151. How much salt do you put in bread?

Over New Year I chatted with a friend about his present for Xmas, a set of electron scales. Not for his drugs but to measure the salt for his bread, which he makes by hand.

His theory was that salt is crucial for bread to rise.

I have always known that I have skimped on the salt but when I checked my recipe (for a bread-maker) I found that for a 500 gram loaf it suggested 1.5 teaspoons. I was using a large pinch, perhaps a 1/15th of a teaspoon so it was perhaps not surprising - following my friend's theory - that my bread was quite dense.

This week I made a loaf with half a teaspoon of salt and this was the result - a bigger loaf!

I have done a little internet trawling for some science but not uncovered much. The key pointers seem to be (1) not to mix yeast with salt, (2) salt improves taste, and (3) in general the shorter the rising time the more yeast and less salt are needed.

No great break-through, but what I would suggest is that if you try varying the salt content then you could get different results.

Go on - use your loaf!

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