Comments on: Salt in bread baking: how much and why

By: Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 11:24:34 +0000

In reply to Michel.

Thank you Michel for your thoughts and sharing of expertise on the subject.
We once forgot to add the salt to a baguette recipe and it turned out pretty good to the eye. Only after tasting we discovered the omission. Only in hindsight we could probably have established the proofing was a bit quicker, but maybe contributed that to other factors too.
Not too long ago we had to get used to saltless bread on a trip to Tuscany in Italy. Bread with (some) salt is better, but with the right accompaniments and good quality of the bread and bake itself it is not as bad as you might think beforehand.

Enjoy your ‘right amount of salt’ bread baking!

By: Michel

Michel — Sun, 17 Mar 2024 03:04:28 +0000

Very informative article.
I use about 0.5% salt (baker’s %) with locally milled high extraction (83%) and/or whole grain flours. I find that my bread tastes quite good. I am used to a pretty low salt diet though.
I am finding I sometimes need to slightly reduce the water and be mindful of the fermentation since it goes faster with less salt; overproofing can happen more quickly.
In the past, I have even eaten no salt bread but haven’t tried baking a no salt bread myself.

By: Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 08:29:13 +0000

In reply to Constance Rowell Carson.

Hello Constance,
It depends on the method of the recipe, but it is never a bad idea to add salt as the last ingredient to go in when making the final dough. If something like ‘autolyse’ is included in the recipe, you always add the salt after this stage.

On the other hand, you should not feel apprehensive about adding salt with other ingredients, when you start mixing and incorporating everything the next instant anyway. Nothing bad will happen. It’s just when salt and yeast come into direct contact for longer that the yeast will not like this and eventually get inactive.

See our recipe here for the method and the ‘autolyse’ part:
www.weekendbakery.com/posts…n-naturel/

Good luck with the baking and hope you like the bread with a little less salt.

By: Constance Rowell Carson

Constance Rowell Carson — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 17:26:39 +0000

Wondering when to add salt to my sourdough. When the breadflour and water and starter go in? Just don’t want to sabotage the leavening process. I will experiment with your salt to loaf ratio with this next loaf.Any feedback would be appreciated. I used 12gr of seasalt for 500 gr breadflour and 100 gr of starter.

By: Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 10:25:58 +0000

In reply to Peter A.

Hello Peter,
We hope reducing salt in your daily bread will benefit your health. We are sure by decreasing the salt level gradually, you will have no problem getting used to the lower salt bread.

Wishing you health and happiness and many enjoyable baking hours

By: Peter A

Peter A — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 16:27:37 +0000

I have been adding 11g of salt to 450g of flour for years. Aftewr reading the above, I am going to try reducing it, starting with 7g. (I do have a kidney/potassium problem ).

By: Kehinde Oyedun

Kehinde Oyedun — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 13:25:19 +0000

Salt gives taste to a food.

By: Kaycee

Kaycee — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 10:38:22 +0000

I have been using 1% as a standard, but now I think I’ll make it 1.5%
Thanks a lot for this article, it’s really enlightening.

By: Pishgar

Pishgar — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 05:46:35 +0000

Hi
Thanks for information about salt .
It is very education.
Thanks again.
Mr.pishgar Mohammareza

By: Janet Shoemaker

Janet Shoemaker — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 01:02:51 +0000

May you find peace in baking

By: Deborah

Deborah — Sat, 01 May 2021 04:07:26 +0000

I tend to automatically add less salt than the recipe states. I know I need some salt, but it’s hard to know exactly the point at which the bread would fail without it. I’ll go for 1% and see what happens.

By: Orange

Orange — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 19:25:19 +0000

In reply to Madelene. Maybe try adding more Sugar or Fat to provide a richer, robust, and more complex flavor profile. Or, add molasses or cinnamon for a more hearty flavor.

By: Madelene

Madelene — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 01:04:25 +0000

Hi. My homemade bread is good but it taste so plain for example if a person don’t add salt to fresh meat it’s got no taste. My bread don’t have any taste. I’m not sure if I should add more salt and some sugar. I’ve always had good bread over the yrs. Not so much now. What am I doing wrong?

By: Alistair

Alistair — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 08:01:17 +0000

Hi,

Just made my first loaf of bread with a bread maker. for a 500g loaf it said to use 8 grams of salt, which I did, but the end result was so salty! I think I will experiment with reducing salt amounts.

By: Bobbi Krouse

Bobbi Krouse — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 01:47:04 +0000

How do you provide for people on low sodium diets?

By: Mukhtar Modhesh

Mukhtar Modhesh — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 14:13:13 +0000

Thanks for your information

By: Charlie Carden

Charlie Carden — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 10:04:32 +0000

I am new to bread making (Lockdown Blues) so salt input has been a conundrum to me. Kills yeast but helps bread rise? This article is EXACTLY what I (K)need.

By: Weekend Bakers

Weekend Bakers — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 07:46:44 +0000

In reply to Bonnie. Please note that the % of sodium chloride in pink salt is still very high compared to the small % of minerals, so with any salt it is a good idea to look at the amount you add.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 21:38:00 +0000

Thank you for this article. It was very nice to see such detail.
In reading the comments I noticed much concern over salt intake. My understanding is that if using good quality pink Himalayan salt or Real salt, one does not have to worry because these salts are not the same as normal table salt and actually provide very important minerals for our bodies without raising blood pressure, etc.
It may be worth the bit of time it would take to research if it would alleviate fears and concerns and promote even more enjoyable baking!

By: Dominic Field

Dominic Field — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 10:56:54 +0000

Many of the comments refer to teaspoons and fractions of teaspoons. If you are baking bread often a cheap electronic scales accurate to 0.1gm. is a good investment.