Yeast of Eden

A quest for Low-Salt Bread

An Apology

This time I’m writing about my ongoing quest to find a delicious low-salt loaf of bread. This post is appearing later than I intended because, like any good scientist, I had to do my research and analyse the results before publishing. More about that later, but first a little bit of background.

What’s the deal with Bread?

When I first started looking to cut the salt in my diet, a big shock to me was just how much salt is in a slice of bread. A typical sliced loaf will contain 0.4g or more of salt in each slice. That was a problem as ‘a quick sandwich’ was a big part of my diet covering anything from a meal to a snack. The contribution of bread to sodium levels in normal diets is discussed at length in this article from the Journal of Renal Nutrition. It has an American focus, but we’re not wildly different in the U.K. as this information on the NHS website shows.

I’m not really a half a slice person – more two slices and plenty of filling – so my quick sandwich would use up nearly half my daily ration of salt – more with thick slices – before I’d even put butter on, let alone a filling. If I could make a low salt bread it would really make life easier for me.

Rather than describing a sequential journey of discovery, I’ll write about the various things we have tried. Unsurprisingly, Mrs. Skwerg was chief investigator of recipes. Until recently I just tasted them. There are links to the recipes in the post, or you can find them on the recipes page.

Who Needs Salt anyway?

One of the earliest experiments involved leaving out the salt entirely. We used a recipe from Paul Hollywood’s Book on Bread [1]. That… didn’t work. It turns out salt is quite an important part of the recipe. I mean, who would have known that every one of breads’ four ingredients would be vital…?

Dough Proving in a bowl
Dough Proving in a bowl

There is a Russian proverb (according to the internet, so…) “Bread and salt never quarrel”. It turns out there’s a reason for all that salt in bread. As it happens the salt isn’t there simply for flavour. As you might imagine, in a food with only four ingredients, each is essential. The Salt interacts with the yeast affecting rise and structure. This fact-sheet from the Federation of Bakers gives a good explanation, including discussion of the industry’s efforts to reduce the salt content of loaves.

Professional Help

We even went to the ‘Bread Lady’, running a stall at our local market asking is she could make a low salt loaf. Unfortunately, despite the excellence of her standard (and other specialist) loaves, we didn’t think the low salt loaf tasted any better than what we could produce at home.

Beer Bread

Casting around for ways to improve the bread we tried another of Paul Hollywood’s recipes – beer bread. We still left out much of the salt, but the beer and honey in it added flavour. That went well, until I found beer contained a fair bit of salt [2].

Nut’s, Chillies and bits of Shrubbery

Following the theme of adding stuff for flavour, we tried a number of different things to give a bit of taste to the bread. Chili flakes, Rosemary, Garlic and Walnuts (Not all in the same loaf I hasten to add!).  We still left out or reduced greatly the amount of salt. By far my favourite was the addition of chilies. Unfortunately, I’m no longer allowed chilies (the reason why is a tale for another post). The bigger problem is that these breads tend to be specialty breads that go well with particular things – cheese, cold cured meats or pizza. As a day-to-day loaf for a bit of jam or honey, they didn’t work so well.

A Literary interlude?
East of Eden book coverIf you recognise the tile as a book, you’d almost be right! It’s a bad pun on John Steinbeck’s ‘East of Eden’ pictured here on the right.




For the musical among you I found this song explaining how to make bread:

I also considered trying to lever ‘toast’ into the title so I could reference this:


Flatbreads

A particularly useful recipe we found was this one for flatbreads.These use no yeast as they are unleavened, so leaving out the salt does not have consequences beyond the flavour.  We use them as one might use a wrap, often with a slightly spicy or strongly flavoured meal like a spiced chicken fajita. The main dish provides the flavouring, and the lack of salt is less noticeable. They are fried which also helps with the flavour and adds calories. They are also very quick to make because they don’t need proving.

Quirky Inspiration

Last year we attended an’ Artisan Bread and Scone Making’ course at the delightful Quirky Workshops in Penrith. Whilst the course didn’t give us a salt free bread, it inspired us to rethink our bread by introducing different sorts of bread such as enriched doughs, challah and sourdough.

Current Loaf

A loaf of home made bread
A loaf of Bread. Home made, low salt and delicious!

I don’t mean current as in fruity, nice though they are. Rather the recipe we currently use for bread. A s suggested in the previous section the workshop got us (Mrs. Skwerg) thinking about a better loaf. After some experimentation we ended up with the one using this recipe. Thanks to the magic of Kenwood mixers I can produce this unaided. It’s also fairly flexible – it can be made into buns or loaves. Initially there were walnuts in it to add a bit of flavour. I’m a fussy so and so though and wasn’t so keen on the bits in it. We dropped them, but the walnut oil and black treacle that are still in there add flavour.

Future Proving

A loaf of Pane Toscano
A loaf of Pane Toscano

As part of the preparation for writing this post I investigated low salt bread. Searching around I found this recipe for Pane Toscano, an Italian no-salt loaf that originated from Florentine monopoly on salt making it too expensive for other areas. I decided I should bake a loaf first before I wrote about it – hence the delay due to research. You can see the recipe here on the King Arthur Bakeries website. It’s a complicated loaf, or more accurately it takes a lot of making because it’s a two-stage process the first stage left to prove overnight. The dough is also very sticky and wet making it tricky to work with, however the result was good. The lack of salt left it bland, but when eaten with something salty (Reduced Salt Marmite being a favourite of mine) it’s really doesn’t matter. I’ll definitely bake it again. Andrew Morton in his book ‘Brilliant Bread’, has a pure sourdough version of this recipe [1].

Onwards and Upwards!

My search for a low salt loaf is still ongoing, though the variety of options I have now make it less essential. I doubt I’ll ever find anything to match a nice fresh baked loaf of tiger bread with its high salt content, but that’s not going to stop the experiments!

Until next time,

Wear a mask, keep your distance, and Stay Safe!

Skwerg


[1] For copyright reasons, I can’t give you the recipe, all l I can do is point you to his excellent book.

[2] I spent a good while looking for the article that alerted me to this, with no success. In fact, what I’ve found are many sources suggesting beer is quite low in salt! I’m now wondering if I was mistaken.

Salt of the Earth

This week I’m going to kick off a series of posts about food, and how my diet affects my condition. I first wrote about this in a post in 2016 titled ‘The Weighting Game’. Things have moved on since then, so a return to the topic seems worthwhile. In the four years since I wrote ‘The Weighting Game’. I have a number of additional food restrictions, which I will discuss in a future Post. Today I want to talk about how my relationship with salt has evolved.

A Quick Recap

Before proceeding, it is worth a quick summary as to why salt is of particular importance to me. Alternatively, you could read the ‘The Weighting Game’).

An aspect of my condition is that I have Congestive Heart Failure. This means I retain fluid – most noticeable as swollen ankles. I take a couple of medications, called diuretics, to help remove the excess fluid. They can only do so much. Salt (or specifically the Sodium in it) is a significant factor in causing fluid retention. It’s why a salty meal will leave you feeling thirsty. To counter this, I aim to eat as little Salt (Sodium) as possible. Most days I consume around 2g of salt or approximately 800mg of Sodium.. This is compared to the NHS recommended daily limit of 6g Salt (2400mg Sodium). According to the National Diet And Nutrition Survey, on average UK Adults consume 8g (4000mg Sodium) per day.

I talk about Salt and Sodium here interchangeably. Sodium is the problem, but Salt is the main way we consume it. I use a conversion rate of 400mg Sodium is equivalent to 1g salt. which I’ve taken from NHS Website (I’ve also seen a figure of 387.6mg Sodium to 1g Salt on the the internet, I believe from the USDA, but if the conversion I use is good enough for the NHS, it’s good enough for me! It also makes the maths easier.).

Keeping to this limit can be quite hard, due to the prevalence of salt in many products – particularly processed foods. In ‘The Weighting Game’ I used the example of an Egg sandwich containing over a gram of salt.

The risk of fluid retention also means I weigh myself every day. I check for (Mrs Skwerg may say obsess over…) changes in my weight that indicate I am carrying excess fluid.

A Musical Interlude
You may recognise the title of the post from a song. You’d be correct: The video below may refresh your memory. It’s the version by Joan Baez.


For the purists among you, here’s the original version from the Rolling Stones.

The Times they are a Changing

So how have things changed in the last four years?

Experience

The major changes in my dealings with salt have come from experience. I have better understanding of how quickly the salt affects. As a result I am better able to assess the consequences of consuming excess salt. More familiarity with the effects of fluid retention has meant I’m better able to identify when I’m retaining fluid.

Swollen ankles aren’t the only signs I get of fluid retention. Lying down redistributes the fluid around the body. Over the day it gravitates down to the ankles. It’s possible to start the day with my ankles looking OK and end the day with them quite swollen.
Often fluid builds in my chest rather than ankles. This gives me a wet cough, reducing my exercise tolerance (how much I can do before I’m breathless). This means I need to keep an eye on things besides swollen ankles or my weight.
Fluid isn’t the only thing that affect one’s weight. There’s no nice way to put this: A few days constipation can lead to similar weight gain as holding fluid. So, plenty of fibre is a must!

I snack far less because am very cautious of taking in a large amount of salt a little at a time. A biscuit may contain only a little salt. If I eat a half-dozen, all of sudden I’ve had half or more of my allowed salt for the day.

Technology

A set of smart scales
Not very interesting to look at, but useful:
Fitbit Aria smart scales.

Technology has also had an effect. I now have smart scales. These send my weight direct to the Apps on my phone I use to monitor my health. It’s a minor thing, but I’m a fan of Technology (As I indicated in this previous post.).

Eggs: contain more Sodium than you'd think
Eggs contain more Sodium than you’d think…

 When I first began tracking my salt, I only really counted salt from processed items. When I began using a diet app to track my sodium and calories it counted the sodium from unprocessed foods. I found I was consuming far more sodium than I had realised. I had never had the data for these foods before and they were not generally considered ‘salty’.  On the back of this, my consumption of eggs has declined somewhat. This is inconvenient when our chickens provide us with an abundance of them!

And relax…

Having said about the additional issues, I think the biggest change is that I am perhaps more relaxed about salt. I know better how the salt affects me, how quickly, and what remedial actions I can take. I am better able to deal with having excess salt occasionally.  This has two impacts.

Firstly, I don’t feel as constrained about eating out. I am less worried that I’m going be ‘the difficult one’ if with friends, constantly vetoing what we eat. Instead I’ll eat just like everyone else, knowing that I will have to deal with the consequences.

Secondly, my daily limit of 2g of salt is not a medically prescribed limit. It is one I’ve arrived at by my own observations of my fluid retention. On this basis I try not to obsess over it. I’ve developed a feel for when I’ve been pushing my tolerances – a combination of weight, breathlessness and instinct. At which point I cut back the salt until things are back under control. Occasionally, I still get it wrong, end up holding fluid, feeling rubbish and need to seek medical advice.

Cooking on Gas

A loaf of home made bread
A loaf of Bread. Home made, low salt and delicious!

I thought I’d finish with a word about home cooking. The simplest way – arguably the only way – to manage a low salt diet is through cooking from scratch.  I am extremely fortunate that Mrs. Skwerg is quite so talented at this. She produces delicious meals with surprisingly little salt in them including curry, risottos, and even pizza. Pizza is still a salty treat. Unlike shop bought or take out pizzas, I can deal with the amount of salt in a home-made one.

I have even improved my cooking skills. I have graduated from being able to heat a ready meal, to baking Bread once or twice a week. I’m even able to slap together a passable tomato-based pasta dish.  It’s my intention to share some of these recipes on this blog in the future.

Until next time,

Wear a mask, keep your distance, and Stay Safe!

Skwerg