Sodium in Bread

Table of Contents

• Sodium
  • Health
  • Sodium Sources – Bread Ingredients
    • Minor
    • Salt
    • Baking Soda & Baking Powder
  • Calculating sodium in bread
• Bread
  • Flour & water
  • Yeast
  • Salt
    • Zero Salt
    • Food Writing
  • Science
    • Dough
    • Fermentation
    • Gluten
    • Crust Colour
• Reducing Salt
  • Baking
    • General
    • AHA & other
    • Tuscan Bread
  • Vinegar
  • Adjustments
    • Salt
    • Yeast
• Bread Machines
  • Machines
  • Salt & Yeast
    • Salt
    • Yeast
    • Vinegar
• Zojirushi Bread Machines
  • General
  • Yeast
    • Initial General Rule
    • Zero Salt and/or Vinegar
    • Lean Breads – 50% Salt
    • 50% Salt – Regular Basic and Regular Wheat
    • Other Adjustments
• Baking Ingredients

Sodium

Health

Bread has some sodium without salt, but the main source of sodium is salt. Humans can taste salt but cannot know how, by taste, much salt is in their food, or how much sodium they are consuming. The reasons that

• Too much salt makes food taste bad but
• A small amount improves flavour.

have not been explained by anatomical research on the human sensory organs. (“salt … enhances the taste of other foods … making them more palatable and relatively sweeter”, Salt enhances flavour by suppressing bitterness, Nature, Vol. 387, Issue 6633, pp. 563 (1997)).

Salt contains 39.3% sodium by mass. 1 tsp. of table salt weighs 5.7 grams, and contains 2,240 mg. of sodium.

1,200 to 1,500 milligrams per day intake for sodium is adequate. The minimum physiological requirement for sodium is between 115 and 500 milligrams per day depending on sweating due to physical activity, and whether the person is adapted to the climate” according to the papers cited in the Wikipedia article Sodium in Biology.

On average, people in the USA consume 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day, an amount that promotes hypertension. The American government has advised that the average adult person should not consume more that 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. The American Heart Association recommends the USDA recommendation should be 1,500 mg. per day. The World Health Organization sets the level of 1,500 mg. per day.

Bread baked with salt or a high sodium chemical leavening agent cannot be purchased in a grocery store or even a small bakery. Commercial bakers may have departed from the industrial standard of adding salt to dough in the amount of 1.8 to 2 % of the flour, by weight, but will not explain the process to wholesale buyers or retail consumers. The amount of sodium in a “serving” may be on a Nutrition Facts label if the bread is packaged for retail sale.

The BC chain Thrifty’s (a branch of the Canadian national chain Sobeys) had a sodium free whole wheat loaf before 2019, but it disappeared from the stores.

Sodium Sources – Bread Ingredients

Minor

Wheat flour, yeast, vital wheat gluten and cider vinegar contain small amounts of sodium, according to samples in the USDA FoodData Central database:

• Wheat flour has 3 mg. sodium per 100 grams – 3 cups of flour in a typical medium loaf weighs over 400 g. and has 10-12 mg. sodium;
• Instant Yeast has 75 mg. sodium per 100 grams – 3 grams of instant yeast has 2 mg. sodium;
• Vital Wheat gluten has 8 mg. in 1 Tbsp. (8 grams);
• Cider Vinegar has .77 mg. sodium per tablespoon.

Milk, buttermilk, cheese, eggs and other ingredients used in baking bread have sodium. The yeast used to leaven bread (or the coatings used to preserve yeast) has sodium.

Food consumed with bread contributes sodium – e.g. butter, margerine, mayonnaise, mustard, prepared meat, pickles, mustard, spreads, jams etc. Nutrition Facts labels, required to be accurate to nearest gram, will claim 0 sodium. USDA FoodData Central tables may show as little as 1 mg. in 100 gram units.

Salt

Salt is an element of most yeasted bread, including bread baked in bread machines. Salt is often used in recipes made with a chemical leavening agent composed of sodium. Doughs made with a chemical leavening agent are mixed but not kneaded; salt is not added to make such dough easier to kneaded.

Salt is the major source of sodium in bread. The accepted standard for yeasted bread, in industrial baking and for recipe writers in the late 19th century, the 20th century, and the early 21st century has been salt in the ratio 2% of the flour by weight. The reasons for this ratio may have been explained somewhere. The ratio was established as industrial and home baking evolved, before scientific experiments on the role of sodium were performed, and scientific theories were published. The ratio was established when salt become an affordable commodity, at a time when the health effects of sodium were not known.

Bread recipes for home bakers can be assumed to be refer to table salt with standard crystal size and to refer to manufactured marked measuring spoons, levelled off.

Salt in a bread recipe for home bakers is frequently (almost always):

• 1½ tsp. – i.e. 8.6 g. in a 3 cup recipe for a 1½ lb. medium loaf. Few medium loaf recipes exceed 8.6 grams of salt per loaf;
• 2 tsp. in a 4 cup recipe for a 2 lb. large loaf.

This ratio became established when industrially produced bread became the standard by which people recognized palatable bread.

For volume measurement for small batches, ½ tsp. (2.85 grams) of table salt for 1 cup of wheat flour – whether bread flour, all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour is standard. Converting to weight, this matches the commercial practice. (Weight is not usually used in setting the amount in a bread recipe for home use).

The sodium in a loaf, or a slice, can estimated, assuming 1 loaf yields 18 slices. The daily sodium intake by eating 8 slices (4 sandwiches) a day, made with bread made with salt in the ratio of salt in amount stated in a medium loaf, without taking other sodium sources into account:

Salt tsp.	Salt grams	Sodium per medium loaf milligrams (mg.)	Sodium per slice, mg.	Sodium mg. 8 slices daily
½	2.9	1,120	62.2	498
¾	4.3	1,680	93.3	746
1	5.7	2,240	124.4	996
1¼	7.1	2,800	155.6	1,245
1½	8.6	3,360	186.7	1,493
1¾	10	3,920	217.8	1,742
2	11.4	4,480	248.8	1,992

Baking Soda & Baking Powder

Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate, is used in baking as a chemical leaving agent. Baking soda has some other uses in cooking, and several other uses. It is also used as an ingredient in manufacturing baking powder. Some nonyeasted baking recipes use both baking powder and baking soda. 1 tsp. of baking soda has 1,246 mg. of sodium. A medium loaf of a typical soda bread will have at least 1 tsp. of baking soda.

Baking powder is a chemical leavening agent used in baking. It has less sodium than baking soda, but is still a significant source.

There are sodium-free substitutes for the chemical leavening agents, available for sale online through outlets such as Healthy Heart Market:

• a baking soda substitute called Energ-G, manufactured by Energ-G Foods Inc., Seattle, Washington, USA. It is made with calcium carbonate. It is
• a baking powder substitute called Featherweight manufactured by Hain Pure Foods, Boulder, Colorado, USA. It is made with calcium carbonate.

Avoiding sodium means eating less bread or eating bread made with less sodium. Low sodium yeast bread involves using less salt.

Calculating sodium in bread

The sodium in a loaf of bread can be determined by measurement and calculation. Weigh salt, baking soda, baking powder, milk, milk powder, eggs and other ingedients that contain sodium – even consider flour and yeast – and apply standard factors to get sodium content. I have been adding notes on the amount of sodium in baking ingredients to my baking ingredient table, appended at the end of this post. I refer to those notes and calculate the amount of sodium in the ingredients of a loaf of bread.

A loaf baked in a pan 9 inches long high can be sliced into 18 slices, each ½ inch thick. The amount of bread in a slice will depend on the area of the slice, which is dependent on its dimensions in the plane at a right angle to the length of the loaf. A large (2 lb.) loaf baked in a large pan (oven or long horizontal bread machine pan) will be 9 inches long, but differ in its other dimensions. A medium (1.5 lb.) loaf baked a large pan will weigh less, and have less salt, than a large loaf.

It is possible to estimate the amount of sodium in a slice of bread by dividing a loaf 9 inches long into 18 slices and counting slices. A person might eat 8 slices cut from a medium loaf 9 inches long per day, but less slices cut from a large loaf 9 inches long.

I have columns in spreadsheets for my regular bread recipes, with columns for the ingredients for medium loaves, for quantities, and for calculation (e.g. B%).

I have a column of cells for:

• the Na mg. (sodium, in milligrams) in each ingredient in a medium loaf, and
• calculation cells for
  • total Na mg. per medium loaf,
  • Na mg. per slice (loaf ∕18) and
  • daily consumption (slice x8).

Bread

Flour & water

Flour, water, salt and yeast are normal ingredients in bread, regardless of how it is mixed, kneaded and baked. Once yeast or salt has been mixed with water, a baker cannot go back. When dough is worked in bakery, the baker can add water or flour during kneading to get the dough wetter or drier and affect texture. A baker has some control of time and and the conditions where the dough is held as it ferments and rises.

Yeast

Breads (except some unyeasted flatbreads and crackers) require flour, water and a leavening agent – usually bakers yeast. Yeast affects rising time, loaf shape and size, crumb structure (regular with small spaces or large irregular spaces), flavor, loaf spring, and the amount of time it takes to prepare and bake a loaf. Yeast can be controlled by measurement and choice of yeast, and by taking time. Dough rises faster with more yeast. The additional yeast costs more and affects the taste of the bread. The right amount of yeast is vital knowledge for any baker.

During the 20th century, wet yeast cakes were manufactured, but superceded by dry yeasts. First, there were active dry yeasts. Then active dry yeast became more active, and the coating changed. Late in the 20th century dry yeast was improved and evolved into instant yeast and other very similar products with new names – Rapid-Rise, Quick Rise, Bread Machine. It is all dried, coated, bakers’ yeast. Active Dry yeast measurement for recipes that call for active dry yeast have to be converted for instant yeast if a user wants to substitute an instant yeast.

Salt

Zero Salt

Leaving salt out can reduce some of the expense, time and effort of making bread. Flavour can be ignored if the bread simply provides bulk and starch. This can depend. The absence of salt it less noticed in the context of a highly flavoured meal.

Salt is not required in roti or equivalent unyeasted flatbreads in South Asia, many other flatbreads.

Salt has been observed to affect dough and bread for centuries. Bakers, millers and other industrial actors involved in bread making developed recipes and processes, and developed industrial science. In the 19th and 20th centuries industrial baking scientists and academic food scientists pursued questions that concerned them. Some of their research has been published publicly, and become known. Bakers used salt to improve their products when salt mines began to produce inexpensive salt for the markets in Europe.

Salt is an ingredient in most recipes for leavened bread. Italian Pane Toscano (Tuscan Bread). Pane Toscano is a rare exception. It is known by a nickname that translates to “tasteless bread”.

Food Writing

Food writing for bakers and for the general public has tended to focus on cooking methods, recipes and taste. This informationcan be vague about scientific detail.

Some academic science affected baking and food processing – the modern science of microbiology was started by Louis Pasteur’s 19th century work. The science explaining the chemistry and biochemistry of baking did exist until the 19th and 20th centuries, and has changed.

The cooking/baking writer Beth Hensperger wrote, explaining the role of salt in bread baking for home bakers and bread machine users at the end of the 20th century:

Salt is a flavor enhancer and plays a role in controlling the activity of yeast. … salt is optional in bread but a lack is very noticeable in the finished flavor. Too much salt, on the other hand, leaves a bitter taste and can inhibit yeast activity. Too little salt leaves a flat taste and can cause the dough to feel slightly slack in the kneading. …

Beth Hensperger, The Bread Bible, 1999

… the little bit [of salt] that most recipes call for acts as a stabiliser so that the yeast does not overferment. It helps to condition and toughen the protein strands so that they do not break easily during the rising process and the dough expands smoothly.

….

Without the right amount of salt, the dough will rise too fast. This especially true in the enviroment of the bread machine, which is warm and very hospitable to the yeast.

Beth Hensperger, The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook, 2000

Daniel DiMuzio, discussing artisanal baking, said:

Salt … strengthens the gluten bonds, … extending the amount of time necessary to develop gluten in dough. It also functions as an antioxidant, effectively reducing reducing the loss of caroten pigments and … flavor components during mixing.

Daniel T. DiMuzio, Bread Baking (2010), p. 51

Bakers, baking teachers and cookbooks warn that reducing salt changes bread, and downplay the health effects:

Salt is added to bread dough at approximately 1.8 to 2% of the weight of flour. Sticking to this percentage ensures there is enough salt present in the dough to do its very important job. Once you start to decrease that amount, the quality of your bread starts to decline as well.

Generally, we advise bakers to not leave out salt entirely when making bread. Not only will your dough be slack and difficult to work with (the worst!), but the baked loaf will turn out bland and flavorless. The good news is, the amount of salt in the average slice of bread is actually very small, so it’s generally worth it to stick to the measurement called for in a recipe. …

….

Salt has four important functions in bread, all the way from kneading to eating. Most crucially, it:

1. Controls the rate of yeast fermentation,
2. Strengthens gluten,
3. Improves crust color, and
4. Modifies flavor.

King Arthur Flour, Blog, Tips & Techniques, July 2020, Why is salt important in yeast bread?

Another source lists the attributes and effects of salt:

1. Inhibit fermentation – slow it down;
2. Control overly enzymatic activity of mashes and sprouted flour dough;
3. Superior flavor and enhanced aroma;
4. Crust color;
5. Salt is hygroscopic and draws moisture to itself;
6. Tighten and strengthen gluten;
7. Protects gluten from enzyme action;
8. Crumb and crust moisture;
9. Can slow down staling of bread;
10. Can absorb moisture in a humid environment.

Teresa L. Greenway, The Baking Network, July 2018, Salt and its effects in Bread Baking

Some bakers’ folk knowledge is contradictory. Does salt kill mold and opportunistic micro-organisms and make bread last longer? Does salt keep bread moist? Does salt promote the conditions under which mold and opportunisitic micro-organisms will infest and spoil bread?

Science

Dough

Emily Buhler addressed science and the hands-on experience of kneading dough in her practical and concise book in Bread Baking (2006, revised 2021). She explained what happens to wheat flour and water when they are mixed, with yeast (and salt) kneaded and baked.

Wheat flour, milled from ripe seed kernels, is mainly starch, containing complex sugar molecules and protein molecules. When flour is mixed with water, yeast and salt, the water molecules do not bond with the flour. Water, a polar solvent, surrounds and suspends rather than dissolving protein molecules. Bread dough is a colloid of proteins in water (this kind of colloid is a “sol”). Electrical attraction between positive charged atoms in the proteins and negatively charged oxygen atoms in water molecules holds the water molecules in a polar orientation.

Fermentation

Bakers have known for centuries that salt inhibits the rising of the dough (the fermention of the glucose by the yeast and the release of gas by the yeast). In the last couple of centuries, when industrial yeast was cultivated and processed into wet yeast cakes, the effect of salt was seen in a problem in handling wet yeast cakes; when a wet yeast cake is exposed to salt for enough time, the salt (salt is hygroscopic) can suck water molecules from the wet yeast. The yeast cake breaks down and many cells die; the diminished cake is too small to mix and ferment the dough effectively. The traditional view (in the 19th and 20th century sense of tradition) was that:

Dry (active or instant) yeast cells are invisibly tiny living single-celled fungi, dormant after being grown in a factory, processed and dried, A visible “grain” of dry yeast is a clump of dormant cells, mixed with nutrient and coating. The water in dough dissolves the clumps of instant yeast (also active dry yeast. The practice of putting active dry yeast in warm water before adding it to dough is still followed and recommended by many for home baking and bread machines).

The yeast releases enzymes that break down complex sugars in the starch to glucose, a simple sugar, which the yeast consume. The proteins bond to each other in water and form gluten. In anerobic fermentation the yeast produces alcohol and CO₂ (carbon dioxide), a gas. The gas is trapped in gluten,which makes the dough inflate and rise.

• salt kills yeast, and
• should be kept separate from yeast.

Salt kills yeast when there is an error in storage of ingredients of the timing of the mixing process. When dough is mixed, the salt is distributed and diluted in water.

Emily Buhler in Bread Baking (2006, revised 2021) addressed:

• Yeast and Bacteria in sub-chapter 2.2 of the Bread Chemistry Basics chapter;
• Fermentation in sub-chapter 2.3 of the Bread Chemistry Basics chapter;
• Taste and Colour in sub-chapter 2.4 of the Bread Chemistry Basics chapter; and
• What Happens to Bread in the Oven in sub-chapter 7.2 of the Proofing and Baking chapter.

The strains of bakers’ yeast grown by the corporate employees of the companies that make processed dry yeast – active or instant – break down enough of the starch in the flour to a simple sugar that yeast consumes. When yeast consumes simple sugar, it produces CO₂ gas that is trapped in the gluten, causing the dough to rise. The yeast, in anaerobic fermentation, also produces alcohol – the flavour effects of the alcohol produced by industrial bakers’ yeast are minor. Some other microorganisms break down alchohol and produce flavours but this often doesn’t happen within the time dough is kneaded and baked.

Salt inhibits yeast, wet or dry, according to several studies. Emily Buhler addressed Salt and fermentation in sub-chapter 2.9 of the bread science chapter of Bread Baking (2006, revised 2021). Salt dissolved in water releases ions (charged atoms) that affect the movement of water molecules through yeast cellular walls so that the net osmosis is that the cells shrink, crenating the yeast cell walls.

Gluten

When salt is left out, the bread will develop gluten “naturally” from the biochemical actions of the proteins in the flour in water (autolyze). Without salt, the gluten does not stretch as much.

Emily Buhler addressed Salt and Gluten in sub-chapter 2.10 of the bread science chapter of Bread Baking (2006, revised 2021) . She cites:

• early 20th century work correlating salt to measured and observed characteristics of gluten,
• mid 20th century work on the polarity (electrical charges) of amino acids,
• work in the ’60s on proteins in solution, and
• a 1977 paper on the effect of salt in proteins in solution.

Emily Buhler did not discuss vinegar, as such, in Bread Baking (2006, revised 2021).

A neutral, as opposed to a low pH (high acidity), or high pH (high basicity) solution affects “conformation” – unfolds or unpacks a twisted string of the molecules – of the gluten proteins. Pure water, pH 7, is neutral. Sea water, pH 7.5, is mildly basic. Salt in solution changes the conformation – a charged solution (with salt ions) shields charged sites on the protein and “tightens” the gluten. The salt affects the way the proteins respond to the mechanics of mixing and kneading.

Vinegar, with pH as low as 2.5, is acidic.

Crust Colour

The heat of the oven affects the production of gas by the yeast, and the escape of gas. In the first 10 minutes, the expansion of the heated gas, before the gas escapes, makes the loaf springs. Then the heat diffuses in the gas inside the loaf and bakes the interior of the loaf – the crumb. The yeast dies when the bread is baked, which does not harm the flavour of bread. Most of the starch in the flour becomes the crumb of the loaf.

The heat of the oven or bread machine dries the crust into the chewier or crisper crust. The colour is created by Maillard reactions which typically proceed rapidly from around 140 to 165 °C (280 to 330 °F). Many recipes call for a temperature high enough to ensure that a Maillard reaction occurs. At the crust, sugars and amino acids also react in the heat of the oven to form flavour molecules. The crust is not airtight. It lets C0₂ escape as the loaf bakes, and eventually lets water vapour escape from a baked loaf.

Reducing Salt

Baking

General

Dough needs to be leavened lift to rise. A zero-salt bread needs as much yeast as a loaf with the normal amount of salt. For instance:

• Beth Hensperger’s bread machine recipes for Tuscan Peasant Bread (or Pane Toscana) mix and knead a sponge. It seems to be a workable method of baking a rustic no-salt loaf. Her yeast measurement for this loaf is lower than her many conventionally salted bread machine loaves. This should be checked and and tested, depending on the machine used.
• The American Heart Association’s Low Salt Cookbook (4th ed.) has a no-salt recipe for a Whole Wheat bread, mixed and baked in a bread machine. It is a multigrain with whole Wheat and bread flour (for a medium loaf, 1½ cups whole wheat flour, 1½ cups bread flour), milk and yeast. For a medium loaf, it prescribes 2½ tsp. (7 grams) active dry yeast. The conversion to instant yeast is 6 grams, which is too much for some bread machines.

A yeasted bread without salt often needs more yeast than a low salt loaf.

AHA & other

Some cookbooks and web sites offer bread recipes for persons with hypertension or health concerns. Some are by survivors or family. Some are sponsored by health care reformers. Some of these recipes are truly zero salt. Some have a pinch or as much as ½ teaspoon ( 2.8 grams) of salt.

The American Heart Association’s Low Salt Cookbook (4th ed.) has a zero salt recipe for a Whole Wheat bread, mixed and baked in a bread machine. It is a multigrain loaf (for a medium loaf, 1½ cups whole wheat flour, 1½ cups bread flour), milk and yeast. For a medium loaf, it prescribes 2½ tsp. (7 grams) active dry yeast. (It may take less yeast. Bread machines and programs very.) The crumb of this loaf is a bit irregular, and the absence of salt affects the taste

Tuscan Bread

Salt is not required in Italian Pane Toscano (Tuscan Bread), a lean bread made with flour, water, and yeast. It is mainly a white flour recipe (bread flour, high protein All-purpose, or All-purpose). There a recipes in different sizes with various methods and loaf sizes. Example: King Arthur Tuscan Bread. Beth Hensperger included a recipe for this bread in her baking cookbooks:

• Tuscan Peasant Bread, The Bread Bible (1999) both
  • mixed with a mixer or by hand, and oven baked, and
  • a bread machine version;
• Pane Toscana, The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (2000).

Beth Hensperger’s recipes have this bread made with a sponge to delay fermentation. She makes it more rustic by using some whole wheat flour, and enriches it slightly with a pinch of sugar.

Vinegar

Vinegar, like salt, inhibits microorganisms – such as yeast! It makes a solution acidic, which affects the “conformation” of the proteins that form the gluten. Vinegar is a mildly acetic aqueous solution of acetic acid. Adding vinegar to pure water dilutes the acid and produce a slightly acidic fluid. I don’t understand what happens when a small amount of mild acid is added to water containing salt. Salt dissolves in water. Salt water is a high pH fluid. It is “basic’.

Vinegar is produced by fermentation of fluids:

• produced by crushing the fruits of grape vines, apple trees and other fruiting plants, or by soaking barley malt and other products of the grain of grasses;
• wines and ciders that have been produced by fermentation of plants; and
• fluids produced with alchohol distilled from fermented plants.

Slow methods are used in traditional vinegars; fermentation proceeds over a few months to a year. Slow fermentation allows for the accumulation of a nontoxic slime composed of acetic acid bacteria and their cellulose biofilm, known as mother of vinegar. Fast methods add mother of vinegar as a bacterial culture to the source liquid before adding air to oxygenate and promote the fastest fermentation. In fast production processes, vinegar may be produced in 1-3 days.

Fruit vinegars are made from fruit wines, usually without any additional flavoring. Apple cider vinegar is made from cider or apple must.

Wine vinegar is made from red or white wine, and is the most commonly used vinegar in Southern and Central Europe

Distilled vinegar (spirit vinegar in the UK, white vinegar in Canada) is produced by fermentation of distilled alcohol. The fermentate is diluted to produce a colorless solution of 5 to 8% acetic acid in water, with a pH of about 2.6. This is known as distilled spirit, “virgin” vinegar, or white vinegar, and is used in cooking, baking, meat preservation, and pickling, as well as for medicinal, laboratory, and cleaning purposes.

A cup (US volume unit) of vinegar weighs 240 grams. (A cup of pure water weighs 237 grams.) Vinegar is 5% acid and over 90% water. Cider vinegar and distilled (white) vinegar have little sodium according to USDA.

Type	Weight 1 Tbsp.	Water, 1 Tbsp.	Sodium mg.
Distilled	14.9 g.	14.1 g.	.298
Cider	14.9 g.	14 g.	.745

Web sites about baking have comments on vinegar, as of late 2022:

• Michelle at bakinghow.com, What Does Vinegar on Bread Do?:
  • “Vinegar breaks down the proteins in bread dough, causing the gluten to tenderize. .. new – and … stronger – gluten networks form. This results in … a … rise in a shorter amount of time.
  • “Vinegar cuts down on flour oxidation, resulting in … moist crumb and a lightweight texture. …
  • “Vinegar is an organic acid … by adding vinegar to your dough, you can create impressive flavors in a shorter amount of time.
  • Vinegar reduces the pH level in your bread dough. … this fends off mold formation…”
• testfoodkitchen.com (NOT America’s Test Kitchen). What happens when adding vinegar to bread dough?
  • “… it can make the dough more elastic, which can help it rise better and create a more consistent texture. It can also help to retard the growth of yeast, meaning that the bread will take a bit longer to rise but will be less likely to collapse after it’s been baked. Finally, the vinegar can help to create a slightly crisper crust.”

There is no history of hydrating dough with vinegar (using vinegar instead of water or other fluids). Some web material, published to pages, or posted to forums, attributes some effects, actions and results to the addition of a small amount of vinegar to the other ingredients of bread.

Someone started using vinegar to make the water acidic, and leaving out salt. I have not found material on the web to explain when this started or whether it was tested at scale in industrial bakeries.

The bread machine maker Zojirushi started to sell a bread machine with a “no-salt” program in 2018. Zojirushi uses cider vinegar in a recipe for a white sandwich bread for use in a “No Salt” program on its current Virtuoso Plus (a large loaf (2 lb. pan) model and its BB-SSC10 (small, 1 lb.) model.

A tablespoon (14.7 ml.) of cider vinegar has the same effect as 2 tsp. of salt in white sandwich bread on gluten, crumb and crust, in my Zojirushi Virtuoso BB-PAC20. 2¼ tsp. (11.1 ml.) of cider vinegar has the same effect as 1½ tsp. salt.

A tablespoon of vinegar adds only 1 Tbsp of water to a dough, and only adds tiny amount of acetic acid and biochemically significant elements, but it affects gluten and fermentation. It is powerful.

It is possible to measure with enough accuracy with measuring spoons. It is possible to measure vinegar by weight. Scales may go to the nearest gram; some go to the nearest .1 gram. Conversions:

Vinegar, Volume	1 cup	1 Tbsp.	2¼ tsp.	1 tsp.
Vinegar, Weight	239 g.	14.9 g.	11.2 g.	5 g.

Cider vinegar does not impart a bitter taste to bread. Vinegar lacks the flavour impact of salt.

Adjustments

Salt

A leading blog for home bakers observes:

… If you’re still looking to reduce the salt in your bread, however, it’s possible to do so successfully (to an extent). 

Generally, you can reduce the salt by half without having any very noticeable changes to texture and browning. 

If your bread tastes a bit bland, you can use herbs or spices to increase the flavor. Fresh chopped rosemary or caraway seeds are both very traditional ways to add flavor, but the options are really endless! Try experimenting with blends like Herbes De Provence or even Pizza Seasoning to jazz things up.

King Arthur Flour, Blog, Tips & Techniques, July 2020, Why is salt important in yeast bread?

A 50% reduction of salt works when the recipe, following the conventions of home baking, specifies 2 tsp. of salt for a large loaf or 1½ tsp. for a medium loaf. A medium loaf, baked with 1½ tsp. of salt, has at least 3,360 mg. of sodium. Reducing the salt by 50% reduces the sodium in a loaf to about 1,680 mg. of sodium. This is tolerable in terms of the gluten and the taste of the bread. If the recipe said 8.6 g. (1½ tsp.), I will reduce salt by 50% by weight. I aim to reduce salt to 4.3 grams.(¾ tsp.) for a medium loaf, or less. 4.3 grams.(¾ tsp.) gets good gluten development to bake a medium loaf in a Zojirushi bread machine. It should be enough salt for a medium loaf under any other baking method if the dough is mixed and kneaded

It is necessary to consider how much sodium is being avoided when salt is taken out of a recipe. Where a recipe uses 1 tsp. (5.7 g.) of salt for 3 cups of flour, I can reduce use 75% of the recipe amount of salt to get the same amount of sodium per loaf/slice/serving as by reducing 1½ tsp. of salt by 50%. If a recipe required less salt than 1½ tsp. for a medium loaf, I may reduce salt by a low amount. I have tried reduction from 1 tsp. (5.7 g.) to ¾ tsp. (4.3 g.) or ⅝ tsp. (3.6 g.). Many medium loaves made with ⅝ tsp. (3.6 g.) salt and a suitable adjusted amount of instant yeast knead and bake well in a Zojirushi Virtuoso using the Basic Bake and Bake whole wheat programs, and in the Home made program for European bread

Yeast

Salt slows dows fermentation. As salt also makes gluten strands longer, salt assists a dough to rise. The reduction, if any, in gas production is outweighed by more extensible gluten. Reductions of yeast affect the production of the gas which stretches the dough. Yeast is required to leaven any yeasted bread. Yeast can be reduced in from the levels stated in recipes when salt is reduced. The right amount of yeast varies according to the recipe and other factors:

• The machine;
• The program;
• The salt and other sodium in the dough.

Dough needs to be hydrated and leavened to rise and flow.

Bread Machines

Machines

While many bread machine recipes seem to be for “any” bread machine, there are no generic recipes. Machines have significant differences in

• pan size,
• pan shape, mixing action,
• programs, and
• features.

Features, such as heating the baking chamber and pan while a mixed dough is rising (i.e. fermenting), are not found in all machines, and affect the amount of yeast a user should use.

Bread machines run in fixed time intervals set in the programs written by the manufacturer’s engineers. A closed device is not subject to interventions when the program is running. Techniques used in conventional baking are not easily used with bread machines. Bread machines are convenience appliances. They make palatable bread. A machine user can make some kinds of changes in attempting to make a recipe again: setting the device to use a different program, or adjust the recipe.

A late 20th century bread machine recipe book said:

… In the presence of salt the dough rises at a slower rate and the salt strengthens the gluten. Loaves with no salt collapse easily.

If you are on a salt-resticted diet and wish to reduce the salt in a recipe, be sure to reduce the yeast proportionately, or use the recipe amount of lite salt. Without the right amount of salt, the dough will rise too fast. This is especially true in the environment of the bread machine …

Beth Hensperger, The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook, 2000, p. 15, p. 290

The suggestion of using “lite” salt may be a dead end. There is no “lite” salt or any known substitute for real salt with sodium. There are salt substitutes made with calcium chloride or potassium chloride that can be added to some foods. These can to leave soups or stews tasting ok to human senses. There is no basis for saying that salt substitutes affect the activity of yeast or gluten formation in bread dough, or the taste of baked bread. No one has published test results or evidence.

The suggestion of reducing salt and yeast proportionately (by weight) provides a rule of thumb that works, to a point.

Beth Hensperger introduced the topic of “What Can Go Wrong, and How to Fix It” at pp. 38-40 of The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook. Unfortunately, many things can go wrong and the answers are not obvious,

Salt & Yeast

Salt

Salt can be reduced in bread machine recipes for 1½ lb. loaves that specify 1½ tsp. of salt to 4.3 g. (¾ tsp.), 3.6 g. (⅝ tsp.) or as little as 2.8 g. (½tsp). This reduction has a minor effect on gluten which affects the texture of the crumb. It affects taste. The change is less noticeable in multigrain loaves, and loaves flavoured in some way. Salt in recipes with 3 cups of flour (for 1½ lb. loaves) can be reduced with little or no effect on gluten and the final baked crumb and crust.

Yeast

Yeast choice and measurement are important in bread machines. The yeast specified in any given generic recipe may be too much for some bread machines. A dough or loaf that balloons is messy, and can endanger the machine, the kitchen and the cook. Bread machine recipes are also determined by whether they can produce acceptable bread in a time frame that consumers/machine buyers will tolerate. If a recipe requires active dry yeast and a user wants to substitute an instant yeast, the yeast measurement should be converted for instant yeast.

If a recipe for a medium loaf says 8.6 g. (1½ tsp.) salt, and if the proportionate reduction rule was an exact rule, I would expect to reduce yeast by 50% by weight, but it isn’t that simple. Yeast can be reduced with low salt loaves. The rule of proportional reduction leads to bad results if the amount of yeast is not calculated correctly and measured correctly. That leaves a problem – how much more should yeast be reduced if salt it reduced.

Yeast measurement has to be adjusted for a machine’s mix/knead and rise phases. These vary. Some machines have a proofing box function – the pan is heated during rise phases. The length of the rise phases varies between machines and programs.

Recipes should have enough yeast to leaven the dough and rise in a specific machine without ballooning or overflowing a bread pan. For many machines or progams more than 1 tsp. of instant yeast for a 1½ lb. loaf is too much, regardless of salt and regardless of other ingredients that may inhibit fermentation. For any machine, set to a “Quick-Rise” program, more yeast is required that for a Regular or Basic Program. Too much yeast for a machine and a program will result in the dough or loaf ballooning or collapsing. Those problems can be fixed by adjusting yeast in a recipe leaving flour, water, salt and other ingredients unchanged.

The relevant features affecting hydration, gluten formation, yeast activity, fermentation, and rise are:

• the protein in wheat flour,
• the protein in other flour, such as rye flour,
• the amount of high protein wheat flour and any vital wheat gluten,
• the length of the mix/knead phase,
• the mix/knead action,
• the length of the Rise phases, and
• warmed pan proofing box action in the Rise phases.

Vinegar

Zojirushi’s recipe for No-Salt bread (large loaf and small loaf), is nearly identical to Zojirushi’s Basic White Bread (large loaf or small loaf). It has no salt, and has some cider vinegar – ½ to 1 tablespoon, depending on the recipe size. Zojirushi’s recipe for No-Salt bread works in a basic or regular baking program – the program used for enriched sandwich bread, made with bread flour, sugar, milk or milk powder and butter. In 2021, Marsha Perry, writing as the Bread Machine Diva said that the large (2 lb.) loaf version turned out well in a Zojirushi Virtuoso BB-PAC20 machine using the Basic Program (the BB-PAC20 does not have a No Salt program). The photos at the Bread Machine Diva site suggest the crumb is slightly different when the recipe is baked in two different Zojirushi machines.

I tried the recipe, scaled for a medium loaf; the medium loaf works in a Zojirushi Virtuoso BB-PAC20. This recipe should work in any Zojirushi model with a large pan – Supreme, Virtuoso, etc. The recipe will work in other machines in a regular or basic baking program, but may require a little less or more yeast than a Zojirushi machine. The recipe is sensitive to measurement of the ingredients, including the vinegar.

Zojirushi Bread Machines

General

In working out a recipe that will not balloon or collapse pay attention to : the type of flour, the amount of salt, the bread machine course (program) and the amount of yeast.

It is often necessary to try out some variations, changing some quantities by small measured amounts to see if a change makes the bread better by some parameter.

Many recipes for medium loaves baked in bread machines may require 1½ tsp. of salt for 3 cups of wheat flour, but recipes vary. Some of Zojirushi’s recipes for medium loaves baked in the BB-PAC20, in its machine manual and on the web accept that ratio. Generic recipes for similar breads may use 2 tsp. (6.2 grams) of instant yeast for a medium loaf. Other Zojirushi recipes use less salt – noted in the table below. The yeast in recipes in the manual for the salt stated in the recipe. (The web links lead to large loaves. I am using the medium loaf recipe in the printed manual.) I am converting yeast from Active Dry, used by Zojirushi in it recipes for the BB-PAC20 to instant yeast:

Name	Manual	Link	Course	Salt	Active dry yeast	Instant Yeast
Basic White	p. 15	Web	Regular Basic	8.4 g. (1½ tsp.)	1½ tsp. (4.2 g.)	4.1 g.
100% Whole Wheat	p. 18	Web	Regular Wheat	5.7 g. (1 tsp.)	1½ tsp. (4.2 g.)	3.1
Crusty French	p. 44	Web	Home made*	1 tsp.	1½ tsp. (4.2 g.)	3.1

*The “home made” course, given in the recipe in the Zojirushi BB-PAC20 Virtuoso manual, is identical to the European course (i.e. program) of the Zojirushi BB-CDC20 Viruoso Plus. It has 2 rise phases, like a Quick course but the rises are long – 35 minutes and 50 minutes. The Crusty French recipe involves programming a “Home-made” program in a BB-PAC-20 Virtuoso or a BB-CEC20 Home Bakery.

Zojirushi also publishes recipes for 2 lb. “large” loaves with 1½ tsp of salt. These scale to 1⅛ tsp. (6.4 g.) salt for 1.5 lb. loaves.

In working out a recipe that will not balloon or collapse pay attention to:

• the type of flour,
• the amount of salt,
• the bread machine course (program) and
• the amount of yeast.

It is often necessary to try out some variations, changing some quantities by small measured amounts to see if a change makes the bread better by some parameter.

Yeast

Initial General Rule

The Zojirushi BB-PAC20 requires less yeast for a recipe that uses a regular yeasted baking program, (i.e. the Regular Basic course or the Regular Wheat course) than is used in a recipe from Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook, or most generic bread machine recipes. These courses have a Rise period (programmed as 3 consecutive periods) in a heated pan. A Zojirushi BB-PAC20 needs about 65% of the instant yeast in a generic recipe used in these courses. This is a target for the amount of yeast to raise a fully salted loaf. I make this initial adjustment for all recipes in those categories except recipes from Zojirushi for my Zojirushi BB-PAC20.

Zero Salt and/or Vinegar

For the Zojirushi Virtuoso BB-PAC20:

• 3.8 grams of instant yeast, used to make a sponge for Tuscan Bread, will raise a zero salt dough for a 1.5 lb. medium loaf;
• 4.0 grams of instant yeast will raise a no-salt dough for a 1.5 lb. medium loaf, in the American Heart Association whole wheat recipe.

The Zojirushi “No Salt” bread, made with vinegar, sugar and milk powder is a soft sweet sandwich bread. The crumb is fluffy. It is similiar to other sandwich breads – a bit softer.

The yeast requirement for this sandwich loaf, made with vinegar instead of salt, is about 3.1 grams of instant yeast (1 tsp.)

The recipe is sensitive to measurement of the ingredients, including the vinegar.

I will try to bake other recipes with vinegar instead of salt. I will check this method with other enriched sandwich breads, experimenting with changing the enrichments – sugar, milk powder etc. It will take time.

Lean Breads – 50% Salt

A Zojirushi BB-PAC20 will bake a crusty French style white loaf – a lean bread – with 3.1 g. instant yeast for 3 cups of bread flour, and ¾ tsp. (4.3 g.) salt, instead of 1 tsp. (5.7 g.) salt, for a medium loaf in a “home made” (custom) program for that style of bread. For this lower salt version, I use 2.1 g. instant yeast instead of the manufacturer’s specified 1½ tsp. (4.2 g.) active dry yeast

I have used the Zojirushi BB-PAC20 to bake medium loaves of Beth Hensperger’s (of the BLBMC) recipe for Chuck Williams Country French Bread, a lean bread. The BLBMC recipe (full salt) uses 8.6 g. I make it with 3.6 g. of salt in the Regular Bake program. Yeast depends on what course/program I use:

• Regular Basic course, with 2.0 g. of instant yeast;
• Home made course for crusty lean bread. This bread, in the shorter Home made program, needs about 3.1 g. or 3.2 g. of instant yeast for a loaf with 50% salt (4.3 g.). It develops a dimple (which might be called a crater) with 3.6 g. of instant yeast, but not with 3.2 g. of instant yeast.

50% Salt – Regular Basic and Regular Wheat

I will reduce yeast below the Zojirushi target when I make a salt reduction for a generic recipe. It may be 50% of the yeast that remains after the initial adjustment (not the yeast in the recipe), but it depends on the amount of salt.

Where a recipe recipes only ½ tsp. of salt for a medium loaf (e.g. the AHA low salt recipe for a medium size light rye loaf) I use the recipe amount of salt and 2.7 or 2.8 g. of instant yeast.

When salt has been reduced to 4.3 grams (¾ tsp.) for a medium loaf, 2.1 to 2.4 grams of instant yeast will leaven the dough to get good rise and flow without collapse or “crater” in the Regular Basic and Basic Wheat programs. Using less yeast can produce collapse or “crater”, or issues of size and shape. Using more yeast may produce a loaf that ruptures.

A Zojirushi BB-PAC20 (or another modern Zojirushi model with a 2 lb. pan) can make an acceptable medium loaf of bread with 4.3 g. of salt and 30-35% of the instant yeast in a generic recipe with bread flour and with bread flour and whole wheat flour.

100% whole wheat flour bread is close, but not exactly the same.

Putting rye flour in the mix changes the yeast requirements.

Other Adjustments

Some generic (any machine – e.g. BLBMC) bread machine recipes have problems that show up with a Zojirushi machine, but not in other machines. It may be as little as a few tablespoons of water. These problems can be fixed by comparing a problem recipe with successful recipes.

Baking Ingredients

I find it convenient to have baking ingredients in a spreadsheet saved on a device in my possession – a desktop in a room near the kitchen. I have access when the device is on, without relying on Internet connections and the cloud.