Here is a fine opportunity for the expert advisor to punctuate his
prose with graphics. An easy way is to scan a slice on the platen
of a scanner, and put the result in evidence in web space to be
referenced in one's post(s). www.zippyimages.com is good
for that, probably the easiest among the many possibilities.

Regards per cent hydration, consider this conundrum: If I make
my dough to 80% without regard to say, the flour's normal 14%
moisture content, the actual hydration will be considerably higher
than I suspect. If the normal 14% is conventionally be ignored
when stating the bakers' per cent hydration, how should one
manage the potential errors due to moisture adsorption in a humid
atmosphere (which could take the base moisture content to 21%,=20
I understand), or moisture depletion due to desiccation in an arid=20
region?

For instance, actual per cent hydration obtained by adding .8 pounds
of water to 1.0 pound of flour which came at ~14% moisture, which=20
soaked up another ~7% of moisture, would be closer to 130% than
to 80%. I would have different results with my soggy flour, I suspect,
than do the Mountain People and the Desert People.

I expect that this thread's respondents are weighing. Measurement
in cups, which have been precalibrated by weighing the amount of=20
flour contained, may fail in an additional way -- as the flour sits =
around
and soaks up moisture, it settles down and becomes more dense.

In this vein, I should like to ask how the big-hole folks are coming
along with the "window-pane" test.

???

--=20
Dick Adams
<firstname> dot <lastname> at bigfoot dot com
___________________
Sourdough FAQ guide at=20
http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughfaqs.html