Trinidadian Roti Lab · Calculator

Design your own Trinidadian roti

The sliders start at the typical batch: the median of 25 recipes for each ingredient, in grams per 100 g of flour. Move any of them within the range that 90% of recipes use (the 5th to the 95th percentile) and the grams update, with where your choice sits among the recipes and what that ingredient does.

This scales ratios; it is not a tested recipe. Each ingredient moves on its own against the flour, and a combination no recipe uses may not cook the way you expect. For the method, pan and heat, follow the real recipes nearest your numbers.

Flour

Flour weight (g)

500 g, about 4 cups, makes one typical batch.

Start from a recipe

Load a real recipe's percentages into the sliders. Search by title or site.

Grams per 100 g of flour

Water
360 g · 72%about 1 1/2 cups
In the middle: 52% of recipes use more, 48% less.
Water or milk to a soft dough that rests before rolling, so it stretches thin without tearing.
Baking powder
13 g · 2.5%
In the middle: 48% of recipes use more, 44% less.
Unlike most Indian roti, Trinidadian roti uses baking powder; it is what makes sada roti puff on the tawa and paratha soft and flaky.
Fat
110 g · 22%about 1/2 cup
In the middle: 52% of recipes use more, 48% less.
All the oil, butter or ghee, in the dough and brushed on or between the layers. Sada roti uses almost none; buss up shut is built on it, which is where its flaky, torn layers come from.
Sugar
6 g · 1.1%about 1 1/2 tsp
In the middle: 48% of recipes use more, 48% less.
A little sugar in some recipes helps browning; many use none.
Salt
6 g · 1.2%
In the middle: 36% of recipes use more, 28% less.
About 1% of the flour; a few family recipes leave it out.

Your Trinidadian roti

Your Trinidadian roti in grams, with approximate volumes
Ingredient	Grams
Flour	500 gabout 4 cups
Watermilk, buttermilk, yogurt, cream and water	360 gabout 1 1/2 cups
Baking powderbaking soda and baking powder	13 g
Fatbutter, oil and shortening	110 gabout 1/2 cup
Sugarwhite sugar, brown sugar, honey and syrups	6 gabout 1 1/2 tsp
Salt	6 g
Total	995 g

995 g in all from 500 g of flour, counting only the groups above.

Closest real recipe: Buss Up Shut (Paratha Roti) (kingarthurbaking.com).

The 3 real recipes nearest your numbers

Measured on water, baking powder, fat, sugar and salt at once. These are published, tested recipes: follow one for its method, pan and timing, or load its percentages and adjust from there.

1
Buss Up Shut (Paratha Roti) · kingarthurbaking.com
water 72% · baking powder 1.9% · fat 21% · sugar 2.2% · salt 1.4%
2
Paratha (Oil) Roti · nowyourecooking.ca
water 79% · baking powder 2.5% · fat 29% · sugar 0% · salt 0.8%
3
Trinidad Paratha Roti (Buss up Shut) Recipe · cookingwithria.com
water 83% · baking powder 1.8% · fat 25% · sugar 1.8% · salt 1.2%

How the calculator works

Every recipe is reduced to baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient group per 100 g of flour. The starting point is the median of all 25 recipes for each group separately, so no single recipe is exactly the starting batch. Grams are your flour weight times each percentage, rounded to the nearest 5 g above 50 g and the nearest gram or half gram below.

“More than 80% of recipes” counts the recipes with strictly less of that ingredient per gram of flour. The nearest recipes are measured on every ingredient at once, each scaled by how much recipes vary on it, so a wide-ranging ingredient does not outweigh a narrow one.

Only the groups listed are counted. Vanilla, spices, mix-ins and toppings are left out unless they have their own slider. Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g.