January 31, 2022 - 4:49am
Salt Vs. Yeast
Salt Vs. Yeast. I find Forkish bread "White Bread With Poolish" not salty enough for me. Is it possible to increase the salt without cutting back seriously on the effect of yeast to raise the dough:? If so, at what stage of the mixing, folding, etc.? Ratio: how much to increase yeast if I increase the salt? Thanks much! Jim
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1.8 - 2% salt of total flour falls within the normal range and should be plenty salty enough.
At the point where yeast begins to suffer you wouldn't wish to eat it either.
Abe, Thanks for y our reply to my question about salt vs. yeast. If I wanted to increase the salt in a recipe, could I also increase the yeast and not find it compromised by the salt. RSVP. Jim
My pleasure but just so I see what you have in mind I think it would be better for you to give me the recipe and an idea of how much salt you'd like to add.
But as i've said before... can't imagine you wishing to add so much salt that it would affect the yeast.
Summary of salt's effects on dough:
https://www.cargill.com/salt-in-perspective/salt-in-bread-dough
As Abe as stated, the effect of salt on yeast is barely noticeable at the normal range, but if you see a decline in activity, you could switch to an osmotolerant yeast like SAF Gold.
Hi Jim,
I never had to add more yeast just because I would add more salt.
Normally, I increase BOTH salt and yeast in one case, when I add more water to bread dough. More water in the dough dilutes the taste of salt, which is normally added as a % of flour, and the bread tastes watery, not salty enough.
But then more water means more weight, heavier dough. So I have to add more yeast to lift that weight.
It is not noticeable if you make bread dough freestyle, but it is very noticeable when the dough and bread are prepared in bread machine, where everything is timed to the minute. The bread simply won't rise on time to be ready for baking. It is not that the salt inhibits yeast, it's the sheer weight of the dough that matters, the gas from insufficient yeast cannot lift it on time.
So, for you, you don't really have to add more yeast. You probably won't notice the difference in dough behavior. I once doubled salt in bread from 15g to 30g per 1 kg flour, by mistake, and I didn't even notice any changes in my dough behavior! I only noticed how salty the bread was when it was already baked!
In my case, I specifically increase water by 30% (as compared to the amount of water in the bread machine recipes) and BOTH yeast and salt by 10%. In other words, I multiply the weight of water by 1.3 and of yeast and salt by 1.1.
I add both salt and yeast to flour. So both are blended with flour and mixed with water right away.
However, you question about incorporating additional salt is actually very smart. You can opt to add the excess of salt, the additional salt, right before shaping the dough, after the bread dough is already mature. It will probably proof a tiny bit slower, but all other dough-making steps would be on schedule.