Does Mixing Salt & Yeast Have a Negative Effect on Fermentation?

Does salt actually harm yeast? Will mixing them make your bread not rise or rise too slowly? The answer to both of those questions is – no. If you have watched any of my videos you would have noticed that I always mix my dough in pretty much the same order – liquid, yeast, salt, other ingredients like sugar, etc., then mix to dissolve fully, and only add the flour last before mixing to a dough.

I never questioned this method as this is the way I was taught in the first and only baking class I ever attended. It worked there, so why would I change it, right? And that must be the issue with this misconception – a beginner is shown or told something, and they believe it because someone who knows better than them said it.

Fortunately, I had a good teacher who set me on the right track from the get-go. And because I never encountered any issues, I simply thought that this was common practice. Also, mixing dough this way makes the most sense to me as all ingredients are fully dissolved before kneading.

You can find a video on my channel in which I show and explain exactly how salt affects bread dough and fermentation, so I will not go over it again here. But in short – salt slows down fermentation and helps with controlling it. It draws moisture though the cell walls of yeast essentially dehydrating it through osmosis. This is a necessary evil since a controlled fermentation is what we need when making bread.

Saying that, the simple act of mixing salt and yeast in water does not cause such extreme osmosis that the yeast gets dehydrated and dies instantly. Ok, if you’d mix an unreasonably large amount of salt with yeast and leave them to sit together for an unreasonably long time, then perhaps. But we are making bread and we do not use more than 2.5% salt in any recipe, so we should not encounter any issues.

📖 Read more ➡️ https://www.chainbaker.com/salt-vs-yeast/
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Видео Does Mixing Salt & Yeast Have a Negative Effect on Fermentation? канала ChainBaker