SALT—NATURE’S MAGIC INGREDIENT
Let’s talk about salt. It’s magical because it does so many things. One, animals simply cannot live without some salt in their system. Two, in food, it enhances flavor if used properly. Three, it tenderizes meat. Four, it plays a definite role in baking. Five, it texturizes meat and breads. Five, it acts as a preservative. What else do you know that does so much?
What is the source of salt? Salt is a mineral that originally is from the sea. “Sea salt” is, technically, redundant because all salt originates there. It is not a land based mineral, although salt can be mined, but those mines are the remnants of long-ago seas.
In terms of cooking, what kinds of salt are there? Let’s start with the most common and move to the more exotic.
Table salt. Simple refined table salt is as common as eggs, milk, or butter. The particles are rather small which allows easy dissolution as well as sprinkling. Most table salt contains iodine, which subtly distorts its flavor profile.
Kosher salt. Kosher salt is obtained from either mining or evaporation. Kosher salt is not necessarily “kosher” within the Jewish meaning of that word. It is labeled “kosher” because it is used to prepare kosher foods. Some salt can be officially kosher, in which case it will bear the kosher certification. One of the benefits of Kosher salt is that it is free of additives, which makes it attractive to chefs. The shape of kosher flakes is different from table salt (Kosher salt flakes are larger) and more useful in seasoning.
Sea Salt. Although all salt is derived from a sea, salt designated as “sea salt” is specifically derived from evaporation of ocean water. Sea salt itself comes in a variety of forms, depending on the cook’s needs.
Fleur de Sel. An expensive salt that is collected from salt ponds along the coast of France. It comes in thin, flaky crystals that makes it good as a finishing salt. Add it just before serving to steaks or desserts.
That is not a full list of salts, but gives you an idea of the variety of salts available to you as you cook. Salt is so important that a number of books have been devoted just to that mineral. A few are: Kurlansky, Salt: A World History; Bilderback, Salt—The Essential Guide to Cooking With the Most Important Ingredient in Your Kitchen; Gubler, The Salt Book: Your Guide to Salting Wisely and Well; DiNicolantonio, The Salt Fix: Why the Experts Got it All Wrong to name a few. One of my favorite books, Nosrat, Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat devotes about a quarter of her book to salt. Wolke, What Einstein Told His Cook has a full chapter devoted to salt
How do we cook with salt? Since salt is the sine qua non (I use that phrase only to remind you that I am a lawyer) of cooking, how do we use it? When and what do we salt? The answer to those last two questions is almost continually and almost everything. So, suppose you are making dinner and, among other things, you are going to have a steak, asparagus, and mashed potatoes.
First, the steak. At least three hours before you cook the steak (on a BBQ, on a griddle, or in the oven) you need to sprinkle salt on both sides of the steak and return it, covered in wrap, to the frig. By the time you retrieve the steak (an hour before cooking) from the frig, the salt will be gone. It will have been absorbed into the steak with beneficial results.
Second, the asparagus. If you are boiling the asparagus, throw a couple of pinches of salt into the water before inserting the asparagus. That will help the asparagus cook a little faster and enhance its flavor. Any other cooking method should be preceded by a sprinkling of salt directly on the asparagus.
Third, the potatoes. Assuming you are boiling the potatoes before mashing them, salt the water. Not as heavily as you would for pasta, but a couple of teaspoons full, more or less, depending on how much you are cooking. Then, as you mash, taste the potatoes for salt. You will need more than what was in the water, but your taster needs to tell you how much.
So, let’s talk about salt and cooking. Most recipes will instruct you to add salt “to taste”. The authors of those recipes assume that you are tasing your food as you cook (which we have established, you are). The reason for that assumption is that all good cooks do taste their food as they cook. Some foods, of course, cannot be tasted as they cook, so we leave the tasting to the end. A few of those foods we should not taste before being cooked are raw ground pork and poultry; baking dough and batters are a couple of other examples. But, otherwise, taste as you go is the good cook’s mantra. You are not just tasting for salt, of course, but checking the food for salt balance is a critical part of the cooking process.
Timing is rather important in cooking. Depending on what you are preparing, you might add salt at the beginning (season meat and poultry with salt and pepper before cooking is usually a good move) whether you are cooking protein or vegetables. Soups, though, will usually benefit from periodic additions of salt, as your taste dictates. Some sauces and gravies will benefit from salt just before serving.
Those are my thoughts about salt. Is it any wonder why I call it a magical ingredient?