Salt in dry ingredients versus salt in water?
Food:
Baking focaccia.
Ingredient and step in question:
3 grams of salt called for pre-mix.
'Problem':
Normally I put the salt in the dry ingredients. Yesterday I put the salt with the wet mixture (1/2 tsp yeast, 2.5 cups water, 2 tbs honey). Noticed a less-than-normal rise at about the 8 hour mark, with no improvement at 10 or 12 hour mark.
Question:
Is this expected behavior for putting the salt in the wet mixture? Does salt in the wet mixture impede growth more than salt in the dry mixture?
Best Answer
Yes it does - here's the reason why:
Yeast need some salt to grow properly, but they only need a very small amount (see 3rd para of intro). When you added the salt to the wet mix (sponge), you made it into a high enough concentration to inhibit the growth of the yeast, so it didn't reach the log-phase growth that you would expect when generating a sponge mix. This delays how the yeast behave later in the process by altering the slope of the growth curve and allowing it to reach the stationary phase (where an essential nutrient is depleted) without ever growing at a fast enough rate to make the dough as you expect.
The reason there was no further improvement with longer incubation, is also due to the depletion of that same essential nutrient. Basically this is rate limiting, so the gas generated from growth is equal to the rate at which the gas is escaping from your dough.
When you mix the salt into the dry ingredients this volume change relative to the wet mix, dilutes out the salt to a concentration where the yeast can grow effectively, but they are still limited by what has happened during the sponge growth. Where the log-phase is delayed, it will take much longer to start growing rapidly, and there isn't enough free water in your dough to allow the yeasts to easily reach log-phase in the full dough, so this limits what happens with the final product.
Pictures about "Salt in dry ingredients versus salt in water?"
Why is salt added to dry ingredients?
1) Salt controls yeast fermentation Adding salt prevents the yeast from reproducing too quickly, thus allowing you to control the rate at which the dough ferments.Is salt considered a wet or dry ingredient?
Salt can just as easily be added in the wet phase. It's often considered dry because it often acts chemically in the mixture - it's why you hold back the baking powder/soda/leavener with the dry ingredients. Why is Sugar a wet ingredient?What happens if you leave salt out of a bread recipe?
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.How do you keep salt from killing yeast?
Because in direct contact, salt can kill the yeast. And then, right from the start, there will be no chance that your dough will rise. So, to avoid this error, get into the habit of always weighing out your yeast separately to your salt and adding them separately to the bowl.Does Salt Water Boil Faster? | Experiment
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Images: Luis Ruiz, Karolina Grabowska, Monstera, Monstera