July 14, 2024 - 3:36pm
Can you taste iodine in your bread?
Ken Forkish in his new book Let's Make Bread! says
Use fine sea salt because it will dissolve quickly in the dough. Don't use iodized salt unless you want your bread to taste like iodine!
I find this hard to believe. Iodized salt in the US has 45 micrograms of iodine per gram of salt. In a loaf with 2% salt the amount of iodine is 0.00009% in baker's percent.
I think my 70 year old taster is insensitive to those levels but maybe some of you can taste iodine in bread?
Share
I can't - but some can. If it offends - remove it. Enjoy!
Impact of iodized table salt on the sensory characteristics of bread, sausage and pickle
Not about the taste per se, but I used to bake bread using canning salt because I had read often enough that the iodine would interfere with the yeast. Then I tried actually using iodized salt. I have never been able to tell a difference between baking bread with canning salt and with iodized table salt. So that's what I use now.
TomP
A bit worrying when those we trust to bring us good bread recipes and good baking knowledge fall short - it doesn't inspire confidence in them.
What is written in a book is not like a random remark - there is plenty of time to research it properly.
Lance
It is especially annoying for an "expert" to share incorrect information with beginners. Baking, like most human endeavors is rife with myths and misunderstandings.
I bought a container of non-iodized salt. I couldn't taste a difference in bread made with iodized salt.
I think Mr. Forkish should try blind taste test to see if he can taste the iodine. I suspect he has not done the experiment.
I substitute some potassium chloride for the table salt in bread recipes to reduce the sodium content and I can't detect the KCl. But I can detect the bitter-metallic taste of KCl when consumed straight.
I'm definitely not the most skilled baker, but I have never been able to discern any difference (in taste or function) between iodized vs plain salt either.
People with normal taste sensitivity probably won't notice it at such a low content. Even if you have tasters with more refined palates, the amount of iodine in the finished bread is so tiny that most likely none of them will detect its presence.