# Ever tried, or baked, no salt bread?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-tried-or-baked-no-salt-bread/633567>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 3, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-tried-or-baked-no-salt-bread/633567 "2012-09-03T19:13:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-tried-or-baked-no-salt-bread/633567/21 "2012-09-06T01:53:17Z")

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> [@Cliffy](#):
>
> I did a summer in law school in Florence. Traditionally, Tuscan bread has no salt (legendarily a result of high salt taxes in the Middle Ages). It is fucking _dire_. But of course, that’s just plain saltless, while the OP is using fake salt, which isn’t at all the same animal.

I thought the bread was tasty. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if salt in the same recipe would make it tastier.

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-tried-or-baked-no-salt-bread/633567/22 "2012-09-06T02:38:13Z")

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> [@elbows](#):
>
> How does he do this ‘retarding the dough’?

Retarding dough is a process where you let it proof in a cold environment for a long period of time.

Almost all of Reinhart’s recipes call for using a starter of some kind. This basically involves reserving some dough from your last batch and letting hang out in the fridge for a day or two to be used as part of the next. The yeast continues to hang out and do its thing, and as a result the bread is much, much more flavorful.

> **[Pre-ferment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-ferment)**
>
> A pre-ferment (also known as bread starter) is a fermentation starter used in indirect‍ methods of bread making. It may also be called mother dough.
> A pre-ferment and a longer fermentation in the bread-making process have several benefits: there is more time for yeast, enzyme and, if sourdough, bacterial actions on the starch and proteins in the dough; this in turn improves the keeping time of the baked bread, and it creates greater complexities of flavor. Though pre-ferments have declined in po...

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