Influence of Electrolytes upon the Viscosity of Dough

The rising of bread and the quality of the baked loaf depend upon the nature of the dough and especially upon such of its properties as tenacity, ductility, and elasticity. These properties are hard to define theoretically in this complex colloidal system, but they are, as we have found, related to viscosity or to whatever may determine the resistance of dough to stirring and to flowing through a tube. Accordingly, experiments have been made to measure what may provisionally be called the viscosity of dough under conditions which reveal the influence of the hydrogen ion concentration and of a variety of electrolytes upon this property. The result of the experiments is proof that in addition to the effect of water content and of the presence of substitutes lacking gluten, the viscosity of dough is much influenced by these two factors. Certain important points in baking practice are explained by these results.