Salt
Sodium chloride, used in small amounts in almost every sweet recipe to sharpen flavor, balance sweetness and control yeast.
- Baking ingredients and additives
Also called: fine sea salt, kosher salt
Salt makes sweet flavors taste fuller and less flat. In bread it also tightens gluten and slows yeast, so it shouldn't be left out. Salt types measure differently by volume: a teaspoon of fine table salt weighs about twice as much as a teaspoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
Flaky salts such as Maldon are used as a finishing salt on cookies, caramels and chocolate.
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Related entries
Sources
Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.
- Sodium in Your Diet, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- Salt enhances flavour by suppressing bitterness, Nature (Breslin & Beauchamp, 1997, vol. 387, p. 563)
- Enjoy Yeast Breads: Both Plain and Fancy (FN 283), Utah State University Cooperative Extension
- Salt (Q11254), Wikidata