Not tasting the salt in my bread
Hi there,
I have been attempting the Tartine 75% hydration for some time with little success. I finally made myself a proofing box and I've had 4 successful bakes! The first two were perfect - great flavor, texture, everything. The last two bakes have seemed like there is no or little salt! I have used the SAME amount of salt each time - and triple checked the last two times, especially the very last time. I am on a schedule that allows me to refrigerate the final rise and I've done this for all four bakes. The ONLY thing that was different about the first two bakes vs the last two is that I made three loaves - 1.5 times the recipe - for the last two bakes. Do I need to do more than just increase the salt by 1.5? On bake number 3, I used a different brand of sea salt, but on bake number 4 I went back to my original brand.
The only other thing is that the bulk rise may have gone a tiny bit long on these last two bakes. Not enough to effect it much, I just noticed in shaping that it was a little more billowy than in the first two baks. Could that have an effect on taste?
Thank you in advance!
Best way is by weight. IIRC, that recipe calls for 2% salt or about 20 grams per 1000g flour. Is that where you are?
Hi Clevins, yes, I used 30g of salt for 1500g of flour.
If you used 2% salt, then look elsewhere in your ingredients or method.
I agree with the other posters that if you are using the same formula as before then the taste should be the same unless something else changed...(water, flour type, flour manufacturer, yeast, etc). Of course if you are scaling the recipe to make more loaves of bread the salt and other ingredients should also be scaled (I'm assuming you did this).
As for the amount of salt in your bread, the "standard" is 2% (and what is used in the Tartine master formula), but you can always use more if you like. I find that I like somewhere between 2-2.3% in most of my breads. I did 3% once and while the bread was still good, I thought it was a bit too salty for my taste.
What you're eating/have just eaten will affect how things taste, too. So even if everything is the same, it could just be your palate.
Other possibilities: changed a brand of salt? Or not mixed in totally so it gets concentrated a spot?