Is cheap salt ok for baking or cooking?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Only ever use sea salt for cooking. I'm used to the proportions, both DD and I like the taste and, at that price, I'm not tempted to use too much, so is slightly more healthy!


Cheap salt - I'd use it for salt scrubs, slug extermination on cabbages and making playdo if DD were still 3 years old.

London_Town

Thank you to everyone who took the time to post their advice and experience on using salt in baking. I knew I could rely on the Old Style board.

Any - your comment on making a brick loaf that will never decompose made me laugh out loud. I've had similar disasters and it is amazing how heavy and dense a bad loaf can be.

London_Town

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

For cooking and the bread-maker I just buy the cheapest salt I can find. Good (and rather expensive) sea-salt in this house is purely for use at the table

A note about your low-sodium salt: it should not have suppressed the rise, quite the opposite if anything. Perhaps the lack of rise was due to the yeast coming into contact with the salt when you put the ingredients in? All this bread-maker lark can be a bit hit-and-miss sometimes: the wholemeal loaf I made from a recipe-book this afternoon was a complete disaster. I'm now trying again with the recipe provided in the manufacturer's manual

Thanks BitterAndTwisted, this is interesting. I put the ingredients in exactly as indicated in the recipe book, so yeast at the bottom and the salt last followed by the sugar. The loaves were very nice to eat but the top was like a crispy bubble if that makes sense. It did annoy me as a few posters have said they'd made successful loaves with low salt. It's frustrating that bread making seems so much like a chemistry lesson, even with a good machine like the Panasonic.

freyasmum

London_Town wrote: »

Thanks BitterAndTwisted, this is interesting. I put the ingredients in exactly as indicated in the recipe book, so yeast at the bottom and the salt last followed by the sugar. The loaves were very nice to eat but the top was like a crispy bubble if that makes sense. It did annoy me as a few posters have said they'd made successful loaves with low salt. It's frustrating that bread making seems so much like a chemistry lesson, even with a good machine like the Panasonic.

Lol, but that's exactly what it is; chemistry Bread is a natural product, like any other type of baking and they do say that baking is a science. So, whereas with general cooking you can just throw different things in and experiment, you can't do that with baking.

I know it bores the pants off other people, but it completely fascinates me - I like to know why things happen. What would happen if I changed things around slightly? *geek*

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

I use fine Sea Salt for cooking and Breadmaking, I find it has a better flavour and adds to the flavour of the bread.
I am a bit of a Sea Salt Fanatic and got converted to the flavour as well as healthy extra minerals years ago.
But each to it's own.

Swan_2

freyasmum wrote: »

That's the one I was getting at! Looked like a sculpture afterwards :rotfl:

They are fun and I tend to think you learn more from the mistakes you make rather than always doing everything perfectly!

yes, I've learned to double check which oven I've turned on & not to store plastic things in any of them

ha ha it ended up on the wall in a pub, beside their own 'sculpture' complete with embedded banknotes, which they'd accidently created by storing the till drawer with its float in one of their ovens for safety overnight, which was fine until a cleaner turned the oven one morning:rotfl:

for those who haven't seen it, here's my creation with my precious Silverwood swiss roll pan in the middle of it

CLARABEL wrote: »

maldon salted toffee?? recipe pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease! I am drooling!!

Thank you
Clara.

x:j

lovely stuff I'll dig out the book with the recipe in, might take me till tomorrow to find it though (I'll PM it to you or I'll get my knuckles rapped for copyright infringement)

freyasmum wrote: »

Lol, but that's exactly what it is; chemistry Bread is a natural product, like any other type of baking and they do say that baking is a science. So, whereas with general cooking you can just throw different things in and experiment, you can't do that with baking.

I know it bores the pants off other people, but it completely fascinates me - I like to know why things happen. What would happen if I changed things around slightly? *geek*

no, not boring at all, it fascinates me too

I've recently started using digital scales, after years of extolling the virtues of my Weylux Queen balance scales, & am a total convert, it's made a marked difference to my baking & the Panny loaves are more consistent, which makes sense because it demands precision.

have you read any Harold McGee? if not you definitely should
also, you might be interested in this series of Science & cooking lectures by Harvard University, it's available HERE on itunes, or if you go to the Harvard site you can view it on other formats. once you get past the introductions & get on to the science they're really interesting *geek too*

it's not all esoteric stuff, a lot of it's applicable to everyday cooking, like the part where Harold McGee talks about where the mistaken idea that searing meat seals in the juices came from ... oh & they talk a bit about salt too (keeping OT )

Ben84

London_Town wrote: »

Thanks BitterAndTwisted, this is interesting. I put the ingredients in exactly as indicated in the recipe book, so yeast at the bottom and the salt last followed by the sugar. The loaves were very nice to eat but the top was like a crispy bubble if that makes sense. It did annoy me as a few posters have said they'd made successful loaves with low salt. It's frustrating that bread making seems so much like a chemistry lesson, even with a good machine like the Panasonic.

I've been making all my bread and dough type recipes with lo-salt for years and the results are good, so it certainly can work. One point though is I don't like the taste of salt so use relatively little when I'm cooking, a 670g of bread flour loaf I put about 1/3rd a teaspoon in. Maybe it works better in smaller amounts than you have tried so far?

Any

London_Town wrote: »

Any - your comment on making a brick loaf that will never decompose made me laugh out loud. I've had similar disasters and it is amazing how heavy and dense a bad loaf can be.

I am glad I made you smile:D

London_Town wrote: »

Thanks BitterAndTwisted, this is interesting. I put the ingredients in exactly as indicated in the recipe book, so yeast at the bottom and the salt last followed by the sugar. The loaves were very nice to eat but the top was like a crispy bubble if that makes sense. It did annoy me as a few posters have said they'd made successful loaves with low salt. It's frustrating that bread making seems so much like a chemistry lesson, even with a good machine like the Panasonic.

My bread maker factory manual says to put salt on the opposite side then you put the yeast... first goes water and milk, then butter/oil, then flour which effectively floats on the water and on one side of flower hill I put salt, yeast on the other. I also now use different measures to make sure there are no residues that could kill my yeast. Then when it mixes those 2 stay apart for while, until the mixture is properly mixed and it's time for rising..

My granny when she hand made bread didn't put salt in until late , before last kneadling (sp?) before she left it to rise...

freyasmum

Swan wrote: »

yes, I've learned to double check which oven I've turned on & not to store plastic things in any of them

ha ha it ended up on the wall in a pub, beside their own 'sculpture' complete with embedded banknotes, which they'd accidently created by storing the till drawer with its float in one of their ovens for safety overnight, which was fine until a cleaner turned the oven one morning:rotfl:

Your poor tray

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I would SO not have been impressed if I were the pub owner, but it's hilarious otherwise :A

Swan wrote:

no, not boring at all, it fascinates me too

I've recently started using digital scales, after years of extolling the virtues of my Weylux Queen balance scales, & am a total convert, it's made a marked difference to my baking & the Panny loaves are more consistent, which makes sense because it demands precision.

I'm so glad you've said that, Swan. I dare to mention anything vaguely scientific or (in my mind) useful, my family glaze over and do that annoying thing from I think it was chewing the fat? Where they put their hands below their chin and go 'ooooooooh', get you.

I love my digital scale. Balance scales look ever so pretty but I was always concerned about the precision too so I bought the digital one. It's acurate to a gram which is important, IMO - lots of them are only accurate to 10g!

I've even been considering purchasing the teeny ones, accurate to the nth degree for some molecular gastronomy That would make some amazingly fun ice cream and jelly :A

Between you and LiR with her butter-stance, I feel almost normal! Lol.

Swan wrote:

have you read any Harold McGee? if not you definitely should

Yes! On Food & Cooking had been my bedtime reading for the past few years

Swan wrote:

also, you might be interested in this series of Science & cooking lectures by Harvard University, it's available HERE on itunes, or if you go to the Harvard site you can view it on other formats. once you get past the introductions & get on to the science they're really interesting *geek too*

it's not all esoteric stuff, a lot of it's applicable to everyday cooking, like the part where Harold McGee talks about where the mistaken idea that searing meat seals in the juices came from ... oh & they talk a bit about salt too (keeping OT )

Oh. My. Goodness. That's amazing :shocked: Thanks!

I'll see you in about a week

If money were no object, I'd have myself a copy of Modernist Cuisine and a nifty sous vide set up.

I'm always in the kitchen playing around with different things, it's not a hardship to me. I love it



p.s. I also love salted caramel - it's delish broken up into little pieces and stirred through caramel ice cream :drool:

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

I use Table Salt for Body Rubs!
Re: Bread When I proved my Breadmachine White bread dough I had a lighter result. I think extra proving of Breadmachine doughs are looking like an increasingly good idea.