I love cooking with Morton's Kosher Coarse Salt. They sell it in a big box too.
OK, you got me with this one! I did not appreciate the scale of the PIC, nor the crystal's shape. I use three types of salt, fully aware that the impurities are what provide their individual flavors. For health reasons, I tend to use them lightly and without missing much. I agree, that the iodized table sale from the corner bodega is a waste of time and tastes truly horrible. Even great salt is not expensive, so ever cook/baker/eater should find ~3 that please them. A little goes a long way and can truly enhance a dish if used in moderation and selected with care. IMO about 99.99% of all salt is simple NaCl, with the special flavors coming from the trace amounts of minerals. While salt is it's own flavor, it is those minerals that make it special. Like any additive, respectful moderation, please. I often grind a measured amount to a fine powder, by hand in a mortar and pestal (sp?)for better dispersal and more flavor for the NaCl There is no reason to fear salt, just use it in moderation.
5
What about salt mined from the earth? I got used to Sicilian mined salt and not the sea salt that is made elsewhere in Sicily. I cherish the unique taste imparted to pasta cooked on mined salt. Unfortunately, I live in the US and mined Sicilian salt is hard to find.
Anyone else appreciate this other form of salt? It can be found elsewhere, naturally.
Anyone else appreciate this other form of salt? It can be found elsewhere, naturally.
3
Many folks writing in seem concerned about managing blood pressure and salt intake. My Doctor once told me that he thinks my normal blood pressure level has to do with my daily meditation practice, which I started 10 years ago.....a great side effect perhaps. I enjoy cooking and am a definitely a heavy salt user, using many varieties in abundance on everything - I enjoyed some sea salt on watermelon yesterday evening. Bring it on.
7
I have Meniere's disease and am on a very low salt diet. I've adjusted and have learned that there's a world of flavor without salt. I've also come to the conclusion that excessive levels of salt are often the refuge of lazy restauranteurs and food manufacturers. One benefit of being on a low salt diet is that I make my own food and don't rely on the often unhealthy fare served by restaurants and produced by the food industry. As someone who consumes very little salt, I've become sensitive to how very very salt laden much of our food is.
8
Be cautious with a low salt diet. Contrary to what has been accepted dietary wisdom, recent research shows people with a moderately high salt intake live longer than people with a low salt intake. One source for this assertion is the Gary Taubes essay on salt that was published in this newspaper some years ago.
8
Salt is interesting: It's really the only rock that we routinely eat.
4
So you've never been to Blackpool then?
1
For most physicians, it seems, that it is written in stone that salt is bad for the human body and they will NEVER change their positions. They dismiss new studies off-hand. Don't listen to them.
7
Why is this appearing again on May 11th? It originally appeared on April 25. PS even a deer can tell you salt is awesome.
3
thank you for this article. i've been making cashew cheese (vegan) with a little beer, and just recently started adding salt to the mix. it really perked it up, made quite a difference. it didn't actually taste salty, it just seemed to have more life. put it on some pizza and was nicely surprised. thnx again.
1
One Taste To Rule Them All (haiku) "Salt's magic has a - greater impact on flavor - than anything else"
3
Salt is the salvation of the lazy cook. While many people seem actually addicted to salt, there are so many other seasonings that make food taste delicious without it. I also noticed in recent years, cooks on TV always seem to give a reason for adding it. It blends the flavors, it controls the yeast, it adds a spark of flavor. Try experimenting with herbs and spices and you will find that salt is way down the list of great flavors. That is what James Beard found when he was put on a low-sodium diet. While most people do not thave to watch their intake as closely as the doctors used to claim, it is not missed if you know how to cook.
6
When I saw the teaser for this on the front page I immediately thought "butter."
9
"...anything you cook for yourself is lower in sodium than restaurant food..."
Which, along with intolerable levels of noise, I will not spend my dollars eating out at most establishments!
Which, along with intolerable levels of noise, I will not spend my dollars eating out at most establishments!
5
"Comrades, who can tell me what is the most difficult thing about cooking?"
The audience's interest was aroused, and they began to make guesses.
"Choosing the ingredients."
"Chopping."
"The actual cooking."
Zhu shook his head. "No, you're all wrong. It's the simplest yet the most
difficult thing to do-the adding of salt."
They were riveted. Nobody thought he'd mention something every little girl could do. When old ladies went to the well to wash rice they would call out to their granddaughters, "Put some salt in the pot for me, would you, dear?" A few old chefs nodded in agreement: this simple thing required great skill.
Zhu elaborated, "Sour in the east, hot in the west, sweet in the south and salty in the north. People all believe that Suzhou dishes are sweet, but actually apart from dessert, Suzhou cuisine is very careful about salt, which enhances all tastes. A fish lung without salt is tasteless. Salt makes the fish lung tasty, ham more savoury, the water chestnut more slippery and the bamboo shoots crisp. It brings out all these tastes and yet itself vanishes. The right amount of salt is not salty; if there is too much you taste nothing but the saltiness. Then all the skill in the chopping and careful cooking is wasted."
-- from The Gourmet, a short story by Lu Wenfu
The audience's interest was aroused, and they began to make guesses.
"Choosing the ingredients."
"Chopping."
"The actual cooking."
Zhu shook his head. "No, you're all wrong. It's the simplest yet the most
difficult thing to do-the adding of salt."
They were riveted. Nobody thought he'd mention something every little girl could do. When old ladies went to the well to wash rice they would call out to their granddaughters, "Put some salt in the pot for me, would you, dear?" A few old chefs nodded in agreement: this simple thing required great skill.
Zhu elaborated, "Sour in the east, hot in the west, sweet in the south and salty in the north. People all believe that Suzhou dishes are sweet, but actually apart from dessert, Suzhou cuisine is very careful about salt, which enhances all tastes. A fish lung without salt is tasteless. Salt makes the fish lung tasty, ham more savoury, the water chestnut more slippery and the bamboo shoots crisp. It brings out all these tastes and yet itself vanishes. The right amount of salt is not salty; if there is too much you taste nothing but the saltiness. Then all the skill in the chopping and careful cooking is wasted."
-- from The Gourmet, a short story by Lu Wenfu
17
As a cardiac nurse I had been inured to the evils of sodium and never used it, in cooking or at the table. While living in Italy I would, in horror, watch my landlady literally throw fistfuls of salt into whatever she was cooking...and it was never salty. I learned how salt enhances flavors while usually content to remain behind the scenes. There is much wisdom in the Old Ways, and being worth ones salt applies to cookery as well as character. Now I use both. Unless you have heart or kidney failure, "salt to taste" is just fine.
18
I would venture that the author's essay is not based in scientific fact. It is a fact that the addition of iodine to salt has been an enhancement to public health. It is also proven with evidence based research that over salting is directly related to cardiovascular disease, strokes, and death.
7
Iodine is an essential nutrient, required for thyroid health and function. For most people, the only really adequate source is iodized salt, though those who eat a lot of seafood can skip the added iodine.
Sodium is only problematic for persons who have hypertension (high blood pressure).
Sodium is only problematic for persons who have hypertension (high blood pressure).
12
...Sodium is only problematic for persons who have hypertension (high blood pressure).... And there are many, many of us!
6
While this article is informative, it has a few misconceptions, which are so major as to betray a fundamental ignorance of food science.
1. "Iodine...makes everything taste slightly metallic"
2. "There is no reason to put either (iodine or dextrose) in your food."
Harold McGee, in his Bible, "On Food and Cooking" emphasizes that all varieties of salt are mostlySodium Chloride (NaCl), Sea salt is at least 98% NaCl, while iodized table salt contains 57 grams of potassium iodide per TON of NaCl (1 ton=1000 lb). Therefore the basis of the claim about the supposed metallic taste of iodized table salt is nothing more than suggestibility.
Different salts can be distinguished when tasted straight (or when sprinkled on certain foods). But when fully incorporated into a recipe, it would be difficult (or impossible) to identify the small quantities of impurities in specialty salts by taste alone.
Sure, you can get the essential trace element Iodine (which is incorporated into the hormone thyroxin) from sea food, but not everyone eats (or today, can afford to eat) sea food regularly. Iodized salt is one of the great public health successes: it eliminated the condition endemic goiter (which, in England, was called "Derbyshire Neck" because of its prevalence there).
As for dextrose, it is simply a synonym for dextro- (or D-) glucose, which is present in every single type of fruit that we eat (and which our body makes when it breaks down dietary carbohydrates in the intestine).
1. "Iodine...makes everything taste slightly metallic"
2. "There is no reason to put either (iodine or dextrose) in your food."
Harold McGee, in his Bible, "On Food and Cooking" emphasizes that all varieties of salt are mostlySodium Chloride (NaCl), Sea salt is at least 98% NaCl, while iodized table salt contains 57 grams of potassium iodide per TON of NaCl (1 ton=1000 lb). Therefore the basis of the claim about the supposed metallic taste of iodized table salt is nothing more than suggestibility.
Different salts can be distinguished when tasted straight (or when sprinkled on certain foods). But when fully incorporated into a recipe, it would be difficult (or impossible) to identify the small quantities of impurities in specialty salts by taste alone.
Sure, you can get the essential trace element Iodine (which is incorporated into the hormone thyroxin) from sea food, but not everyone eats (or today, can afford to eat) sea food regularly. Iodized salt is one of the great public health successes: it eliminated the condition endemic goiter (which, in England, was called "Derbyshire Neck" because of its prevalence there).
As for dextrose, it is simply a synonym for dextro- (or D-) glucose, which is present in every single type of fruit that we eat (and which our body makes when it breaks down dietary carbohydrates in the intestine).
28
Wow. An actual intelligent and informed comment. People now are way too paranoid - or pure - about food additives without asking, or even wanting to know, why they are there in the first place. (Fluoride anyone?) And it isn't just iodine that has been a public health miracle.
6
Thank you for leavening this article with science and fact. The romantic folklore of gastronomy is fascinating but, as Harold McGee has shown, science and chemistry and fact-based practices are even more interesting and rewarding.
2
With minimal salt I lead a normal life even with congestive heart failure. My bread has 1.05 mg per slice. I eat steak, fish, potatoes, eggs, salad and cereal without it. My physical condition has been greatly improved since avoiding it. But then what so I know. I am only 90 years old.
26
Current drumbeat is salt is deadly as is sugar. Trying to avoid either is a challenge. Trying to measure your intake is a pain. Those grocery store manufactured products labeled low sodium or horrid. I just go without tather than use them. Ever drink low sodium V8.
4
Years ago I was in a focus group evaluating low-sodium V8. Took one taste and said "V6?"
9
Forgot to say that my stone-free success is also owing--big time--to a serious hydration effort (via H2O) lo these many decades. Reducing salt, increasing water: a winning way for keeping stones at bay!
3
This is why I avoid restaurants except when I have to go, e.g., for Mother's day. We have no control of the salt or other additives. Thank you for confirming.
7
I have been on a low-salt diet ever since I had a kidney stone and my doctor told me that lowering my salt intake would reduce my chances of a recurrence. That was 35 years ago (I was 38 at the time). Not only have I adapted to my reduced-sodium regime but, for better or worse, have come to develop a strong distaste for "normally," let alone overly, salted, foods. Oh, and I've remained kidney-stone free these past three and a half decades.
10
Forgot to say: Any success for my decades-long kidney-stone-free life is also owing to a serious hydration (via H2O) effort. A big-time contribution!
3
High blood pressure in a population is directly related to the overall amount of dietary salt in that population. Watch the salt intake, especially if you already have borderline high blood pressure.
8
This is NOT a universal truth. Many medicines drain the body of salt, thus requiring a moderate salt intake to compensate, despite the high blood pressure warnings. It is difficult for the medicated to win this argument. I am loathe to follow the recent nutritionist rules as applied to myself for good reasons.
4
It is the retention of sodium in bodies which affects the bottomline. Not all human populations retain the sodium at the same level. In fact there have been genetic studies to prove that sodium retention changes dramatically across latitudes. See Coop et al (2010) Genetics Figure 1.
4
Current data says that isn't true for most people in this category besides a few salt sensitive individuals http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-t...
1
I am not a big or small salt eater--I just use it or not if I want to or not. That is because I rarely follow the latest food use advice--I eat an egg every day, I use butter when I feel like it, I do eat lots of vegetables because I love broccoli...BUT after reading the article on the astronauts urine tests, this saying about cooking meat suddenly made sense to me--You don't salt meat before cooking it because "...salt makes the juices run"...AHA! I said to myself just now--of course.
3
My mother used almost no salt in cooking. A container would last years. So when I began cooking for myself, I simply didn't think of it. I duly went out and purchased paprika, garlic, various herbs and such, even a grinder for fresh black pepper. I had a salt shaker, I just rarely used it. Over many years, I experimented with cooking at home with mixed results. I consistently noticed that food prepared in restaurants was better than what I made, and I attributed it to the addition of butter and oil.
Imagine my surprise when it dawned on me at the age of 50 what the secret of good cooking really is.
Imagine my surprise when it dawned on me at the age of 50 what the secret of good cooking really is.
13
It's salutary to add that where bread is the major part of the diet, it will be salted if at all possible. In Europe until recently, most people lived on bread or gruel and a bit of protein or vegetable. I suspect Tusany's larder was always more generous, and in effect people could afford to make bread without salt and found it balanced the other foods well.
Today in any case, that logic applies even more so given the relative abundance of food in the West and to boot the large amount of sodium-laced processed food one is required, more or less, to eat.
By the way Henry Lieberman made some good points in his comment below but I don't think salt in processed food really covers up lack of freshness, it's more to duplicate the preserved taste much food had in the 1800s and earlier.
When canned soups and other processed foods became available, people just expected the taste.
Think of Spam, it is ferociously salty. A low-salt version is available but it's pretty salty too. Why? Because ham and bacon are ditto, and were more so when refrigeration did not exist and all you had was salt and nitrates to keep it from spoiling.
I liked the comment too that said add salt, where you want it, until just before you can taste it. That's exactly right, he's a gastronome.
Incidentally I see nothing wrong with eating french fries sans salt.
Today in any case, that logic applies even more so given the relative abundance of food in the West and to boot the large amount of sodium-laced processed food one is required, more or less, to eat.
By the way Henry Lieberman made some good points in his comment below but I don't think salt in processed food really covers up lack of freshness, it's more to duplicate the preserved taste much food had in the 1800s and earlier.
When canned soups and other processed foods became available, people just expected the taste.
Think of Spam, it is ferociously salty. A low-salt version is available but it's pretty salty too. Why? Because ham and bacon are ditto, and were more so when refrigeration did not exist and all you had was salt and nitrates to keep it from spoiling.
I liked the comment too that said add salt, where you want it, until just before you can taste it. That's exactly right, he's a gastronome.
Incidentally I see nothing wrong with eating french fries sans salt.
8
French fries need mayonnaise.
2
Reading the comments here just reinforces that people are stupid.
This is a well-written article by a food professional with years of experience creating food for customers. Let his (or her, I'm not sure) thoughts be.
This is a well-written article by a food professional with years of experience creating food for customers. Let his (or her, I'm not sure) thoughts be.
11
Her :)
4
A few drops of nam pla (Thai fish sauce) does wonders for many dishes. You get the salt plus a little anchovy flavor at the same time. Both together can enhance and blend many other flavors. Available nowadays at most supermarkets.
8
It is important to add a SMALL bit of salt during cooking, that way you get the chemical reactions you are looking for, VERY important. Then let the eaters salt to taste, which of course is all over the board. Them eaters choice, as should be.
There are studies that say cooking this way reduces people's blood salt and their associated issues, without losing proper taste. If someone is sweaty in the kitchen, they will salt more than many like. It is called balance, and it begins with the kitchen knowing how not blast us with salt!
There are studies that say cooking this way reduces people's blood salt and their associated issues, without losing proper taste. If someone is sweaty in the kitchen, they will salt more than many like. It is called balance, and it begins with the kitchen knowing how not blast us with salt!
3
I noticed cooks who smoke use more salt.
I always wondered about those that, when served a meal, will salt or pepper it BEFORE tasting???
Then I noticed they were smokers...
I always wondered about those that, when served a meal, will salt or pepper it BEFORE tasting???
Then I noticed they were smokers...
1
ok, ok. enough about 'salts' . . .
just this one more point, about its importance . . .
in what currency did the roman legions get their pay?
give up, pls.
they were paid in salt.
important no?
it's where the word salary comes from.
salt is really neat, no matter how you cut it.
just this one more point, about its importance . . .
in what currency did the roman legions get their pay?
give up, pls.
they were paid in salt.
important no?
it's where the word salary comes from.
salt is really neat, no matter how you cut it.
10
Do we really need to have "the pinch, the wrist wag and the palmful" illustrated? Photos are great, but they should enhance the story.
1
What's a maman? And I don't want to hear any racism allegations. No one I know calls anyone a maman. Genuinely curious.
1
"Maman" is an informal and often affectionate French word for mother. It's sort of like "Mommy" or "Mummy." But the American and Anglo-English words are more informal than "Maman."
"The Stranger," by Albert Camus, famously begins:
"Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas."
Today, mother died, or perhaps it was yesterday, I don't know.
"The Stranger," by Albert Camus, famously begins:
"Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas."
Today, mother died, or perhaps it was yesterday, I don't know.
12
Maman=Mom
2
Obviously you are not aware of The Google, or you don't live amongst French people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maman
3
I'm on a low salt diet (1500 to 1800 mg per day) because of Meniere's disease.
I keep to this level very conscientiously. At first, lots of food didn't taste so good, but I adjusted. It's very hard, in this salt-addicted world, to maintain a low salt diet. Processed food and restaurant food, in general, are horrendous in terms of sodium levels.
For those of you you read this article and want to throw caution to the wind regarding sodium, I make the following suggestions:
First, carefully and honestly assess how much salt/sodium you're taking in for a few days. I think many of you may be surprised at how high the level truly is.
Probably, the levels you're taking in are not good for you. And if not now, they likely will be later in your life.
It is possible to reduce sodium levels in your food, but first you have to be honest and aware, and you'll very likely have to make a lot of food for yourself, including things like bread.
And, you know, despite what this article says, food can taste pretty darned good without a lot of salt. Our palates have become distorted in this over-salted, over-sugared, over-everthinged world.
I keep to this level very conscientiously. At first, lots of food didn't taste so good, but I adjusted. It's very hard, in this salt-addicted world, to maintain a low salt diet. Processed food and restaurant food, in general, are horrendous in terms of sodium levels.
For those of you you read this article and want to throw caution to the wind regarding sodium, I make the following suggestions:
First, carefully and honestly assess how much salt/sodium you're taking in for a few days. I think many of you may be surprised at how high the level truly is.
Probably, the levels you're taking in are not good for you. And if not now, they likely will be later in your life.
It is possible to reduce sodium levels in your food, but first you have to be honest and aware, and you'll very likely have to make a lot of food for yourself, including things like bread.
And, you know, despite what this article says, food can taste pretty darned good without a lot of salt. Our palates have become distorted in this over-salted, over-sugared, over-everthinged world.
9
There is no evidence in the literature to support a low salt diet having any effect in Meniere's disease.
Incidentally, as a sufferer myself I have tried both a low salt diet and an unmeasured carefree one. Neither had any effect on symptoms. But a great difference in taste.
Incidentally, as a sufferer myself I have tried both a low salt diet and an unmeasured carefree one. Neither had any effect on symptoms. But a great difference in taste.
6
I suffer from Meziere's Disease as well. The low salt diet is quite the falacy. Meziere's Disease is an autoimmune condition caused by inflammation in the body. Stress management, treating vitamin deficiencies, malabsorption in the intestines, food intolerances.... all of these are really important. Gluten, dairy and sugar should be avoided in most cases.
Far too often, restaurant fare is overly salted - sometime ridiculously so. This is especially true of soups, stews, etc. Add to that the now all-too-common practice of adding sugar to just about everything. Yuk.
9
I thought iode was added to salt that came from mines and that sea salt was naturally iodized. Also even if mined salt is sea water that evaporated this happened millions of years ago and so it was depleted in iode. I also never quite understood what kosher salt meant and ended up assimilating it to sea salt.
Explain to me the mechanism by which salt underground became depleted in iodine, please.
2
It is dismissive to say there is "no reason" to add iodine to salt, as there is a very good reason for this. Iodine is an essential mineral that many people are deficient in, and that is why it is added to salt (much like vitamin D in milk). Using non-iodized salt may be nice for cooking, but it pays to make sure everyone in the family is still getting their iodine somehow, especially for seniors.
12
As a fan of whole foods, I "cook" very little. Therefore, this crazy obsession with salt never comes into play. The immense variety of flavors that burst from foods as produced by Earth entertain my taste buds immensely. Some weekly doses of raw fish keep my electrolytes in balance.
3
Because salt has been demonized, I think a lot of people are suffering bland food needlessly, and, moreover, aren't getting enough salt they should. At my parent's assisted living, the food is largely unsalted and deadly bland. Occasionally the residents get sick and experience dizziness and increased dementia from not getting enough salt. I have lowish normal blood pressure and need a a fair amount of salt for health reasons; at one point when I was younger, my doctor even prescribed salt tablets because of orthastatic hypotension.
12
My father's in assisted living too. Many of the residents there suffer from congestive heart failure and high blood pressure, and high sodium is more of a danger to them than low sodium. Furthermore, any resident can add salt to his/her food as desired, so it seems a "no brainer" to me to serve low-sodium food in such settings.
1
I love salt.. here it is in the open, I am a saltaholic...
The photograph at the beginning of the article is from Balinese sea salt? I love these little pyramids, I tossed some on caramel when preparing it, it add such a beautiful note! I use kosher salt all the time, and fleur de sel for the fresh salt, that I sprinkle in salads and on vegetables. I like to brine poultry and pork, cook in salt crust ( Thomas Keller recipe...). BUT I never add salt to a meal...and I find most precooked dish or fast-food meals too salty. Balance is everything!
As for iodine, it was recommended as an additive to salt as a very easy way to help reduce the symptoms of hyperthyroidism, goitre. For people living by the seaside, iodine is in the air. The more inland you live, the less iodine you get. When the link between iodine and iodine deficiency/hyperthyroidism/learning deficiency was found, the solution became obvious.
The photograph at the beginning of the article is from Balinese sea salt? I love these little pyramids, I tossed some on caramel when preparing it, it add such a beautiful note! I use kosher salt all the time, and fleur de sel for the fresh salt, that I sprinkle in salads and on vegetables. I like to brine poultry and pork, cook in salt crust ( Thomas Keller recipe...). BUT I never add salt to a meal...and I find most precooked dish or fast-food meals too salty. Balance is everything!
As for iodine, it was recommended as an additive to salt as a very easy way to help reduce the symptoms of hyperthyroidism, goitre. For people living by the seaside, iodine is in the air. The more inland you live, the less iodine you get. When the link between iodine and iodine deficiency/hyperthyroidism/learning deficiency was found, the solution became obvious.
10
Salt may have all its positive traits this article describes, BUT if you have hypertension, and many people do, it a devil to figure out how to manage. I have a 1500 mg daily sodium limit to try to attain. A pinch of salt has 1/10th of this limit. I wish recipes would propose alternative seasonings to allow lower salt use and provide some of the flavor that salt provides.
17
Have you tried lemon juice, herbs, snd/or spices? I make salad dressing without salt, just use olice oil, vinegar (better quality vinegars), lemon juice. Interesting flavors compensate for lower,salt content. If made with roasted chicken bones, garlic, herbs, the chicken soup does not need lots of salt.
7
I too limit my salt intake and use a sodium free substitute containing mostly potassium chloride made by Morton. I'd like to hear opinions, experiences from others.
I sometimes put a pinch of salt on fruit. It transforms mangoes and pears.
Salt can kill a dish, and I find some people have killed their tongues with too much salt. They want to taste the salt instead of the food itself.
Salt can kill a dish, and I find some people have killed their tongues with too much salt. They want to taste the salt instead of the food itself.
12
A little salt on a crisp apple is good, too. My parents used to put salt on watermelon and cantaloupe.
4
A judicious application of salt is essential for good food. However, too much salt can render something inedible.
In my personal experience, those who regularly consume a great many salty foods tend to prepare and serve food that is way too salty for me. It becomes the sole impression I receive from the food. Salt.
In my personal experience, those who regularly consume a great many salty foods tend to prepare and serve food that is way too salty for me. It becomes the sole impression I receive from the food. Salt.
6
Indian cooking brings the flavor of chili pepper spice with the right amount of salt without making it taste raw and spicy. In many Indian dishes you add ample amount of red chili powder but with insufficient salt it just tastes raw and spicy. With proper amount of salt added you bring the a flavor out of this chili that make it hot, spicy and tasty. You sweat from the heat of the spice but you can't resist reaching for more of it. The power of salt.
8
I agree. Add salt while cooking so it permeates the food and you don't have to add twice as much after it's served.
Just--please!--don't add pepper while cooking. Black pepper is great if you need to disguise off-flavors, since the only taste that comes through is (ugh, ouch, quick--give me some water!) pepper.
Kindly leave pepper to the discretion of the person about to eat the meal. She might just want to enjoy the food's own subtle flavors!
Just--please!--don't add pepper while cooking. Black pepper is great if you need to disguise off-flavors, since the only taste that comes through is (ugh, ouch, quick--give me some water!) pepper.
Kindly leave pepper to the discretion of the person about to eat the meal. She might just want to enjoy the food's own subtle flavors!
6
What about Himalayan rock salt, colored pink?
Is it healthier than sea salt, since no potentially polluted sea water involved?
Does this salt and/or sea salt contain healthy trace minerals not included in commercial NaCl?
Is it healthier than sea salt, since no potentially polluted sea water involved?
Does this salt and/or sea salt contain healthy trace minerals not included in commercial NaCl?
4
All salt is sea salt. Himalayan salt formed from ancient oceans, and the pink color is from impurities. Most of the minerals are not useful to human physiology, some are even toxic. Blind taste tastes have shown it is indistinguishable from sea salt or even table salt (without iodine) once dissolved in food (Source: http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/03/ask-the-food-lab-do-i-need-to-use-kos....
I would recommend sticking to sea salt rather than the pink stuff, which is more expensive for no practical reason. I personally mostly use Diamond kosher salt, as it is pure and has no anti-caking agents. I also use sea salt sometimes tip mix things up, as well as finishing salts and smoked salts.
I would recommend sticking to sea salt rather than the pink stuff, which is more expensive for no practical reason. I personally mostly use Diamond kosher salt, as it is pure and has no anti-caking agents. I also use sea salt sometimes tip mix things up, as well as finishing salts and smoked salts.
11
Ana--Thank you! You clearly know more about this than I do.
May I ask once again, without being skeptical of what you've said, if we need to concern ourselves with man-made pollution in present oceans that wasn't there when Himalayan rock salt formed? And also, what minerals in Himalayan salt might be toxic? Since we use so little added salt, cost doesn't matter to us. David
May I ask once again, without being skeptical of what you've said, if we need to concern ourselves with man-made pollution in present oceans that wasn't there when Himalayan rock salt formed? And also, what minerals in Himalayan salt might be toxic? Since we use so little added salt, cost doesn't matter to us. David
1
Most prepared food is over-salted, you can't often taste the ingredients but for the salt bite. It's a hangover from pre-refrigeration days. Quite apart from the health aspects, it reduces, not enhances, food flavour when overdone. Despite breathless critics of the industrial food system, it's not a conspiracy of large processors, for whom overall we should be thankful. It's simply a habit for generations.
Reduce salt, increase flavour. Italian bread traditionally used no salt. The best bagels, ditto. The people who made these things knew something about taste...
Reduce salt, increase flavour. Italian bread traditionally used no salt. The best bagels, ditto. The people who made these things knew something about taste...
8
I don't buy it. There is no way that you can make great bread without salt. And I've recently made some and forgotten to add the salt. It was noticeable in its absence.
8
You mean the Italians, with a great gastronomic legacy, don't know how to make good bread? I doubt it.
My point too is, don't necessarily leave out the salt, but watch how much you put in.
It can make all the difference between a good and inviting taste and a dull, saline one.
My point too is, don't necessarily leave out the salt, but watch how much you put in.
It can make all the difference between a good and inviting taste and a dull, saline one.
I was very disappointed in the bread in Italy. I was told the reason it was so bland is because they don't use salt. For me, there is no better bread than the bread I eat in France.
Valuable information. Thank you.
3
First, all salt is kosher.
Second, so=-called kosher salt is, as I understand it, cave-salt, not sea salt.
To my taste, sea salt is more subtle.
I prefer gray sea salt, ground in a shaker with a ceramic mill.
The author of this article seems to be under-informed.
Second, so=-called kosher salt is, as I understand it, cave-salt, not sea salt.
To my taste, sea salt is more subtle.
I prefer gray sea salt, ground in a shaker with a ceramic mill.
The author of this article seems to be under-informed.
4
Kosher salt is really "koshering salt", so named because it is used to salt meat and draw out moisture and blood as part of the process to make it kosher. That's because the flat, larger crystals are better at sticking to meat than sea salt. It's also much cheaper - if you're using as much salt as you should be, using sea salt for everything will get expensive. A medium pot of pasta water would take a dozen or more twists of that salt mill...
22
I grew up with a mother who got it into her head that salt was bad when my father started having heart problems (blood pressure, etc) and therefore I got into a habit of never using salt when I was cooking. The last few years, I have gradually begun adding salt while cooking, and you can taste the difference. Three palms full however, sounds very salty to me. I know restaurants have a habit of over salting food, although I'd be surprised if one like Chez Panisse does it just to jack up beverage sales but who knows?
7
I imagine the pot was much larger that what we would be using at home. II had the same reaction as you initially.
4
Sorry but I've never been a big fan of salty food. I can remember as a child scraping the salt grains off of pretzels because I thought they were too salty. Now we cook almost every day but we've been using the same beat-up box of Morton salt for I don't know how long, but it's definitely been years. Usually it seems there's plenty enough salt in the cheese and the butter. We'll sprinkle a little salt on French fries, but when we do we usually have to first search out the shaker because it's been misplaced from lack of use. When on occasion we have no time to cook and have to pick up some soup at the local health-food mart, all their soups taste the same to me because all I can taste is the salt.
8
The point of the piece is that salt it used as a seasoning and it is not about "salty food". À chacun son goût
8
While a little bit of salt enhances other flavors (as my mother taught me more years ago than I care to remember), I agree with many of the comments here -- restaurant food, and ofttimes home-cooked food, is very over-salted.
As a rule, your salt craving/sensitivity is a function of the salt in your saliva. Thus, if you ate more salt yesterday, you'll crave more today. If you're used to less salt in your home cooking, you need to add less to achieve the degree of saltiness that your palate thinks is right. And, as Mr. Jones pointed out, a little pepper can also act as a flavor enhancer, and bring out subtle flavors in your food.
As a rule, your salt craving/sensitivity is a function of the salt in your saliva. Thus, if you ate more salt yesterday, you'll crave more today. If you're used to less salt in your home cooking, you need to add less to achieve the degree of saltiness that your palate thinks is right. And, as Mr. Jones pointed out, a little pepper can also act as a flavor enhancer, and bring out subtle flavors in your food.
13
For more on salting correctly:
The Zuni Cafe cookbook by Judy Rodgers. Truly a masterpiece on cooking and seasoning written in a relatable way for the home cook. The kind of cookbook that you read and not just for the wonderful recipes.
Maldon sea salt flakes are superb and easily found in major supermarkets. They are best used added at the end of a dish or in one where the taste and texture of the salt matters.
The Zuni Cafe cookbook by Judy Rodgers. Truly a masterpiece on cooking and seasoning written in a relatable way for the home cook. The kind of cookbook that you read and not just for the wonderful recipes.
Maldon sea salt flakes are superb and easily found in major supermarkets. They are best used added at the end of a dish or in one where the taste and texture of the salt matters.
4
I have always thought that salt does add so much to almost any dish. That being said we have huge population who suffer from high blood pressure , meniere's disease and many other issues for which salt is not allowed. We can walk through food stores and find a huge amount of sugar free, gluten free, fat free items....but salt free....no. Though this article is great for a great many people there are still many who should never ,ever use as much salt as that was mentioned in this article.
13
I saw my doctor yesterday and my blood pressure was up from where it normally is- the culprit I confessed was the wonderful UTZ Extra Thin pretzels that I was snacking on- the salt content on these types of snack are KILLERS for those of us that have a blood pressure problem. So now I must refrain from this delicious snack and stick to fruits and boring celery sticks, etc. The article was interesting but SALT can be harmful to those who have specific health issues. I myself like to use KOSHER salt sparingly on eggs, tomatoes & Persian cucumbers. I know there are exotic salts out there that may be better tasting.
9
There are a lot of other seasonings out there other than salt.
10
I hate, hate, hate when people tell me they never cook with salt and then I watch while they empty half a shaker of salt over their plate of food that they cooked -- because even they find the food to bland, but don't believe the fix is seasoning earlier. If food is seasoned correctly while being cooked, one should rarely need a salt shaker at the end.
I like salting aggressively and early and I find I rarely need any other seasonings than pepper.
I like salting aggressively and early and I find I rarely need any other seasonings than pepper.
4
The real trick is creating good salt-free recipes. Many people have to minimize salt for health reasons. When you get used to cooking almost-salt-free at home, restaurant food tastes terribly over-salted, as do prepared and frozen items from the store. I haven't yet ventured into making pizza at home, but take-home pizza is generally too salty.
I make my own low sodium pizza and it's delicious. Make my own pizza dough without salt, but I do add salt-free onion and garlic powder. Make my own salt free tomato sauce. Fresh mozzarella is a very low sodium cheese. You can add a bit of salty "kick" with some Parmesan cheese.
1
The secret to adding just the right amount of salt is to gradually add more of so long as it enhances the flavor but you you cannot sense the saltiness.
The moment you can taste the salt, you've overdone it.
That's all folks!
The moment you can taste the salt, you've overdone it.
That's all folks!
7
If the disk requires olive oil and/or lemon (and most Mediterranean Cuisine dishes do), apply the olive oil first, then the salt, then the lemon and then stir to mix all together.
Try this with boiled green lima beans, and you will see what I mean!
Try this with boiled green lima beans, and you will see what I mean!
5
beautifully written article. and who can argue salt is important? funny thing is i thought my one meal at Chez Panisse was good but not great and honestly- a bit too salty!
3
"Common table salt is small and dense, making it very salty. Unless otherwise noted, iodine has been added to it, which makes everything taste slightly metallic. It also often contains anticaking agents to prevent clumps from forming, or dextrose, a form of sugar, to stabilize the iodine."
There are a number of errors in this paragraph.
Iodine is not added; iodide ion is present.
While the taste of iodine is often described as metallic, I have not found a credible reference for the taste of iodide ion. The taste of KI, which is often cited, is probably more dependent on the contribution from potassium ion than from iodide ion.
Sugar does NOT "stabilize" iodine.
There are a number of errors in this paragraph.
Iodine is not added; iodide ion is present.
While the taste of iodine is often described as metallic, I have not found a credible reference for the taste of iodide ion. The taste of KI, which is often cited, is probably more dependent on the contribution from potassium ion than from iodide ion.
Sugar does NOT "stabilize" iodine.
5
Salt is not the enemy. It is easily excreted by all except those with kidney disease. Two glasses of water after a well-salted meal will flush your system just fine.
3
I love the favor of salt but some restaurants over do it.
4
i'm very glad you brought up this observation; however it doesn't much alter my take or appreciation of the article.
1
Nice article; thank you for adding to our culinary education! One correction, however. The salt you identify by brand name that starts with "M" as an example of a solar salt made by gradual evaporation is actually made by boiling seawater. Long Island, NY is home to Amagansett Sea Salt that is truly gradually solar evaporated, is a fabulous product and makes all of our food taste and feel better.
3
Many restaurants' food is too salty because the chef probably smokes. I can't understand that. It is like a musician putting ear plugs in his/her ears.
7
Just because an article appears in the "food" section, doesn't mean it should mislead folks, and dangerously so, about a very real health threat. This story should be corrected immediately.
Most of us shouldn't take in more than 2,300 mg of sodium daily; for some of us, it should be more like 1,500 mg. More than that increases hypertension and cardio- and cerebro-vascular disease risk, and debility and death therefrom. *This is very solid health and nutritional science.*
Salt is good, not evil. It is vital to life, and permeates every cell and intracellular space of one's body.
But too much sodium is not just bad, it's deadly. Say that again. Too much is deadly. Too much causes death. Too much kills.
The line in this article about not having to worry about how much salt you use at home, since restaurant foods have even more (and of course preprepared food sold in supermarkets and grocery stores is also sky-high in sodium) -- with accompanying photos and language about pouring in salt by the *palmful*, is just plain wrong. It contradicts critical public health messaging:
If you unavoidably get a lot of sodium from eating out or eating preprepared food from stores (and even if you don't, depending on your biological circumstances and the level of sodium used in the home), you can't afford to throw caution to the winds at home. Your life, or your loved ones' lives, depend on this.
Please, NY Times, do the right thing, particularly vis-a-vis African-American readers.
Most of us shouldn't take in more than 2,300 mg of sodium daily; for some of us, it should be more like 1,500 mg. More than that increases hypertension and cardio- and cerebro-vascular disease risk, and debility and death therefrom. *This is very solid health and nutritional science.*
Salt is good, not evil. It is vital to life, and permeates every cell and intracellular space of one's body.
But too much sodium is not just bad, it's deadly. Say that again. Too much is deadly. Too much causes death. Too much kills.
The line in this article about not having to worry about how much salt you use at home, since restaurant foods have even more (and of course preprepared food sold in supermarkets and grocery stores is also sky-high in sodium) -- with accompanying photos and language about pouring in salt by the *palmful*, is just plain wrong. It contradicts critical public health messaging:
If you unavoidably get a lot of sodium from eating out or eating preprepared food from stores (and even if you don't, depending on your biological circumstances and the level of sodium used in the home), you can't afford to throw caution to the winds at home. Your life, or your loved ones' lives, depend on this.
Please, NY Times, do the right thing, particularly vis-a-vis African-American readers.
32
"Unless otherwise noted, iodine has been added to it..." Actually, the opposite is true. The FDA requires added iodine to be disclosed on labeling, so salt that doesn't say "iodized" on the label will have no iodine.
Packaged foods and restaurants typically don't use iodized salt. That paired with the typical American diet low in fruits and vegetables (our natural source of iodine when grown in iodine-rich soil) have made iodine deficiency more common in the U.S., as many of us with thyroid disease know, so I hope NYT will issue a correction to this.
Packaged foods and restaurants typically don't use iodized salt. That paired with the typical American diet low in fruits and vegetables (our natural source of iodine when grown in iodine-rich soil) have made iodine deficiency more common in the U.S., as many of us with thyroid disease know, so I hope NYT will issue a correction to this.
8
All salt isn't the same. Go toss out all your refined iodized table salt! Be sure you stock your pantry with all natural sea salt. I recommend both a Cooking salt (all natural kosher type or sel gris) & Finishing Salt (larger flakes/more delicate). No reason to take a natural product, strip it of naturally occurring minerals, add iodine & anti-caking agents! Founder, HamptonsSalt.com
4
Iodine is added for critical public health reasons. Iodine deficiency is a major cause of avoidable cognitive deficiency in children.
8
Lack of adequate Iodine in food is the major cause of Thyroid problems hence the addition for public health reasons.
7
Nosrat correctly points out the huge difference in "saltiness" between Morton's and Diamond Crystal kosher salts but then fails to specify which one to use in the roast chicken recipe. I wonder if that's the case throughout her new book.
1
Chefs usually use Diamond Crystal.
2
If you need salt to make your food taste good, you are not a very good cook.
9
It is the opposite: If you do not use salt during cooking, means you have no palate, and therefore, are not able to produce foods with well balanced flavors. Any cook worth his/her salt understands this.
6
If you do not perceive the value of salt in enhancing food, you are not a very good eater.
3
That is just so wrong. used judiciously, salt is a seasoning.
2
Few things are more disappointing than a dinner party at which you are served coq a vin that looks the part but, due to the host's idea that salt-free is fashionable, tastes like a wine-soaked rice cake.
I would have liked a section on "finishing salts", the different types and their users, such as black and Himalayan salts.
1
No Salt, no taste
1
Iodine is essential to our diets for normal functioning of the thyroid. Mental retardation results when pregnant women and children do not consume adequate iodine.
This article is dangerous from a public health standpoint and needs to be removed or edited to state the importance of iodized salt in ensuring the population gets adequate iodine in the diet, and that people should not avoid iodized salt unless they know they are getting adequate iodine from other sources.
This article is dangerous from a public health standpoint and needs to be removed or edited to state the importance of iodized salt in ensuring the population gets adequate iodine in the diet, and that people should not avoid iodized salt unless they know they are getting adequate iodine from other sources.
16
I agree. There is constant insistence from chefs that iodized salt tastes metallic, and kosher salt is so wonderful. People seem to accept this as Truth. But is it? Kosher salt was designed for drawing blood out of meat. It actually does not taste that great.
Cod and shrimp are great sources of iodine, just two examples.
4
I hate articles like this. There is way too much emphasis on salt in restaurant kitchens these days. Hate to tell the author this, but if you need to use so much salt, you are using either inferior ingredients, or have taste buds corroded by too much alcohol, sugar, and commercial food products.
Salt is NOT a panacea for good flavor. And "layering" is a joke. We've had overly salty pasta mixed with a salty sauce, salty cheese, and salty seafood, presented (more than once and in different restaurants with one month's time) as if we should be applauding a dish that is wildly unbalanced.
Salt is NOT a panacea for good flavor. And "layering" is a joke. We've had overly salty pasta mixed with a salty sauce, salty cheese, and salty seafood, presented (more than once and in different restaurants with one month's time) as if we should be applauding a dish that is wildly unbalanced.
13
OK, don't read them. Salt is not going away, so it seems you are wasting your money eating in restaurants.
4
Or ones taste buds could skew towards too much salt by eating (or cooking) too much restaurant food, which is where this writer is probably coming from.
7
Pepper lovers would remind readers there are many more varieties of peppers than salt, so please sell your salt someplace else. Seriously, don't forget the wonderful tastes and health benefits of peppers over salt.
3
Well, it depends on what you mean by "pepper". There is but one true peppercorn (Piper nigrum), delivered black, white (outer layer removed), and green (unripe drupes, usually in brine). Pink peppercorns (Schinus molle) are entirely unrelated to black peppercorns. Sichuan peppercorn (Z. simulans or Z. bungeanum) is also unrelated to black peppercorns.
And if you perchance meant the Capsicum family, then you are in a completely other arena.
So define what you mean. And salt will work with them all!
And if you perchance meant the Capsicum family, then you are in a completely other arena.
So define what you mean. And salt will work with them all!
6
For the sodium-phobes (I'm one), a 50/50 mixture of salt (NaCl) and potassium chloride salt substitute (KCl) tastes salty but achieves a better sodium/potassium balance that is key to avoiding sodium's harmful effects.
8
I occasionally watch cooking shows and am always horrified at the chefs who complain that a dish is "underseasoned" -- ie, needs more salt. The farther east I go, the saltier the food, until I find it completely inedible. Salt is a substitute for flavor; a little enhances, but the amount she describes interferes. It's popular in restaurants, so far as I can tell, because it's cheap and customers become inured to it.
Also, if you're on a low salt diet (and around 10 per cent of the country is, if I understand correctly) the best time to add salt is at the end -- forget the mystical "infused with salt" which only matters if you eat tablespoons of it a day anyway. Serve with little or none, in consideration of your guests; sprinkle on the outside to get the maximum saltiness reasonable with the minimum of sodium.
Also, if you're on a low salt diet (and around 10 per cent of the country is, if I understand correctly) the best time to add salt is at the end -- forget the mystical "infused with salt" which only matters if you eat tablespoons of it a day anyway. Serve with little or none, in consideration of your guests; sprinkle on the outside to get the maximum saltiness reasonable with the minimum of sodium.
9
It has become ridiculous, especially in flashy restaurants.
4
I remember the exact moment when I realized the power of kosher salt. I bought some after reading an article about the crystal structures of different varieties of salt and sprinkled some on sauteed zucchini as they cooked. My family still don't believe me that they tasted more like zucchini than any I'd ever had. I realize how silly that sounds but it's difficult to describe to the uninitiated that the right amount and style of salt enhances the natural flavor of food. It changed my cooking forever. Thank you for writing this article so others can share this simple joy.
24
Restaurant food and all prepared foods are horribly oversalted. We have lost our appreciation for subtle flavors as a result. Everything has to taste like fireworks in the mouth now. It's a shame.
75
40 years ago, in Geology 1A, the prof said. "All salt on this planet, whether mined from a cave in Kansas or harvested from evaporation ponds in Normandy, is SEA SALT." That includes the cheapest iodized salt at the grocery store.
The catch is that different saline environments have different trace minerals, which can yield wonderful taste
The catch is that different saline environments have different trace minerals, which can yield wonderful taste
15
There are evenings when I don't really know what to eat (or I am a bit lazy) and I then keep it very simple: fleur de sel (I prefer the one from Portugal- flor de sal), sprinkled into cold pressed olive oil and a good baguette that I dip into the oil. Wonderful, a bit of grinded pepper and a bit of balsamic vinegar can still be added but I prefer the pure version.
33
I agree, lovely simple meal. Fruits and vegetables would of course be consumed at another meal.
1
This article may well have been written in behalf of the salt producers lobby. If certain foods / dishes require palmfuls of salt to be added; i'd stop eating / providing it. There are plenty of flavorsome foods/cuisines that don't require stroke inducing levels of salt to be palatable. Mushrooms, dried or fresh add a welcome saltiness. Really; a disappointing article.
39
A palmful of salt in one's food does sound excessive. There are restaurants in big cities where salt shakers have been removed from the tables, and there is an interruption at the repast when the waiter armed with a pepper mill is ready to grind away to enhance your choice of pasta, or salad.
Recently an acquaintance and I had lunch in a small Italian family restaurant. We ordered a hamburger with fries, and in the midst of our exchange, he asked 'does this taste salty to you?' It was beyond salty, and we still wonder what happened to the chef. Sometimes the most awful of meals are the most memorable ones.
In your honor, remembering to make a stir-about later with some plain rice spiced with coriander seeds and canned chicken broth, canned tuna with olive oil, canned chick peas, steamed broccoli defrosted, chopped arugala from a plastic container, a handful of sliced almonds and some bottled balsamic vinaigrette and a hard boiled egg, this 'receipt' to last for at least two days in the fridge, can you guess which ingredient has the highest salt content?
Recently an acquaintance and I had lunch in a small Italian family restaurant. We ordered a hamburger with fries, and in the midst of our exchange, he asked 'does this taste salty to you?' It was beyond salty, and we still wonder what happened to the chef. Sometimes the most awful of meals are the most memorable ones.
In your honor, remembering to make a stir-about later with some plain rice spiced with coriander seeds and canned chicken broth, canned tuna with olive oil, canned chick peas, steamed broccoli defrosted, chopped arugala from a plastic container, a handful of sliced almonds and some bottled balsamic vinaigrette and a hard boiled egg, this 'receipt' to last for at least two days in the fridge, can you guess which ingredient has the highest salt content?
Unfortunately, chefs (and home cooks) tastebuds can wane over time, due to smoking, age, or etc.
While that's probably the source of an overly salted meal, I also always wonder...does a person's 'salt taste' evolve ever upwards over time? I've noticed that cutting back on salt (much like sugar), I tend to be more sensitive to smaller amounts than I was before. I wonder if professional chefs fall into the opposite rut.
While that's probably the source of an overly salted meal, I also always wonder...does a person's 'salt taste' evolve ever upwards over time? I've noticed that cutting back on salt (much like sugar), I tend to be more sensitive to smaller amounts than I was before. I wonder if professional chefs fall into the opposite rut.
11
Fascinating. I have elevated my cooking skills over the last decade and have discovered, as this article states, that salt makes a huge difference. Perhaps it is a poor recipe that is the problem with some of the food you're tasting and not the salt? I find it to be an extraordinary addition to all kinds of cooking, and as a result, have four kinds of salt in little container on my stove to use when the mood strikes me. I love salt and have very low blood pressure to boot!
4
Reminds me, on some level, of my father, who adamantly declares "No garlic," regardless of the dish being prepared. It is, I've always figured, a byproduct of consuming foods with overt garlic flavor. This past Christmas, I was in charge of making the standing rib roast. 'No garlic!" he said. We got him out of the kitchen, sprinkled the meat with an appropriate amount of garlic powder (really, it's OK--it actually works better than trying to season meat with minced or mashed cloves), and got it in the oven. He declared it as fine a meat as he'd ever consumed, and it was pretty darn good.
He's the same way with squash. Won't eat it, says it's horrible. My mother once told him that pumpkin pie, which he adored, is made from squash. He hasn't eaten it since. Sometimes, what people don't know doesn't hurt them. So bring on the salt. And the garlic.
He's the same way with squash. Won't eat it, says it's horrible. My mother once told him that pumpkin pie, which he adored, is made from squash. He hasn't eaten it since. Sometimes, what people don't know doesn't hurt them. So bring on the salt. And the garlic.
63
with all due respect, the salad recipe sounds good, but it is NOT Caesar salad. Worcestershire sauce, anchovies? Not in a true Caesar! In addition, for really good cooking direction, I advise readers to turn to Judy Rogers' Zuni Café cookbook. She was brilliant!
8
Huh? Where are you finding your Ceasar recipe. All original recipes I've seen include both anchovies and worchestershire. Not sure what you're referring to...
3
The original Caesar salad included Worcestershire sauce in lieu of anchovies. Zuni Café's exemplary version of this salad includes the following ingredients (in addition to lettuce and home-made croutons):
vinegar, olive oil, anchovies, garlic, salt, uncooked eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, pepper and lemon juice. Chacun à son goût.
vinegar, olive oil, anchovies, garlic, salt, uncooked eggs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, pepper and lemon juice. Chacun à son goût.
Caesar Cardini's original recipe did not have anchovies but it did contain a dash of Worcestershire sauce.
By the time I finished the article I was so thirsty.
25
Hi Samin,
Great article! Can't wait to see your book. I'd love to hear your thoughts on nuoc mam.
Woody
Great article! Can't wait to see your book. I'd love to hear your thoughts on nuoc mam.
Woody
7
There's a lot of individual variation in sensitivity and taste for salt. I suspect the author is a high "salt responder" and is perhaps too quick to generalize to others. Restaurants like salty food because thirstier customers order more drinks. Packaged food is salty to make up for its lack of freshness. Salting foods in the kitchen or at the table gives you a quick salt hit, so you think food "tastes better" in the short-term A/B comparison, but in the long term it dulls your sensitivity to underlying flavors. There may be a mild addiction going on. As a guy with not much taste for salt, I don't look forward to this becoming a trend.
41
Sorry, Mr. Lieberman, but you are over-generalizing to the point of being wrong.
The author is not lying. The best cooks on the planet employ salt in the way the author describes because food would otherwise be bland. Salting food is not a trend. It is the way that experienced, professional chefs who take pride in their craft have always operated.
"Restaurants like salty food because thirstier customers order more drinks." No. Some restaurants put too much salt on food, and people who enjoy good food, and there are enough such folks to keep good restaurants in business, avoid such places because, by definition, they are not serving good food. Again, the author is spot on: A diner cannot taste the salt in properly salted food. The salt coaxes out other flavors, it is not a flavor, or a quick hit, in and of itself.
You should, perhaps, get out more and visit better restaurants than you apparently have been visiting.
The author is not lying. The best cooks on the planet employ salt in the way the author describes because food would otherwise be bland. Salting food is not a trend. It is the way that experienced, professional chefs who take pride in their craft have always operated.
"Restaurants like salty food because thirstier customers order more drinks." No. Some restaurants put too much salt on food, and people who enjoy good food, and there are enough such folks to keep good restaurants in business, avoid such places because, by definition, they are not serving good food. Again, the author is spot on: A diner cannot taste the salt in properly salted food. The salt coaxes out other flavors, it is not a flavor, or a quick hit, in and of itself.
You should, perhaps, get out more and visit better restaurants than you apparently have been visiting.
52
I agree with you, Henry. Having drastically cut back on my salt intake, I find that on the rare occasions I need to add it to cooked food, I find that I need much less, and the real flavors come through better for me. Salt is an inexpensive way to add flavor to foods. I really don't know if restaurants salt food deliberately to increase drink orders, but I do know that restaurant temperatures are kept on the cool side because people tend to eat more when they are cold. So it wouldn't surprise me that restaurants would be overly generous with salt if doing so would increase sales.
4
I cook a great deal and I assure you that food "would not otherwise be bland" without salt. Some foods, like oatmeal, are pretty bland. Most people wouldn't assume that a solution would be to dump a bunch of salt in it. Salt has a specific taste bud profile that many people find pleasurable, but it is certainly also use to mask or overcome deficits in low-quality food. I agree that many people like the taste of salt in and of itself and that there is a tendency to find salt to be some kind of "flavor enhancer" like MSG that is overstated and overused, often in restaurants. I'm a big fan of the author's suggestion to incorporate naturally salty foods within recipes.
5
This resonated.
A week ago, I made ham and beans with a ham bone that had plenty of meat, and lots of rind/skin (sure there's a more technical term) on it. I also threw in a fair amount of salt, wondering whether I'd screwed up even as I was doing it. After all, that ham bone and meat/rind was plenty salty already, and I tossed in at least as much salt as I ever have when cooking beans.
It turned out sublime. Best pot of beans I've ever cooked or can recall tasting no matter the cook, and it didn't need a grain of salt added to it at the table. Not that I'm boasting.
A week ago, I made ham and beans with a ham bone that had plenty of meat, and lots of rind/skin (sure there's a more technical term) on it. I also threw in a fair amount of salt, wondering whether I'd screwed up even as I was doing it. After all, that ham bone and meat/rind was plenty salty already, and I tossed in at least as much salt as I ever have when cooking beans.
It turned out sublime. Best pot of beans I've ever cooked or can recall tasting no matter the cook, and it didn't need a grain of salt added to it at the table. Not that I'm boasting.
21
The only flavoring that is almost as ubiquitous and just as unnecessary as salt is garlic.
8
And you probably exist on a diet rich in kale, bean sprouts and not much else. Anyone who would dismiss both garlic and salt knows very little, if not nothing, about food and how to prepare it.
1
Once you have tried Pink Himalayan salt, you wont bother to use regular salt!
11
Pink Himalayan sea salt is a mined salt from Pakistan, does not come near the Himalayas, beautifully marketed to disguise the fact it's essentially the same as the salt mined in Utah -- and hasn't seen an ocean for thousands of years. Experiment in a blind taste test, and see what happens.
4
When you're 35, and you're still going to live forever, this is all great. But salt drives blood pressure and proteinuria, so when you're 65 it's not so great anymore. There's lots of hyperbole here, but in the end, he's right. Salt can turn good food into heavenly food.
15
But I believe you should train yourself while young to enjoy food with minimum salt. Hypertension is among the nation's foremost killers. If you don't know what I'm saying, you must be young and unafraid.
9
Thanks! Salt does make food taste good. Can we have an article about what to do with anchovies? An ingredient I remember from my mother's kitchen 50 years ago, but which no one ever uses any more. You only hear about them when someone is making fun of anchovy pizza.
5
Not a day goes by when anchovies are not used in this New England house.
8
There are ver 400 recipes if you search for "anchovies" in the NYT cooking app.
1
Anchovies: salad dressing, pasta puttanesca, and anything where you're wanting a depth of flavor where no one can quite identify the source.
2
I brought home some Saltverk Flogusalt from Iceland when on vacation. It is beautiful!
When I open the jar the rocks glisten like diamonds. And it tastes terrific.
I now buy salt where ever I go. It's flavours are diverse and interesting.
Most recently I bought brown, smoked salt chips from Sweden. It has a caramel like essence.
BTW, the customs agent laughed out loud and asked me why would anyone bring back salt, when I listed it on my customs form. He thought I was crazy.
When I open the jar the rocks glisten like diamonds. And it tastes terrific.
I now buy salt where ever I go. It's flavours are diverse and interesting.
Most recently I bought brown, smoked salt chips from Sweden. It has a caramel like essence.
BTW, the customs agent laughed out loud and asked me why would anyone bring back salt, when I listed it on my customs form. He thought I was crazy.
21
I can't tell whether this is an anti-anti diatribe against salt or a recommendation that good cooks taste their dishes and add what is needed to make them taste wonderful. Some wonderful things will cause us to die sooner. So be it.
By the way, I'm on a low salt diet, for health risk reasons, yet I cook with love and care. A little salt can go a long way.
By the way, I'm on a low salt diet, for health risk reasons, yet I cook with love and care. A little salt can go a long way.
9
Salt (NaCl), specifically sodium (Na+) counteracts the very bitter taste of urea, a metabolic product of protein breakdown present in all food in some quantity, no matter the animal (protein degradation) or produce (nitrogen fixation) source. Sugar does not counteract urea's taste - different compound-specific taste receptors. I'm not at all surprised the author was schooled to add more salt to polenta - or that meats need varying amounts depending on source and processing. Once you understand that urea is naturally occurring in food production, and that those amounts vary widely, salt becomes a proportional antidote to this bitter natural metabolic product.
38
Thank you!
2
"there is no reason to put [iodine and dextrose] in your food"
This is dangerously untrue. Iodine is key to the functioning of your thyroids, and while you can get it from other sources, salt was iodized because we weren't getting enough of it. The American Thyroid Organization writes that "The body does not make iodine, so it is an essential part of your diet... If you do not have enough iodine in your body, you cannot make enough thyroid hormone. Thus, iodine deficiency can lead to enlargement of the thyroid (goiter – see Goiter brochure), hypothyroidism (see Hypothyroidism brochure) and to mental retardation in infants and children whose mothers were iodine deficient during pregnancy."
There's even evidence that adding iodine to salt raised American's IQs! Please don't avoid iodized salt unless you know you're getting enough iodine from other sources.
This is dangerously untrue. Iodine is key to the functioning of your thyroids, and while you can get it from other sources, salt was iodized because we weren't getting enough of it. The American Thyroid Organization writes that "The body does not make iodine, so it is an essential part of your diet... If you do not have enough iodine in your body, you cannot make enough thyroid hormone. Thus, iodine deficiency can lead to enlargement of the thyroid (goiter – see Goiter brochure), hypothyroidism (see Hypothyroidism brochure) and to mental retardation in infants and children whose mothers were iodine deficient during pregnancy."
There's even evidence that adding iodine to salt raised American's IQs! Please don't avoid iodized salt unless you know you're getting enough iodine from other sources.
119
I thought that iodine is naturally present in sea salt? If so, I think the author's point was that it need not be artificially added.
(and dextrose need not be added, of course -- but it's in such small quantities in table salt that it doesn't matter, I think).
(and dextrose need not be added, of course -- but it's in such small quantities in table salt that it doesn't matter, I think).
According to Wikipedia
Iodine, an element essential for human health,[12] is present only in small amounts in sea salt.
Wikipedia is silent on whether or not the amount of naturally-occurring iodine in sea salt is sufficient to satisfy nutritional needs. the amount of iodine would probably depend on the source so some might be adequate and others not. Those of us living near the sea with various marine products in our diet (kombu comes to mind) usually get sufficient iodine without using iodized salt (salt in Japan is not iodized), but those living inland (e.g. Iowa) have benefited from iodized salt,
Iodine, an element essential for human health,[12] is present only in small amounts in sea salt.
Wikipedia is silent on whether or not the amount of naturally-occurring iodine in sea salt is sufficient to satisfy nutritional needs. the amount of iodine would probably depend on the source so some might be adequate and others not. Those of us living near the sea with various marine products in our diet (kombu comes to mind) usually get sufficient iodine without using iodized salt (salt in Japan is not iodized), but those living inland (e.g. Iowa) have benefited from iodized salt,
3
...This is dangerously untrue.
---------- unless one is allergic to iodine (shellfish, chesapeake bay crabs, usually ) ,
but ... Iodine is key to the functioning of your thyroids, salt was iodized because we weren't getting enough of it. The American Thyroid Organization writes that "The body does not make iodine, so it is an essential part of your diet... If you do not have enough iodine in your body, you cannot make enough thyroid hormone. Thus, iodine deficiency can lead to enlargement of the thyroid, hypothyroidism and to mental retardation in infants and children whose mothers were iodine deficient during pregnancy."
---------- unless one is allergic to iodine (shellfish, chesapeake bay crabs, usually ) ,
but ... Iodine is key to the functioning of your thyroids, salt was iodized because we weren't getting enough of it. The American Thyroid Organization writes that "The body does not make iodine, so it is an essential part of your diet... If you do not have enough iodine in your body, you cannot make enough thyroid hormone. Thus, iodine deficiency can lead to enlargement of the thyroid, hypothyroidism and to mental retardation in infants and children whose mothers were iodine deficient during pregnancy."
3
Salt is really one of the few naturally-occurring minerals that we eat "as is". Essentially, we're eating some rock.
6
I always think of salt as just another "spice" that I use to enhance and adjust flavor. Imagine how boring a steak would be without salt and pepper rub.
4
My husband and I have age-related high blood pressure. Rather than take bp meds, we simply do without salt (and sugar). Bye bye french fries and popcorn. Hello raw fruits and veggies. We do, however, still occasionally indulge in salty language.
68
You can season popcorn with things other than salt.
6
My aunt once hosted a holiday meal, cooked without salt and with no shaker on the table. I asked for one, to her shocked reproving response. Everyone else was apparently willing to swallow all that tasteless stuff. I was not.
23
I personally distinguish between surface and bulk salt and sugar: the surface salt and surface sugar is tasted, as it is on the surface, but the bulk is moved down to where it is digested. So if you want to lower you salt and sugar intake, add them yourself, in thin crystals: you still get the taste but avoid the adverse health effects.
3
Question:
When cooking and salting to taste is there a recommended way to clear the palate between tastings?
When cooking and salting to taste is there a recommended way to clear the palate between tastings?
2
I always have a glass of wine nearby while I am cooking. However, you should not have to clear your palate while salting your food. If you can taste the salt, you have already used too much salt. I have learned from experience what that tipping point is when salt becomes obvious to your taste buds. The trick is to use salt as a flavor enhancer without people noticing that you have used salt.
8
I find most restaurant food to be too salty. I think it is all a matter of taste. I had a brother in law who owns a restaurant and he said they made food salty to get customers to buy more drinks. There are so many other cuisines that provide flavor in other ways that Americans are used to, I think salt is the easy way out.
7
A beautiful piece of writing - so much information so well told in such a brief span. I'm going to have to seek out the book now!
6
He had a tremendous fear of salt and remains trim, fit and grey. Looking a decade older than his age, I wonder how we are going to prepare a leg of lamb, without salt, and place this ingredient in an empty tea-bag on my way to his kitchen. We play Scrabble in the den, and occasionally I baste the lamb at high temperature. He gets stuck with a Ewe (U), and I sprinkle our dinner moderately. Delicious, a great success, and no revelations.
My mother had culinary magic where she would open an empty kitchen cupboard and fridge and make a feast. Does one need to rinse meat before cooking, I once asked, and the rely was 'non' and no because salting it first was better. No alarm bells please from the Sea Kittens and Veggies among us. She lived until 93, too long, she once told me in a rare moment of lucidity.
A young Irish sibling and her parent once came to New York from Italy, with a fear of salt. No salting the salad, please, as I made an easy French vinaigrette which Nora Ephron may have lifted from my older parent. A mild distraction takes place in the open kitchen when the puppy asks for a treat, and I sprinkle the salad with salt. 'She makes the best salad ever', announces the youngest at the family table.
Everything in 'moderation' and tune in with Dr. Aaron Carroll of the NYTimes. 'Salt is the single most important ingredient', as Samin Nosrat writes with finesse and spice.
My mother had culinary magic where she would open an empty kitchen cupboard and fridge and make a feast. Does one need to rinse meat before cooking, I once asked, and the rely was 'non' and no because salting it first was better. No alarm bells please from the Sea Kittens and Veggies among us. She lived until 93, too long, she once told me in a rare moment of lucidity.
A young Irish sibling and her parent once came to New York from Italy, with a fear of salt. No salting the salad, please, as I made an easy French vinaigrette which Nora Ephron may have lifted from my older parent. A mild distraction takes place in the open kitchen when the puppy asks for a treat, and I sprinkle the salad with salt. 'She makes the best salad ever', announces the youngest at the family table.
Everything in 'moderation' and tune in with Dr. Aaron Carroll of the NYTimes. 'Salt is the single most important ingredient', as Samin Nosrat writes with finesse and spice.
4
I like that, going back to the sea. I went back to Cordelia.
2
I stopped using salt 30 years ago, when first diagnosed with hypertension. I stopped smoking at the same time. Guess what? The food didn't actually taste any better, and for 25 years no amount of self-delusion could make it more satisfying. Then I began gradually adding salt back (but not nicotine), and now I'm at a point where the food really does taste good and my wife no longer automatically puts the salt shaker on the table.
8
I don't salt or pepper at the table not because I don't love them but because in almost all cases they are best used to layer flavors in a dish during cooking. I taste constantly and at every introduction of seasoning, before and after. Putting salt on food after it's prepared will make it taste salty and that's all. Very boring. Don't fear the salt. It is the most important seasoning ingredient we have. But one must learn to use it properly. Brining is a great technique to learn, another way to use salt for both flavor and juiciness.
3
We also need to know that MSG adds umami (and is a natural part of protein-based food) and that the M in MSG stands for "mono-sodium", which combined with the sodium chloride in the article, will give the person who eats the meal a sodium overload with its potential problems.
4
What's a maman, please?
Likely referring to her mother. "Maman", like mama, in French. Based on the foods she was serving I'm guessing her Maman might be Persian--there are a lot of crossover words between French and Farsi.
Another name for Mother, much like Mom, Mommy, Mama, etc.
'Mother', 'Mom', in colloquial French.
Years ago, I learned about Maldon salt after reading numerous food articles in the NYT's. I have never been without it since.
2
Stop using salt and see what happens to your taste buds. You start recognizing the real flavor of foods; celery becomes salty on it own for instance. Find the real flavor of good vegetables not the artificial flavor of adding sprinkles of salt; broccoli ends up luscious on its own if cooked just right.
If salt is bad for only those w diagnosed hypertension , why is it not bad for the rest of us? It raises your BP at whatever level you start. And what about the lack of iodine in our diet?
If salt is bad for only those w diagnosed hypertension , why is it not bad for the rest of us? It raises your BP at whatever level you start. And what about the lack of iodine in our diet?
15
I would not call salt an "artificial flavor" to add- in appropriate quantities all it does is magnify the flavor of the food.
If you think salt has been disguising the "real" flavor of foods then you have been adding too much salt.
If you think salt has been disguising the "real" flavor of foods then you have been adding too much salt.
3
Right. Well, we're a pretty self selecting group here, reading about single ingredients in the NY Times, concerned about flavor and texture and other things.
So, you do what feels right to you and I'll continue dropping snowflakes of Maldon sea salt on my roast chicken.
Have a nice day.
So, you do what feels right to you and I'll continue dropping snowflakes of Maldon sea salt on my roast chicken.
Have a nice day.
18
Actually, a dirty secret that most general practitioners don't know is that salt is "bad" for people with *sodium-sensitive* hypertension, which is only about 1/4-1/3 of those with hypertension. I have hypertension, but having done enormous sodium loads for other testing and not have my BP change, I found out I didn't have the sodium-sensitive subtype.
15
I want to second the request here for the New York Times to provide more insight into the salting process. Maybe different chefs' hints and clues and WHY? Salt usage when doing sous vide vs conventional cooking, and WHY? Salting sears, braises, pressure-cooked dishes, and slow-cooked meals, and WHY? Please give us more.
I've turned into someone who keeps six different salt cellars on my counter. My latest pleasure is arashio/arajio, a Japanese salt available as a staple at any Japanese grocery store which I am fortunate enough to have nearby. It's slightly briny and moist. Needs a covered cellar. Beats Diamond Crystal kosher salt in my view for punch and interest. Also, Okinawa salt (25% less chloride) which is often attributed to Okinawans' long lives (btw, it's beige).
Please address the topic of salt usage before, during, and after cooking in much greater detail.
I've turned into someone who keeps six different salt cellars on my counter. My latest pleasure is arashio/arajio, a Japanese salt available as a staple at any Japanese grocery store which I am fortunate enough to have nearby. It's slightly briny and moist. Needs a covered cellar. Beats Diamond Crystal kosher salt in my view for punch and interest. Also, Okinawa salt (25% less chloride) which is often attributed to Okinawans' long lives (btw, it's beige).
Please address the topic of salt usage before, during, and after cooking in much greater detail.
7
It sounds like you should research and write the article and sell it to the Times.
7
It's useful to note that parmesan cheese, anchovies and Worcester sauce (which includes anchovies) are all sources of umami, too. Is it the saltiness they bring or the umami or both?
2
When my doctor told me to eliminate added salt and go on a low salt diet, the adjustment was instantaneous, and food began to taste better and more interesting. My wife discovered that adding just a small amount of salt to a dish had a powerful impact.
The salt story is more complicated, I think, than presented in this fine article.
And, of course, the medical science is very uncertain about the benefits of a low salt diet. The benefits of salt restriction are far from proven or even understood.
The salt story is more complicated, I think, than presented in this fine article.
And, of course, the medical science is very uncertain about the benefits of a low salt diet. The benefits of salt restriction are far from proven or even understood.
19
The attack on salt is ludicrous, and has been perpetrated mostly by the vacuous carbohydrate (read: white flour and sugar) industry.
I consume a ton of salt and barely any of that other junk. My bio-markers are excellent.
Viva salt!
I consume a ton of salt and barely any of that other junk. My bio-markers are excellent.
Viva salt!
7
talk to you in five years....
5
Salt causes the natural flavor of food to converge into its own version of bland. Wean yourself from salt to zero in all cooking except for red meat and fish and you will taste food in all its earthy brilliance. There is enough salt in food naturally to cover your health needs. Lemon is a good substitute for salt. Salt was once used as an embalming agent.
7
At one point, salt was needed as a preservative, and its taste had to be accepted, but those days are long gone.
If you google "too much salt in restaurant food", you'll get an eye-opening set of stories about how chefs acquire a tolerance for salt, which they then inflict on the dining public. Yes, it's possible that the health benefits of lower salt intake have been overstated, but they've done a lot to restore flavor to commercially available food.
It's not that I'm against salt as a flavor. I have three salt grinders with a selection of salt crystals, just as I have pepper grinders and other gadgets for applying condiments. But in my house it's up to the diner to decide how much they want.
If you google "too much salt in restaurant food", you'll get an eye-opening set of stories about how chefs acquire a tolerance for salt, which they then inflict on the dining public. Yes, it's possible that the health benefits of lower salt intake have been overstated, but they've done a lot to restore flavor to commercially available food.
It's not that I'm against salt as a flavor. I have three salt grinders with a selection of salt crystals, just as I have pepper grinders and other gadgets for applying condiments. But in my house it's up to the diner to decide how much they want.
4
Perhaps the chef is a smoker and has been doing so for some years. Cigarettes tend to kill the taste buds. Evidence? Nothing "academic," but as an ex-cook/chef, I worked with 2 individuals who were smokers, one whose taste leaned towards "heavy," which usually meant that balance of spice, herb, salt, leaned more towards overbearing, and the other whose food was an exercise in tolerating salt (pretty dreadful).
8
I cannot believe one has to read that "Solar sea salts like fleur de sel, sel gris and Maldon are the less-refined result of gradual evaporation, which is why they tend to be more expensive than refined sea salts." As a matter of fact, Maldon salt famously has been produced for 130+ years by heating sea water and then heat-drying the salt crystals. "Seawater is filtered and boiled which, reassuringly, removes any impurities, and then heated until the salt crystallises. If this sounds easy, there’s an art in temperature and timing… ." http://www.maldonsalt.co.uk/The-Story-How-Maldon-Salt-is-made.html
14
Gee--who knew?
This reads like something from The Onion. Salt makes food taste better!
It was hard for me to believe that any Persian cook set salt-free food on the table. But anyway.
I never use salt-free butter, no matter what I'm making. I find many dessert recipes sadly deficient in salt. More salt, less sugar required.
And only kidney patients on reduced-fluid regimens need to worry about salt. It is easily flushed from the system. Problems with salt consumption come from a chronic state of under-hydration.
I was glad to have James Beard's wonderful cookbook as my guide when I started to bake bread. He made me unafraid to use a teaspoon of Diamond Kosher Salt per cup of flour. The difference between dull and divine.
This reads like something from The Onion. Salt makes food taste better!
It was hard for me to believe that any Persian cook set salt-free food on the table. But anyway.
I never use salt-free butter, no matter what I'm making. I find many dessert recipes sadly deficient in salt. More salt, less sugar required.
And only kidney patients on reduced-fluid regimens need to worry about salt. It is easily flushed from the system. Problems with salt consumption come from a chronic state of under-hydration.
I was glad to have James Beard's wonderful cookbook as my guide when I started to bake bread. He made me unafraid to use a teaspoon of Diamond Kosher Salt per cup of flour. The difference between dull and divine.
19
Totally agree with you, salt adds soul to food. It is not that salt is bad for us, rather it the kind of salt used that should be in question here. Himalayan and Sea salts are actually loaded with trace minerals needed by our bodies. In addition to seasoning all my food, including desserts, with salt, l add 1/4 teaspoon of Himalayan salt to every pint of water l drink throughout the day.
5
I assume that our blood plasma is roughly the same thing as sea water of a few hundred million years ago, before the second last time we moved onto the land. This is my argument for sea-salt, but not much of it: where else are you going to get gold, for instance, in your diet?
1
do you know the life expectancy of Tibetans and Nrepalese.
I once worked (front of the house) where Italian sea salt was ordered by the pallet, The guests complained bitterly about the general saltiness of the food when it hit the table. The chef would respond "it is highly seasoned food"
The kind of Restaurants and Chefs Samin references here are on the sophisticated end of the dining out spectrum. The portions accordingly are small and intensely flavored...highly seasoned.
It never ceases to amaze me that the heirloom, fresh, local, organic, as well the impossibly expensive imported ingredients are not enough.
High end restaurants are so often burdened with impossible market conditions, conflicting patron expectations and unsustainable concepts.
The simple magic and love of her Maman or an ecstatic meal (a confluence near impossible) in one of these places is a rare thing.
One can learn a lot about seasoning from a chef, but a dish that is to salty at the table says more about her confidence than her ability.
You can not disregard the market pressures in these temples and the affects it produces.
xxx
The kind of Restaurants and Chefs Samin references here are on the sophisticated end of the dining out spectrum. The portions accordingly are small and intensely flavored...highly seasoned.
It never ceases to amaze me that the heirloom, fresh, local, organic, as well the impossibly expensive imported ingredients are not enough.
High end restaurants are so often burdened with impossible market conditions, conflicting patron expectations and unsustainable concepts.
The simple magic and love of her Maman or an ecstatic meal (a confluence near impossible) in one of these places is a rare thing.
One can learn a lot about seasoning from a chef, but a dish that is to salty at the table says more about her confidence than her ability.
You can not disregard the market pressures in these temples and the affects it produces.
xxx
3
Adam!
Interesting, yes, but still just a matter of taste, its conclusions are only that. I have recently been using Vietnamese style fish sauce in place of salt in many dishes. It adds a umami kind of richness to tomato sauces, soups, and stews that salt alone does not. A mix of fish sauce and garlic is a simple and heavenly marinade for meat and fish as well as a great condiment. Also try good soy or tamari in place of salt in your recipes by adding a small amount to a small serving and tasting before deciding to use (or not) for the whole pot.
11
This reminds me of a wonderful product I discovered in grocery stores in France and now make for myself: unsalted butter with flakes of sea salt folded in. The contrast of satiny butter and crunchy salt along with the contrast of sweet and unctuous with salty is just amazing. I make it by adding 3/4 tsp of salt to a stick of butter. I take it to parties along with bread and am amazed to see the butter disappear really quickly. (I've even seem people sneak a shplop to put on a burger or a steak or potato.) It's all about that wonderful salt.
64
TAR, I agree. We recently visited Paris and fell in love with the butter laced with sea salt flakes. We vowed to make this ourselves but were unsure of proportions. Thank you for yours, we'll try it this weekend!
2
I bought a jar of red wine salt when I was in France and it's lovely mixed into butter. It makes swirls of pink. I've tried putting in grey salt, smoked salt, grey salt with bits of sea greens --they are all cool additions and lovely to share with others. Enjoy!
What was the name of the butter or how do you make it?
Salt when cooking, yes. Salt when eating, not so much.
What an interesting article. As an 80 year-old widower, my cooking is of the utmost simplicity and very basic. I absolutely agree that proper salting is essential. That is why I prefer salted butter: it helps moderate the salt shaker. And yes, I do use sea salt.
What an interesting article. As an 80 year-old widower, my cooking is of the utmost simplicity and very basic. I absolutely agree that proper salting is essential. That is why I prefer salted butter: it helps moderate the salt shaker. And yes, I do use sea salt.
27
This article made me think of a folk tale I remember from childhood. In it, one of a king's daughters is banished from home because she tells her father she loves him as much as salt. In the end, he realizes how much that is. Apparently there are many variations of the tale. Here is a link to some of them: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/salt.html
52
isn't that king Lear?
4
There's also the terrific book whose title invokes that tale. "As Meat Loves Salt" by Maria McCann is just terrific.
OMG, I remember reading this tale, I think it was one of Czech folk tales!
In Japanese cooking we add a teaspoon of salt to a pot of boiling water before we boil greens, spinach, asparagus, brocoli, for exactly 3 minutes. Scoop them up out of the water immediately, except for spinach which requires a swirl in cold water followed by a gentle squeeze to remove the salicylate acid.
I'd like suggestions for smoked salt. Thank you in advance!
I'd like suggestions for smoked salt. Thank you in advance!
22
Salicylate acid? Does anyone know more about that?
1
aspirin
1
Spinach contains oxalic acid.
3
This is a wonderful piece: enlightened, thoughtful and encouraging. It demystifies so many of the fallacies surrounding the use of salt. Next time I'm in the kitchen, I'll have Ms. Nostrat's wisdom to guide me as I search for that promised land of perfect seasoning.
65
It id hardly "enlightened".... talks mostly about salt rather then sodium chloride...does not mention any other kinds of salt ...such as potassium chloride (in excess deadly) or other salts which might hightly enhance the flavor of food without the deadly effects of sodium chloride.
3
Culinary salt is chemically NaCl, sodium chloride. All the various types of salt will produce the same "saltiness" once dissolved if used by weight instead of volume. The differences in taste, if any, come from trace ingredients, either naturally occurring or as additives. I can't differentiate the taste of any of the types once in cooked food, although I have tested it in soups; I wonder if anyone really can.
30
it is true, you can have the freshest, most decadent, most expensive of ingredients but if you don't get the balance of the salt right in a dish, you might as well have bought it at the corner convenience store.
42
The mammalian species Homo sapiens (Linnaeus 1758) can digest sodium chloride, ordinary table salt, but not the chloride salts of other alkali elements. Our love of salt is perhaps an atavistic remnant, like the potassium chloride salt licked by other mammals.
There is probably no food ingredient more important than salt, to say nothing of its military-industrial importance. As to the photo of a buttermilk-marinated chicken, I have a few times commented on the strange propensity of NYT Food Writers to promote chicken. I prefer a pheasant, dry-brined in coarse salt 18 to 24 hours before putting it in the oven at 375°F for 45 minutes on each side.
There is probably no food ingredient more important than salt, to say nothing of its military-industrial importance. As to the photo of a buttermilk-marinated chicken, I have a few times commented on the strange propensity of NYT Food Writers to promote chicken. I prefer a pheasant, dry-brined in coarse salt 18 to 24 hours before putting it in the oven at 375°F for 45 minutes on each side.
4
Chicken is available and inexpensive to the general public. Pheasent is not. I hope that helped resolve a mystery in your life.
5
A Peasant here asking where can one find a pheasant? For our honeymoon, my hubbie and me had tinned pheasant. This was donkey or elephant years ago and our hostess was a generous soul. True, a hunter showed up with a rifle the other day, but he goes a little wild with the squirrels. How about grouse instead, while some of us put an end to our grousing, although this carnivore will settle for a hard-boiled quail egg with a tiny pinch of salt for good luck.
5
Re: your comment on NYT's propensity on chicken over, perhaps, pheasant. I would imagine it has more to do with cost and availability for the vast majority of readers. I live on Long Island and finding pheasant is almost impossible but chicken....
5
i remember reading about paul bocuse freaking out because a sauce was too salty. he never tasted it, just looked at it. for me the transformative power of salt is most evident in bread baking. leave it out and the dough runs wild. and if it's too warm in the bakeshop and you're afraid the sponge for tomorrow's levain will over-ripen, slow it down with say, .01 percent salt.
27
I, too, am still learning about salt and other spices and herbs. I wish there was some kind of spice school, or learning technique that would help me understand the taste of each spice/herb better and what it adds. I wish I could more confidently assert exactly when that magic moment of "just enough salt" had arrived. I know I can sometimes make those determinations easier when tasting cold food than when it is hot.
28
Ms. Conant, my favorite cookbook was given to this reader and eater in 1971, The New York Times Cook Book by Craig Claiborne, which he dedicated to Ruth P. Casa-Emellos (for eighteen years The New York home economist). Page 657 lists the uses for Spices and Herbs with a neat introduction on how Americans were introduced to the above.
Have you ever prepared a recipe and the salt shaker loses its top in the grand finale? it is enough to cause a pool of salty tears and Mr. Claiborne forgot how to share with us the remedy.
Have you ever prepared a recipe and the salt shaker loses its top in the grand finale? it is enough to cause a pool of salty tears and Mr. Claiborne forgot how to share with us the remedy.
1
I am in the same boat as you! I grew up in a family that pretty much only used salt, pepper and paprika so I don't know much about spices. To learn more, I just ordered a course from The Great Courses called "The Everyday Gourmet: Essential Secrets of Spices in Cooking." It's taught by Chef Bill Briwa of The Culinary Institute of America. I haven't watched it yet, so I can't vouch for it but I ordered it specifically to learn about herbs and spices. I don't think there's a spice school out there for us but this might do in a pinch...please pardon the pun....
I feel your pain, Madeline.
But that there was a spice school. The more I cook, the more I think you just have to figure stuff out through trial and error. With salt, as the author states, it's not simply how much, but when. I've found that to be true myself, and while you can always add afterwards, in my experience, it's always better if you add during the cooking process. I'm no expert, but there are so many variables--temperature, are the ingredients acidic, what other spices are in play. I'm far from figuring it out, but I find that if I think it through a bit and Google a bit, I stand a much better chance. If I cooked for a living, I think I'd have it down by now, but as a home cook flying solo, I find that it takes awhile.
Beyond salt, I'm now exploring thyme. It's not as challenging, perhaps because it doesn't have the range and ubiquity of salt. The trick, for me, is knowing when to use it and how much--thyme can be a cheap but calamitous crutch. A clam chowder, for instance, can be either ruined or heightened by thyme (just like salt). A pork roast, in my opinion, isn't worth eating without it. There is also curry powder, my secret ingredient when it comes to making chili, but I've been on the same small container for five years now, not knowing, or trusting myself, enough to use it in anything else.
But that there was a spice school. The more I cook, the more I think you just have to figure stuff out through trial and error. With salt, as the author states, it's not simply how much, but when. I've found that to be true myself, and while you can always add afterwards, in my experience, it's always better if you add during the cooking process. I'm no expert, but there are so many variables--temperature, are the ingredients acidic, what other spices are in play. I'm far from figuring it out, but I find that if I think it through a bit and Google a bit, I stand a much better chance. If I cooked for a living, I think I'd have it down by now, but as a home cook flying solo, I find that it takes awhile.
Beyond salt, I'm now exploring thyme. It's not as challenging, perhaps because it doesn't have the range and ubiquity of salt. The trick, for me, is knowing when to use it and how much--thyme can be a cheap but calamitous crutch. A clam chowder, for instance, can be either ruined or heightened by thyme (just like salt). A pork roast, in my opinion, isn't worth eating without it. There is also curry powder, my secret ingredient when it comes to making chili, but I've been on the same small container for five years now, not knowing, or trusting myself, enough to use it in anything else.
1
If we are to believe Mr. Nosrat and other food writers, when trained chefs prepare dishes the food should seldom taste explicitly salty, just good and flavorful. Yet in practice most restaurant dishes I encounter, including in fine restaurants, taste highly explicitly salty. I'm not on a no-salt diet and don't avoid it. There are two reasons, I think, for this discrepancy. One, salt is used in a superstitious way, something the chef absolutely must use, almost as if it was magic pixie dust, automatically in the course of cooking. Two, I think that salt taste probably habituates, causing cooks to gradually add more and more to make it seem right.
109
I suspect, sometimes, the salt is added to early, especially in sauces and common legume dishes. When the liquid is reduced during cooking the salt becomes concentrated. Adding salt by taste prior to completion increases the salt concentration.
12
Individuals no doubt vary in their salt tolerance and appreciation. When I salt something to my taste it's usually too salty for my wife, so I've learned to cook with less salt. Sometimes I misjudge and it's too bland for both of us. It's hard to please everyone with the amount of salt in a dish. I think most chefs would rather have their food described as too salty by some then as tasteless by all.
10
From Wikipedia:
"Because consuming too much sodium increases risk of cardiovascular diseases,[3] health organizations generally recommend that people reduce their dietary intake of salt"
"Because consuming too much sodium increases risk of cardiovascular diseases,[3] health organizations generally recommend that people reduce their dietary intake of salt" (Note the mention in the article of "hand fulls of salt" in the kitchen at Chez Panisse)
"One of the two most prominent dietary risks for disability in the world is eating too much sodium."
And one can wean oneself off of salt by minimising it's use for a few weeks. Then the true flavor of the vegetables comes through
"Because consuming too much sodium increases risk of cardiovascular diseases,[3] health organizations generally recommend that people reduce their dietary intake of salt"
"Because consuming too much sodium increases risk of cardiovascular diseases,[3] health organizations generally recommend that people reduce their dietary intake of salt" (Note the mention in the article of "hand fulls of salt" in the kitchen at Chez Panisse)
"One of the two most prominent dietary risks for disability in the world is eating too much sodium."
And one can wean oneself off of salt by minimising it's use for a few weeks. Then the true flavor of the vegetables comes through
9
For most of my life, I was in the camp that rarely uses salt while cooking and never at the table. However, I have recently found that using salt while cooking is essential for great food. It is very true that you need less while cooking than you do afterwards. However, that is not the only or even the most important reason to salt while cooking. Salt changes how something cooks. For example, salted onions will soften more when sautéed. I became a much better cook after I started learning how to properly salt foods during cooking, and I have much more to learn. It is definitely the most important ingredient.
133
if you want salty onions......don't onions have enough flavor without salt. As a child in spring time we used to take what we called "spring onions" which I think city folk call "scallions" and a saucer of salt and dip the onion into the salt at each crunch. I still remember the taste and contrast 65 years later.
Without the salt to both mellow and enhance the spring onions, in their raw form they could only be added to omelettes or sprinkled over other dishes just before serving. I would certainly not give the same treatment to any other kind of onion whose bulb is larger than 1/2 inch diameter.
Without the salt to both mellow and enhance the spring onions, in their raw form they could only be added to omelettes or sprinkled over other dishes just before serving. I would certainly not give the same treatment to any other kind of onion whose bulb is larger than 1/2 inch diameter.
3
And not one mention of the epidemic levels of high sodium related health problems caused, primarily, by restaurants upping everyone's expected levels of salt in food.
I am all for enjoying food, and I have argued in the past against the hypersensitivity toward fat in cooking, but this level of sodium intake is reckless.
I am all for enjoying food, and I have argued in the past against the hypersensitivity toward fat in cooking, but this level of sodium intake is reckless.
54
I think the latest science is that the dangers of sodium for most are overstated.
80
No, because that was not what the article was about.
Would one demand a mention of alcohol abuse in an article about wine tasting, too?
Would one demand a mention of alcohol abuse in an article about wine tasting, too?
79
Actually, the author mentioned explicitly that some people are limited in their salt consumption by health issues. There was also mention that restaurants use more salt than home cooks. You should check whether the amount of sodium in the salt levels advised is at all dangerous--I highly doubt it is.
45
One additional dimension: for people with chronic congestion or gustatory rhinitis (where one gets congested when eating food, especially warm/hot food), perceptions of salinity (and the associated accentuation of other flavors) are likely to be accordingly muted. This is why chefs should never presume to prevent diners from adding salt.
10