Is salt important to the texture of dough?
Does salt have any effect on the texture of doughs?
My mother in law has gone on an ultra low salt kick and has taken to not putting salt in anything. This includes her pierogi dough (you know the potato & often cheese filled dumplings common to eastern European peasant cooking).
I've noticed that her pierogi dough seems tougher (like she's re-rolled the dough, which over works the dough and as I under stand makes more gluten) without the salt that used to be with it. It's a rather simple dough: flour, water, vegetable oil and salt. I imagine I'd get the same effect with a pie crust as well.
Is the salt inhibiting the gluten formation or doing something else or am just imagining this effect?
Best Answer
Salt toughens gluten and makes the dough less sticky. So with that said, it would make it much easier to work in too much flour and make the pierogi dough more dense. Do a search on the following page for "biscuit" and read the few paragraphs before.
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Does salt affect texture of bread?
Salt acts as a yeast inhibitor, which means that it slows down the growth and reproduction of yeast in your bread dough. Without salt present to rein in its activity, the yeast will go wild eating all of the sugar available in the dough from enzymatic activity, like an overactive Pac-Man machine.How does salt affect dough?
Salt Makes Bread Doughs Strong, But It Can Make Pastries Tough.Does salt Make dough tough?
Without salt, your dough will rise faster than it normally would, leading to less flavor development and a weaker structure. To incorporate the salt, mix it with a few teaspoons of water.This is How Salt Affects Bread Dough | The Effects of Salt Explained
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Answer 2
In the bread book I have, by Swedish baker Jan Hedh, most of the recipes call for mixing the dough for several minutes at low speed before adding the salt, and then for a few minutes more at higher speed with the salt. So unless Chef Hedh is also imagining things there appears to be something going on, although I am not sure exactly what. When I get home later tonight I will check the book and see if he mentions anything about why this is necessary. I found one of his recipes online (in Swedish unfortunately) where the times are as follows:
- Knead/mix at low speed for 13 minutes without salt.
- Add salt.
- Mix for 7 minutes at maximum speed.
Here is the recipe for anyone interested:
http://svenska.yle.fi/matochfritid/matartikel.php?id=2414
Answer 3
it might have to do with a chemical reaction between the salt and other chemical compounds, just a guess, but kitchen chemistry has taught that reactions can be very important. sort of like backing soda and vinegar making bubbles. so salt interacts with the flour making it less sticky, so you don't add as much flour. then it less tough
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