Dynamic measurements and retardation tests were combined to characterise the linear viscoelastic behaviour of wheat flour dough in the 10-5-102 rad/s frequency range. Analysis of the data provided the Newtonian steady-state viscosity, the steady-state compliance, the terminal relaxation time, the viscoelastic plateau compliance and a measure of the upper frequency limit of the viscoelastic plateau. The influence of dough water content and composition of high molecular weight glutenin subunits on dough viscoelasticity was studied. Both factors affected dough viscoelasticity in a similar and remarkable way. In particular, the same inverse relationship between steady-state viscosity and compliance, and the same power law relationship between steady-state and plateau compliances, was found to hold whether the variability was due to high molecular weight glutenin subunits or to dough water content.