Amount of salt in bread
I've been baking bread on and off during the last two years. Now, finally, I found a nice recipe. It calls for 2% of salt (20gr per kg of flour). It gives a tasty bread.
On the other hand, the health service recommends using less salt in bread, but I don't know the recommendation, nor the tastefulness of the recommended bread... (that's a lot of recommends in one sentence).
So, what is the recommendation and does it produce a decent bread?
Best Answer
With all due respect to them, the health service doesn't have to eat the results of their recommendation. Bread without salt is nigh-inedible, and the salt isn't just for flavor. Reducing it also hurts the texture.
To quote On Food and Cooking (page 535): "Though some traditional breads are made without salt, most include it, and not just for a balanced taste. At 1.5%-2% of the flour weight, salt tightens the gluten network and improves the volume of the finished loaf."
This means that a less-salted loaf will be denser and less chewy, and an unsalted one even more so. Now, you can knead more to compensate for reduced gluten development, but it still won't be as good. Having baked and eaten bread without salt due to a hung-over cook forgetting to add it to the dough, I can confirm the changes in texture. It also seems to rise differently and overproof faster.
Oh, and it also tasted like cardboard. But again, the health service doesn't have to eat the results of their recommendation. I could go on an hour-long tirade about the culinary atrocities committed in an effort to reduce sodium.
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How much salt do you put in bread?
Generally, the correct amount of salt in bread dough is 1.8 to 2% of salt based on flour weight (that is, 1.8\u20132 pounds of salt per 100 pounds of flour).Is there a lot of salt in bread?
Breads and rolls. As noted above, this category tops the list not because bread is especially salty (a slice contains about 100 to 200 mg of sodium) but because we eat so much of it. Smart swaps: Instead of toast or a bagel for breakfast, have a bowl of oatmeal prepared with just a pinch of salt.Which bread has the lowest salt content?
The five packaged breads with the lowest salt content per 100g were:- Marks & Spencer simply more eat well healthiest white bread: 0.58g.
- Tesco stayfresh white sliced bread medium: 0.6g.
- Marks & Spencer eat well oaty bloomer made with 30% oats: 0.65g.
- Marks & Spencer toasting white: 0.73g.
- Sainsbury's medium wholemeal: 0.74g.
Why is there so much salt in bread?
When added to bread dough, salt works to tighten the gluten strands that are formed, which makes them stronger. By strengthening these gluten strands, salt enables the dough to hold carbon dioxide more efficiently.This is How Salt Affects Bread Dough | The Effects of Salt Explained
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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