THE CRUMB INSTITUTE
HYDRATION 70.0 % DOUGH TEMPERATURE 24.1 °C BENCH REST 41 min
[NOTICE: THE BENCH WAS CHECKED FOR LEVEL AT 08:00 AND WAS LEVEL] — FLOUR STORE HELD AT 14.2 °C AND 51 % RELATIVE HUMIDITY — VESSEL PLACED AND TARED TO ZERO — 350.0 g OF WATER ADMITTED AT 21.4 °C IN A SINGLE CONTINUOUS POUR — SALT WEIGHED SEPARATELY AS SPECIFIED, 9.0 g — THE STIRRING WAS JUDGED TOO FAST AND WAS SLOWED — THE OVEN TIMER IS SET TO 38 MINUTES AND NOT TO 79 MINUTES — [NOTICE: THE BENCH WAS CHECKED FOR LEVEL AT 08:00 AND WAS LEVEL] — FLOUR STORE HELD AT 14.2 °C AND 51 % RELATIVE HUMIDITY — VESSEL PLACED AND TARED TO ZERO — 350.0 g OF WATER ADMITTED AT 21.4 °C IN A SINGLE CONTINUOUS POUR — SALT WEIGHED SEPARATELY AS SPECIFIED, 9.0 g — THE STIRRING WAS JUDGED TOO FAST AND WAS SLOWED — THE OVEN TIMER IS SET TO 38 MINUTES AND NOT TO 79 MINUTES —
CBI-2026-041 · in review

On the arrangement of holes in a slice of bread

Abstract

We cut a loaf into slices of 12 mm and counted the holes in each. The holes are not distributed evenly. There are fewer of them near the top of the loaf and the ones that are there are larger, a result we did not expect and have now reproduced eleven times. This paper reports the count, the areas, and the two occasions on which the keepers disagreed about whether a hole was one hole or two.

void fraction: φ = Avoid / Aslice 0.31 = 18.6 cm² / 60.0 cm² hole density: n(z) = N(z) / Aslice n(0.10 m) = 41 per 100 cm² n(0.02 m) = 63 per 100 cm² → ∂n/∂z < 0

Method

The loaf was cooled for two hours, which is longer than anyone wanted to wait. Slices were cut with a serrated knife using a guide, photographed against graph paper at 1:1, and the holes traced by hand with a pencil. Tracing by hand was slower than the automatic method and produced a different answer, so the automatic method was abandoned.

Result

A mean of 52 holes per slice, with a mean area of 0.36 cm². The largest single hole measured 2.4 cm² and was located 14 mm from the top crust. Holes larger than 1 cm² account for 9 % of the count and 34 % of the void area.

Limitations

Two keepers disagreed on 17 of 1,240 holes. Both were correct; a hole that has been cut through twice is genuinely two questions.

Void fraction, φ
0.31
Hole area as a share of slice area, measured on traced photographs.
Mean hole area
0.36 cm²
Median 0.21 cm². The mean is carried by a small number of large holes.
Slices examined
24
From four loaves, all baked in Oven 2, all from the same bag of flour.
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