Salt...

[crgildart]

 

[François Pugh]

Likely a result of cutting out all store-bought prepared food and French fries (and potatoes and most starch). Meat, fresh fruit and vegetables don't come with a lot of salt.

 

[James]

If you haven’t seen the Netfliz series Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, I highly recommend watching it. The episode on Salt is relevant to this discussion. https://www.netflix.com/title/80198288

Get the book. I thought the first two episodes were pretty good. Cinematography is amazing and you get to see how olives are picked in a small grove on a steep hill.
Content wise, it starts to get diluted after the first two. How many minutes do we need to spend on people having family style meals? So cliche and boring at this point.

Salt is a seasoning.

Thomas Keller:
Think about salt -- it’s really one of the two seasoning agents that we have, acid being the other. And I mean salt, not pepper, because we always think of salt and pepper together. Pepper actually adds flavor or changes flavor.

Salt enhances flavor. We say, "Wow, that dish was bland." It was bland because it wasn’t seasoned properly, seasoned with salt. It’s a very interesting ingredient to be able to get comfortable with...
—————————

3 tips for the home cook from Thomas Keller

Chef Thomas Keller, author of Ad Hoc at Home, explains how to season food with salt and vinegar, and why you should temper your food.

www.splendidtable.org

I recall him saying the number one thing on a new chef needed was learning to season properly. Ie., how to salt.

I think putting a half a teaspoon in 3-4liters of water to cook pasta is absurd. Used to do it that way too. Might as well skip it.

Try a 1% solution. At least. That’d be 30-40gms/3-4liters.

 

[scott43]

Do we go near MSG??

https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/2018-10-10/scientists-have-known-msg-is-safe-for-decades-why-dont-most-americans

 

[cantunamunch]

Do we go near MSG??

Do you mean to include E631 ? If yes, then make it at least 2 of @James 6tsp salt /US gallon pasta water.

 

[Tex]

As a general rule, yes salt and pepper on everything, 50/50, that is the foundation, the starting point. You adjust from there, normally down on the salt%. Put always pepper.

 

[Sibhusky]

We have a salt grinder, but it's not on a chain. Personally, I think my husband oversalts things. I've trained him to not use salt (especially kosher salt!) when he's cooking and I'll add it myself later. I think maybe my meds make me hypersensitive to it.

 

[cantunamunch]

Well, for some of us chopping the onion is the real starting point, but on pepper.

Ofc, pepper changes the longer you cook it, so there is that.

 

[KingGrump]

Do we go near MSG??

https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/2018-10-10/scientists-have-known-msg-is-safe-for-decades-why-dont-most-americans

Not tonight. I have a headache. Oh, but Darling, Of course it's not you. It's the MSG in the Chinese food.
Birth of another urban myth.

There is nothing wrong with small quantities of MSG as a flavor enhancer. However, in larger quantities, it can cause the kidney to work overtime to excrete it.
We can often discern when food is over salted. MSG and other flavor enhancers are much more subtle. We often cannot directly discern their presence. A large dose of flavor enhancers can often sneak by without much notice.

If I am overly thirsty after a restaurant meal, that is a good sign they used tons of flavor enhancers. Most of the chemicals involved get to the table via package food ingredients less expensive restaurants used to expediate their food preparations.

 

[Tex]

Well, for some of us chopping the onion is the real starting point, but on pepper.

Ofc, pepper changes the longer you cook it, so there is that.

I would agree but not always time to chop onion.

 

[Uncle-A]

My wife cooks with a small amount of salt and I have not picked up a salt shaker in over 50 years.

 

[mdf]

I recall him saying the number one thing on a new chef needed was learning to season properly. Ie., how to salt.

James and I had the argument about the proper amount of salt in real time in Wegmans in Colorado as we examined all the brands of butter to find the one with the highest fat content.

Neither one of us is budging.

 

[James]

James and I had the argument about the proper amount of salt in real time in Wegmans in Colorado as we examined all the brands of butter to find the one with the highest fat content.

Neither one of us is budging.

But...it was unsalted butter.

 

[Tony S]

This is a thread I can get into.

 

[scott43]

But...it was unsalted butter.

Does butter have a purpose of it's unsalted??

 

[scott43]

But...it was unsalted butter.

Does butter have a purpose of it's unsalted??

 

[Tony S]

Does butter have a purpose of it's unsalted??

Oh no. I feel a rant coming on.

 

[Tony S]

Does butter have a purpose of it's unsalted??

Salted butter is the culinary equivalent of a shotgun medication. Right, @Rainbow Jenny ?

 

[James]

Does butter have a purpose if it's unsalted??

I use to think that too.
Cooking.
In the case of shopping with @mdf it was for croissants. Don’t want it for those, too much salt, though I’ve never actually tried it.

 

[Ogg]

Does butter have a purpose of it's unsalted??

Only for baking.