Sourdough (rec.food.sourdough) Discussing the hobby or craft of baking with sourdough. We are not just a recipe group, Our charter is to discuss the care, feeding, and breeding of yeasts and lactobacilli that make up sourdough cultures.

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Gonorio Dineri
 
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Default Salt

SALT (from http://kingarthurflour.com)

Salt is a major component in bread, and performs several important
functions. We will discuss these functions in detail, as well as some
other attributes, with the goal of providing the baker with a thorough
understanding of the characteristics and correct use of salt in bread
baking.

Salt provides flavor. Bread baked without salt will have a flat and
insipid taste. On the other hand, bread made with an excess of salt will
be unpalatable.

Generally, the correct amount of salt in bread dough is 1.8 to 2% of salt
based on flour weight (that is, 1.8 to 2# of salt per 100# of flour). The
lack of ability to coax fermentation flavor from bread sometimes causes
the baker to use an excess of salt. But it should be kept in mind that,
while salt provides flavor, it is not a substitute for the fine flavor of
well-fermented flour, and the role of salt is to enhance, and not take
the place, of true bread flavor.

Salt tightens the gluten structure. The tightening gives strength to the
gluten, enabling the dough to efficiently hold carbon dioxide, which is
released into the dough as a byproduct of the yeast fermentation. When
salt is left out, the resulting dough is slack and sticky in texture,
work-up is difficult, and bread volume is poor.

Salt has a retarding effect on the activity of the yeast. The cell wall
of yeast is semi-permeable, and by osmosis it absorbs oxygen and
nutrients, as it gives off enzymes and other substances to the dough
environment. Water is essential for these yeast activities. Salt by its
nature is hygroscopic, that is, it attracts moisture. In the presence of
salt, the yeast releases some of its water to the salt by osmosis, and
this in turn slows the yeast's fermentation or reproductive activities.
If there is an excess of salt in bread dough, the yeast is retarded to
the point that there is a marked reduction in volume. If there is no
salt, the yeast will ferment too quickly. In this sense, the salt aids
the baker in controlling the pace of fermentation. Nevertheless, we
should note that a careful usage of yeast, control of dough temperature,
and the type, maturity, and amount of preferment used are better tools
for fermentation control. Salt quantity, as we have noted, should stay
within the 1.8 to 2% range.

Salt indirectly contributes to crust coloring. This attribute is a result
of the salt's characteristic of retarding fermentation. Starch in the
flour is converted into simple sugars by the amylase enzymes, and these
sugars are consumed by the yeast as it generates fermentation. Since the
salt is slowing the rate of the sugar consumption, more of what is known
as residual sugar is available at the time of the bake for crust
coloration. In the absence of salt, the yeast quickly consumes the
available sugars, and the crust on the baked bread is pale and dull. Salt
helps preserve the color and flavor of flour. The carotenoid pigments,
naturally present in wheat flour, are responsible for giving flour its
creamy color and wheaty aroma.

It is extremely important for the baker to understand that an unbleached
flour, such as all of King Arthur's flours, contains a complete profile
of carotenoids, and that bleaching flour destroys these fragile
components. For this reason alone, choosing a high quality unbleached and
unbromated flour is preferred for all breadmaking. Other than bleaching
flour and thereby destroying the carotenoids, overoxidizing of the dough
during mixing, which occurs when a dough is mixed too intensively for too
long, also destroys them.

Salt has a positive effect on the preservation of carotenoids, because
dough oxidation is delayed in the presence of salt. For this reason it is
preferable to add salt at the beginning of the mix. In this way, salt
benefits the eventual flavor of the bread by helping to preserve the
carotenoids during the mixing of the dough. When salt is added during the
later stages of dough mixing, it can be detrimental to the carotenoids,
which may become overoxidized.

One other use of salt is useful to note. It is common to include a
portion of salt in a levain culture during warmer and more humid months.
This addition of salt, at a rate of .2 to .3%, retards the action of the
natural yeast, and thus prevents over-maturing of the culture. In the
preparation of German-style rye bread, there is a similar technique that
is occasionally employed, called the Salt-Sour Method, in which all the
dough salt is used in the sourdough phase. The result is to slow the
activity of the sourdough yeast cells, reduce the production of acidity,
and have a strengthening effect on the gluten structure.
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