For the past few years I have tried to bake most of my bread instead of buying it. I like this approach because it means that my bread is fresh, and because it is made with only the ingredients that I chose. For the most part I choose to add things like molasses and whole grains while omitting things like salt.
While my primary motivation was the pleasure I get from baking, it seems that there was another fringe benefit that I didn't even know about until yesterday.
Apparently it is now being reported that Americans tend to get more sodium from bread products than any other food. Even if each slice of bread isn't all that bad, when you eat five or six slices a day the total quantity of sodium is quite high. Though I don't eat five or six slices of bread a day anymore, I am comforted by the fact that my bread is likely lower in sodium than the stuff that I might buy from the local grocery store.
And while sodium consumption is of concern to many people for many reasons, it has been something I have been trying to avoid for quite a while because of its contribution to kidney stone formation in my kidneys. And I'm pretty sure I would like to avoid have any more kidney stones, at least for the next few years.
This also raises another issue: Why do people even add any salt to bread? As one can make very satisfying bread without any added salt I don't quite understand why people add it. It kind of reminds me of the good old days when people used to add lead to their water to enhance the flavour.
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3 comments:
I, personally, love salt in my bread! And as you probably know it serves to keep the yeast growth from getting out of hand in your bread.
But I understand what you mean; I think some forethought in bread making (ie, letting your dough mature a bit before baking) can add much more delicious (sour) flavour without needing salt. Bread was made for millennia without the addition of salt.
It just tastes so good, though!
PS - I made your pumpkin bread, and it turned out perfectly (except that I accidentally undercooked it, so it was a bit raw in the middle (sort of had the texture of pumpkin pie, honestly).
Cheers.
I guess I get that people like the taste of salt, and that's fine and I understand that, but the idea that bread has to be pretty salty for the sake of the yeast bothers me. One can make a perfectly satisfying loaf of bread that does not have any added salt. Obviously it will be different than if it had no salt, but different doesn't necessarily mean worse.
And you're right, you do non-salt things to slow the yeast. Maybe we should try more of these approaches?
Glad to hear the pumpkin bread worked out. I think I may try it again in the near future too.
Leaving salt out of bread is like leaving lead out of gasoline or leaving gold out of our money. In short, the integrity and/or quality is a mere fraction of what it used to be back when men were men and women were glad of it.
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