A friend recently told me that every ingredient should be salted as it is added to a dish when cooking. Really!?
--Lynn
Cooking is full of a lot of myth and pretense, and perhaps even a little interference from special interests, and salt seems to be one of the big ones, nowadays (see Salt [of the Earth], and Fixing Over-Salted Food).
I have two major problems with this particular fad. First, and I think foremost, is that most of us are already getting way too much sodium in our diets. It makes food taste better and we need salt as part of our diets, but the USDA Dietary Guidelines suggest that we should limit our consumption of salt to less than 2,300 milligrams (mg) per day, if we are under 51 years of age, and 1,500 mg if we are older. 2,300 mg is the amount of sodium in only one teaspoon of table salt. The lesser amount, 1,500 mg, is just less than 2/3 of a teaspoon. And that is sodium from all sources consumed throughout the day, including not just the salt you sprinkle on, or the salt in packaged foods, but also sodium in the baking soda or powder used to make cookies, biscuits, cakes, etc.. At present, the average American gets about 3,400 mg of sodium a day, or about half again the maximum recommended amount. Adding salt at each step just increases the chances that you will have way too much salt in the final product, from both the health and flavor points of view.
Second is simply, can you tell the difference? Here is the experiment to construct. Cook two identical versions of the same dish, one where the salt is added at each step, and one where the same amount of salt is added at one time, preferably toward the end of preparation. Now have a bunch of friends taste the two dishes, without knowing which is which, and preferably mixing it up so some start with dish "A" and others with dish "B". If you have enough tasters and they can consistently tell which is which, then go with that. My bet is they won't know the difference, particularly on longer cooked dishes like stews.
There are reasons, however, why you might want to salt a particular ingredient. If you are making caramelized onions, for instance, some salt at the start of cooking helps to draw out water and soften the onions faster. Salt also draws water out of eggplant (aubergine) and cucumbers. In the case of eggplant, it can significantly change the texture, too. Salting meat may help encourage the Maillard reaction, creating a more flavorful dish. There is at least one dish I cook where I deliberately under-salt during cooking and then add salt at the table because it brightens the flavor.
Used strategically, salt enhances flavor and texture, helps in preserving, and speeds cooking. Used recklessly, it can ruin the taste of food and be a contributing factor in health problems.
If you feel you must salt at every step, then don't just throw salt in from your salt shaker (cellar, box, pig, ...). Instead, read the recipe, measure out the total amount of salt beforehand, and then use small pinches from the pre-measured amount. If there recipe doesn't provide a total amount, or says something like "Salt to taste", then you need to use your judgment, but you would still be wise to pre-measure the amount of salt you intend to use. In either case, aim to use half to two-thirds the salt you have set aside so you have some left over at the end to adjust the seasoning once the dish is complete.
Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward
Tales from an Old Salt
Salt, whether of the table salt variety or harvested by vestal virgins under a full moon in October contains almost no iodine, unless it is added. According to M. G. Venkatesh Mannar, Executive Director The Micronutrient Initiative Ottawa, Canada, and John T. Dunn, Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A.1:
Mother liquor is the liquid part of a solution that is left over after crystallization. In other words, when salt is made by evaporation of sea water, the small quantity of iodine that was in the water stays there and does not precipitate out in significant amounts when salt crystals drop out of solution.
The main dietary sources of iodine are seafood, sea vegetation, such as kelp, and until recently dairy products. With recent changes to sanitary practices at dairy operations, the amount of iodine found in dairy products is decreasing in some parts of the world2. It is also found in foods supplemented with iodine and in vegetables grown in iodine rich locations, typically close to the ocean.
Iodine is added to table salt not to make up for it not being found in salt deposits, but because in some places there is not enough iodine from local dietary sources to prevent the occurrence of goiters, an enlargement of the thyroid gland visible as a swelling of the front of the neck, and cretinism in infants from a deficiency of iodine in the mother's diet during pregnancy. The Great Lakes, Midwest, and inner mountain areas of the United States were once called the "goiter belt" because a high number of goiter cases occurred there3. Usually this is caused by iodine-poor soil.
The dietary requirement for iodine is about 150 micrograms (μg) daily for adults, less for children and more for expecting mothers4. Iodine is added to table salt, in the form of potassium iodide (KI) or potassium iodate (KIO3), in most, if not all, developed countries. In some coutries it may be added to flour also.
As for the rest of the 79 or so minerals, supposedly found in sea salt, the question isn't really what is there, but rather a) can you really taste a difference, and b) are any of those minerals essential for human health and otherwise absent from normal diets. If you are a frequent reader of KitchenSavvy, you have likely heard me riff on before about claims that you can taste the difference. If you have a really good sense of taste and a really mild food, then maybe. For most cooks in most recipes, I would hazard a guess that in a controlled, blind tasting of something like stew, you probably would never know what kind of salt was used.
So, this is the problem I have. Star chefs spout off recipes calling for sea salt, or flaky kosher salt, or salt harvested from the dark side of the moon. Readers and viewers happily follow the advice, paying exorbitant prices to buy specialty salts and the salt companies laugh all the way to the bank. Meanwhile, there is a very real risk to health, due to iodine deficiency, that is completely neglected. Combine that with a food fad like the 100 Mile Diet and you have a recipe for disaster!
For most foods, plain old boring table salt is all you need. As a garnish, or maybe in a few special cases, fancy salt may add something, but most of the time, it is just money down the drain.
Oh, and by the way, much of the time the colors in specialty salts are either impurities such as clay that are found in the water where the salt is harvested and have no nutritional value, or coloring agents, such as finely ground charcoal, that are added at the processor to make the salt look exotic.
_________
Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered, nor can we guarantee we will answer questions immediately
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward
Posted by Dave on Jan 29, 2012 | Permalink | Comments (0)
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