Ingredient · Ingredients
Water
Printed from https://gourmetgastronomer.com/ingredients/water/
The second ingredient in bread dough by weight, and the medium of fermentation, gluten formation, and oven steam.
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Appears in Learn sourdough · Previous: Wheat flour · Next: Sourdough starter
In bread, water is not a neutral backdrop. Hydration changes how Wheat flour feels, how Gluten develops, and how fast Fermentation runs. Starters are flour plus water before they are anything else.
Mineral content and temperature are real variables. Municipal water profiles vary, so taste the dough and adjust 1.
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Cited in this article
- The Taste of Bread — Raymond Calvel. Aspen Publishers. 2001. ISBN 978-0-8342-1646-4 — English edition of Calvel's technical account of French bread. The link is a WorldCat catalog record for the print edition; it is not a public full-text copy.
Updated 2026-08-25. gg:ingredient:water · CC BY 4.0
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Gourmet Gastronomer. "Water." Updated 2026-08-25. https://gourmetgastronomer.com/ingredients/water/ gg:ingredient:water.
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Gourmet Gastronomer. "Water." Gourmet Gastronomer. Updated August 25, 2026. https://gourmetgastronomer.com/ingredients/water/.
APA
Gourmet Gastronomer. (2026, August 25). Water. https://gourmetgastronomer.com/ingredients/water/
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This encyclopedia is editable like a wiki. Notes stay on the talk layer until they are merged into the page. Questions, comments, and proposed additions are welcome; food-safety numbers still need an authoritative source.
Water is an ingredient with a job
Could the water page ask what the water is doing in the formula — hydrating flour, dissolving salt, or carrying heat? That would give readers a better reason to adjust temperature or amount.
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