I have, without thinking about it much, started cutting salt in the breads I bake by around 1/3. So, instead of approx. 2% salt, I'm dropping the sodium load to 1.4 or 1.5. It's just a taste thing: I find most bread recipes a little too salty.
Now I'm wondering if this might affect the strength of the gluten in the loaves I bake and, perhaps also, the amount of water the flour can absorb.
Any thoughts: should I be modifying formulas to compensate for reduced salt?
Thanks,
Rob
I have done a little digging on salt's effect in bread dough. Here is one good summary:
https://www.cargill.com/salt-in-perspective/salt-in-bread-dough
A study published (link) by university food scientists in Ireland showed that salt could be reduced to as low as 0.3% without significantly affecting dough performance or bread qualities (volume, bake-loss or moisture-loss) when compared to the control bread at 1.2% salt. Naturally, taste was affected at the lower levels. Other effects that salt has are mold inhibition, crust color (lighter with less salt), and a possible slight increase in staling rate.
As it is chloride that affects gluten strength, it is also possible to replace some of the salt with potassium chloride or even calcium chloride. But these substitutes may still give a salty taste.
fascinating stuff! thanks so much! I guess I'm ok to keep on baking thoughtlessly.
R
The weekend Bakery (out of the Netherlands if you're not familiar) has a fine post on this topic which includes a study out of England.
https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/salt-in-bread-baking-how-much-and-why/
Tom
many thanks, Tom.
My friends all seem to like the bread I bake -- so, yeah, I'd say that the salt reduction probably doesn't detract from the flavor.