Inoculation

Inoculation is the dose of leaven. In baker's percent it is yeast, Levain, or Sourdough starter as a percentage of flour — how much living material you put into how much food. It is not Prefermented flour (how much of the flour already fermented) and not dough temperature (how warm the habitat is). Calvel treats the amount of yeast or levain as a fermentation control ¹.

King Arthur Baking's lean-bread illustrations sit near 1.2–1.25% commercial yeast on flour, with only a trace of yeast in the Poolish itself ². Those are examples of reading a formula, not a law. A Preferment lets you keep the final-mix yeast low while still fermenting part of the flour overnight.

What it does #

More ripe leaven shortens Bulk fermentation and can push acid earlier. Less leaven stretches the clock and needs the dough to stay in a range where yeast still works. Temperature moves the same clock: King Arthur's desired-dough-temperature teaching is that dough progress, not a timer, is the guide, and very warm dough races ³.

A sourdough teaching inoculation — starter as a percent of flour — is on Country loaf (teaching formula). Do not copy that number onto a yeast dough or a different flour.

Failure #

Treating inoculation as the only lever while the dough is hot or cold. Counting preferment weight as if it were all yeast. Adding more leaven to "fix" a dough that is already slack with acid. None of these numbers is a food-safety limit.