Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
I do weigh water and flour. Yeast I’ve used for a 500 gram loaf has varied between a teaspoon and 1 1/2 teaspoon with no discernible difference. I don’t measure the salt anymore, I toss in what looks like a teaspoon worth.
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Yeast and salt is far less important, but it's still good practice. Eventually, you'll get to your local wild yeasts (which do contribute) and the preferred salt level, and you can then go to the "by eye" measurements.
Another thing that new bakers don't know is that yeast changes, grown, dies, mutates, gets sick, etc. You can make 3 "identical" loaves of bread on 3 weekends, and they'll be different because the yeast changes.
That's why sourdough bakers have a mother that lives for years (or decades...), and a good bakery works very hard to keep that mother safe, clean, pure and healthy.
Flip side is to wild inoculate your bread with local yeast in the air, and see what crazy stuff happens!
We one started a mother and made a few loaves using the still living yeast in the bottom of a bottle of Jester King beer, which is a brewery that makes wild sour beers (based on the wild yeast all around), and leaves some in the bottle to bottle condition the beer. That yeast is still alive, and interesting enough that the bread shared some flavors with the beer.