Howdo I handle salt and yeast when tripleing a recipe

5 pounds of flour is 2268 grams so if you're using a 1 percent ratio of instant yeast to flour you'll need about 23 grams of yeast.  If you're using instant yeast where a packet of yeast holds 7 grams (about 2 1/4 tsp) then your 12 tsp. is more yeast than you'd probably want to use.  However, if you're using active dry yeast, you'd probably want to use about 1.5 times the amount of instant yeast or about 37 grams.  So 12 teaspoons isn't beyond what might appear to be reasonable.  Your salt, on the other hand, is more difficult to calculalte.  Depending on the salt, a teaspoon can vary in weight over as significant range.  If you're looking at 2268 grams of flour with a 2% salt  influence you'll need about 45 grams of table salt.  7 1/2 tsp of table salt will, usually, come out to about 43 grams, depending upon who's measuring spoon set you're using.  Nevertheless, looks to me like your formula is fairly accurate with respect to intended ratios.

Caveat  -  You may already be aware of this fact, but in case you're not, accuracy in measuring spoons can vary quite a lot.  Unless you have the exact same set of measuring tools that the creater of your recipe/formula used, you're unlikely to be right on target no matter how hard you try (another endorsement for weighing ingredients) and when you begin to increase or reduce a formula like that you're entering a jungle that is not always friendly.

Hi,

I'm sure flournwater's calculations are spot-on.

The caveat says only one thing to me: time to invest in a set of digital scales and weigh all your ingredients.   Learn to work in one unit of measurement for simplicity; whichever suits best.   I calculate the formula in bakers % and then work out the recipe in grams.   It's easy to use metric, as everything is divisible by 10, 100, etc.   But you can work lbs and ozs if that's your bag; just be consistent with one unit of measurement.   Everybody says this: once you start weighing, you never go back to volume...and tsp count as volume in my book.

Best wishes

Andy

It could be that the scale is inaccurate and needs calibration.  That was the case with a MyWeigh i5000 I recently purchased.  It was off by 10 grams.

Lizzy, if you can round up 10 old pennies, stack them on your scale.  They should weigh an ounce.

1) When weighing salt, be aware that course Kosher salt weights about half as much as table salt as the latter has smaller crystals, and thus is denser for any given volume measurement like TBS.  Most bakers prefer the courser Kosher sea salt.  Thus, a scale is mandatory.

2) I find you need two scales- one for very light measures and one for higher needs.  There was a recent article posted on Wild Yeast's blog: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/?s=scales .  My first scale was a small digital that was rated up to four pounds and is great when measureing 9 grams of salt or 6 grams of yeast, or one loaf of bread.  However when I started making 5 loaves at a time with 10 pounds of dough, I had to get another scale that went up to 12 lbs.  Measuring 6-12 grams of yeast/salt on the larger scale is not as accurate as the smaller scale.  One cost $30 and the other $40.  Well worth having two in my book.

PS, there are also digital scales on the web (DigiScale) that weigh up to 100 grams for $20; they come with calibration weights and other models from small to large.   I sometimes have to measure items that weigh 15 grains (7000 grains to a pound) vs grams (454 grams per pound).  These have been spot on having tested the same 15 grains on a quad beam balance scale with identical results - worthwhile investment if it fits your needs.

Flournwater, pls read my post again and you will see we are saying the same thing.  For a given volume measurement (say tbs) table salt will weigh twice as much as flaked kosher salt -due to greater density of table salt driven by the smaller salt crystal size and thus more fit into a given space or volume.  And the broader point being that a smaller scale is more accurate than a larger scale when dealing in these finer measures that are 1-2% of the flour weight of the recipe.  Thus the recommendation not only to weigh, but to have a smaller scale for these rather nominal amounts and a larger one for the heavier dough weights.  Thanks for checking in, I enjoyed your "Looks good to Me" post above and the broader endorsement for weighing ingredients...

Thanks...