# Why grams, degrees and hours

Source: https://howtomakedosa.com/about/
Updated: 2026-09-25

Most dosa recipes say "a cup of rice", "medium heat" and "ferment overnight". Those instructions only work if you already know how to make dosa. This site is written for people who don't, yet.

## What this site is

How To Make Dosa covers one family of food: fermented rice and urad dal batter, the dosas and idlis made from it, and what gets served alongside. It starts with the [plain dosa master recipe](https://howtomakedosa.com/), and every other page builds on it.

## How the recipes are written

- **By weight.** A cup of rice weighs about twice what a cup of urad dal does, so recipes by volume quietly break the 4 : 1 ratio. Every ingredient here is in grams.
- **By temperature.** "Medium-high heat" means different things on different stoves. The pan is given in °C and °F, with a water-drop test for anyone without a thermometer.
- **By kitchen temperature, not the clock.** Fermentation depends on how warm your kitchen is. Times are given for a range of temperatures, alongside how to tell the batter is ready.
- **With a "ready when" test.** Each stage says what it should look, feel or smell like when it's done, so you can tell by looking rather than relying only on a timer.
- **With the failures.** Each recipe lists what goes wrong most often and how to fix it.

## Corrections

If a number on this site did not work in your kitchen, we want to know: what you made, your kitchen temperature, and what happened. Write to [hello@howtomakedosa.com](mailto:hello@howtomakedosa.com). Recipes are updated when a fix holds up, and each page shows the date it last changed in its Markdown version.

## Advertising and affiliate links

The site is free to read. It may show ads, and some equipment links go to Amazon as affiliate links, which earn the site a small commission if you buy. Neither affects what the recipes recommend. See the [privacy policy](https://howtomakedosa.com/privacy/) for how ads use cookies.

## Keep going

- [Batter calculator](https://howtomakedosa.com/dosa-batter-calculator/): How many dosas, and how warm is your kitchen? Get every weight in grams and every wait in hours.
- [Batter not fermenting](https://howtomakedosa.com/dosa-batter-not-fermenting/): The seven causes, most likely first, with a test for each and a way to save the batch.