My Cookbook Club Adventures: Month One
Salt Food From the Inside Out
This one technique will elevate your cooking
“Where would we be without salt?” — James Beard
Seasoning food with salt is tricky. Too little and you’re adrift in a sea of blandness. Too much and you may have to toss what you’re making and order pizza. Complicating matters further is that salt is a dietary villain, one of the no-no ingredients.
Let’s address that right now: some people do need to pay closer attention to their salt intake than others. Unless you’ve been told by your doctor to limit your salt consumption, you can relax about your sodium intake from home cooked food. Cutting back on highly processed, packaged foods is the best way to keep salt consumption in check.
I never thought much about salt’s role in food preparation beyond being pepper’s sidekick. Now I know better. Salt’s job is to enhance and deepen flavor. By enhancing flavor, salt increases the pleasure we experience as we eat. In fact, salt has a greater impact on flavor than any other ingredient.
“Use salt better. Add it in the right amount, at the right time, in the right form. A smaller amount of salt applied while cooking will often do more to improve flavor than a…
