ovens top out there; the thin tail past 700°F is pizza ovens, wood and coal.

Dough weight Total dough mass

median 792g · mean 847g · n=1470

100g3694g

Recipe yield more than style: one 250g Neapolitan ball vs. a 900g Detroit pan batch.

Hydration by style

Every parsable dough as a dot; the red tick is the style's median. Regional styles with at least 6 doughs, sorted driest to wettest.

Hydration cheat sheet

Styles placed by their median parsable dough in this dataset (at least 6 doughs), not by tradition.

45 to 55%: cracker territory: Chicago Tavern (53%)

55 to 65%: the classic slice zone: St. Louis (56%), New Haven (61%), Pan Pizza (63%), New York (63%), Chicago Deep-Dish (64%), Neapolitan (64%)

65 to 75%: wetter doughs, pan and otherwise: Thin Crust (66%), Sicilian (67%), Detroit (73%), Grandma (74%)

75% and up: high-hydration specialists: Roman al taglio (78%)