How To Salt a Dish
When you’re cooking, it’s not just about adding ingredients, you should always be paying attention to how much salt is actually in your dish. Using too much salt can make a dish taste like it’s been doused in sea water, while not enough can leave you with a bland meal.
Other ways to use salt besides as a seasoning, is it can be used to help preserve food. Salting the exterior of the meat before cooking can help to draw out moisture and prevent it from becoming tough. This method works great with chicken skin because it makes the skin easier to sear and it will help the skin to become crispy when searing.
You can even try brining the meat which is the process of submerging the meat into a solution of salt and water. It adds flavor, seasoning from the inside out, but it also changes the meat's physical nature. The salt in brine denatures the meat's proteins to allow the cells to retain more moisture.
When using salt in cooking, it's best to add it in small increments and taste as you go. This will allow you to control the level of saltiness in a dish and ensure that it is well-balanced. You definitely want to avoid over-salting your food because it can lead to a loss in quality from overcooking or undercooking. In order for your food to taste good when seasoned with salt, it should be cooked properly first! Don’t forget about that!
It’s also important to consider the type of salt you are using. Different types of salt have different levels of saltiness and can affect the flavor of a dish in different ways. Kosher salt has wider, coarser grains vs table salt. The wider grains salt food in a gentler way than table salt. Using kosher salt enhances the flavor of foods instead of making them taste salty
But how much salt should I add? That depends on what type of dish you're making and how much you'd like it to be seasoned with salt.
Let’s say you’re making a pizza and on that pizza you want to add some prosciutto. Prosciutto already has a salty flavor, adding too much salt to your pizza sauce may cause your pizza to taste over-salted because of the natural salt in the prosciutto.
You need to consider what ingredients you are using in your dish and if those ingredients have a natural saltiness. Salting each ingredient separately and then adding them together will also cause over-salting. You can lightly salt your ingredients and if you feel at the end that you need more salt then just sprinkle some on. You can always add salt, but you can never take salt away.
Conclusion
Overall, salt is an important seasoning that can help to bring out the natural flavors of ingredients and add depth to a dish. Just be sure to use it in moderation to avoid overwhelming the salt flavors in a dish.
If you enjoyed this post, check out our other posts about food, Savory Chefs. We’ll be adding new ones over time so you can keep up to date with the latest trends in the industry.
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