The Great PB Poll

Salt is one reason that dining out sometimes makes me crazy. I've just about given up ordering soup in a restaurant.

Sugar is the other reason dining out kills me, especially at some Asian restaurants where they may have little sense of balance.

Cynthia, there are times when in place of salt, I throw garlic in just before lifting the French fries out.

There is one other time when I would use salt, but since I don't bake bread much anymore...

Thomas - do you salt your pasta water?

No, John. I use lemon juice, when I remember to use it.

Actually using salt in pasta water results in very little making it into the pasta and most of it going down the drain. I often use a drizzle of olive oil on the water, but not usually salt.

I spoke with a friend that was forced by doctors orders to reduce his salt intake drastically and he said it was like stopping smoking - all of a sudden he could taste again (after an interlude of blandness before he 'detoxed' and got..unused to so much salt). When he went back to a commercial preparation that he'd always salted, he found that it had too much salt in it already, to his new taste.

Amazing what we can get used to - Larry is right about that. Otherwise how could people pop Habaneros in their mouths......

Cynthia,

I’m with your friend. I love salt..red salt, black salt , sea salt, garlic salt, onion salt….I probably use too much, but my yearly physicals are fine so I don’t worry about it.

Richard

Cooks in Italy seem to well-salt their pasta water, and marvel at the people in North America for whom this is unfashionable.

More interestingly maybe, the title story of Berton Roueché's classic popular medical-detection anthology, Eleven Blue Men (so classic that medical students are sent to it), describes how alcoholism depletes salt from the blood electrolytes. It leads to salt cravings. Could that be a factor for some wine drinkers?

In the story, it was a factor in eleven alcoholic men afflicted simultaneously with a rare chemical food poisoning that turned them temporarily blue (cyanosis). They all ate oatmeal for breakfast at a cheap cafeteria where, by mistake, sodium nitrite had been mixed into the table salt. (The nitrite robs oxygen from blood.) The concentration was low enough not to affect most people, but the oatmeal came salted, and all the men added much more salt to theirs.

I always thought that salting the water was to limit the temperature at which it boils.

Yeah, I don't think much salt makes it into the pasta, it all goes down the drain with the water

Salt does elevate the boiling point, but not very significantly. It's there for flavor.

IMH, the only reason for peanut butter to exist at all is as a flavoring for what would otherwise be a sugar cookie! Peanut butter cookies would be difficult to pull off without the addition of sugar and a pinch of salt. Therefore, I am neutral about the addition of either to said product.

"...To undersalt deliberately in the name of dietary chic is to omit from the music of cookery the indispensable bass line over which all tastes and smells form their harmonies." -- Robert Farar Capon.

-- "For example, it is a common fault of otherwise excellent Italian pastries that their sweetness wanders vaguely over the palate. Why? They lack the grounding that just a pinch of salt can give. Indeed, just as tasters add to tea a few drops of skim milk as a point of reference for their faculties, so there is hardly a cook in the world worth his or her ... Lapsang Souchong, shall we say ... who does not ask of every dish, 'Is the salt correct?' "

Actually using salt in pasta water results in very little making it into the pasta and most of it going down the drain.

Sorry Bill, I'm not buying.
Or the "very little" that makes it in is enough to make the pasta palatable.
I can't stand pasta that hasn't been cooked in salted water - it tastes so flat to me.
And once it's cooked that way, no amount of salt or grated cheese can rescue it at the table, for me anyway. I feel the same way about rice or potatoes.
And I am not a salter - I don't salt my food at the table, though I do cook with it.

I agree with Stuart. Salt does elevate the boiling point of water (and also lowers the freezing point), but you'd need such a heavy solution it would be inedible.

I have always figured (maybe wrongly?) that the small amount od salt the pasta might absorb from the boiling water was insignificant relative the the sauce you would use on it. Of course if the sauce is a simple oil and garlic or something, then I guess the salt water becomes much more significant.

I am certainly not against salt when necessary for the dish - I wouldn't serve seared foie gras without some coarse ground salt on it - but I am against (though not to the point of fanatacism) the use of NEEDLESS salt. We get so much of this that we are desensitised and need more and then more to have thinsg taste right to us.

Dare I draw a parallel with people used to drinking Parkerized fruit bombs, when presented with a subtle mature Burgundy, who instead of falling to their knees in admiration, loudly parrot "Where's the fruit?"

I always thought that salting the water was to limit the temperature at which it boils.

Yeah, I don't think much salt makes it into the pasta, it all goes down the drain with the water

Folks, a lot of you are really wide of the mark here.

I've been telling my students - literally for decades - the principal reason we add salt to a liquid is not to impart a salt flavor to the food we are cooking, but rather to retain the natural flavor already in the food!

Ever heard of osmosis? I think even the intelligent design folks will concede its existence.

Most of the foods we cook in water already contain natural salts. Most of the water we cook in has no - or very little - salt. Therefore the salt in the food, being eminently diffusable, will do its damnedest to equalize the salinity inside the food with lack thereof outside the food. In other words it hits the culinary road.

And when the salt migrates from the food to the liquid, it serendipitiously draws along with it flavor and nutrition.

By not salting a liquid in which one cooks solid food one is actually detracting from the "naturalness" and flavor of the food.

Ever heard of osmosis? I think even the intelligent design folks will concede its existence.

And when the salt migrates from the food to the liquid, it serendipitiously draws along with it flavor and nutrition.

By not salting a liquid in which one cooks solid food one is actually detracting from the "naturalness" and flavor of the food.

I can buy that - you are using an isotonic solution (or approximation) to preserve what is already in the pasta.

[Jenise]

My best friend uses tons of salt, and then adds more at the table. She even salts already-salted tortilla chips.

Not to denigrate your friend, but that's kind of pathetic. And I like salt--I definitely use it. But I can't imagine thinking that manufactured snack foods need more in the first place, nor can I imagine allowing myself to add more if I did think so.

the use of NEEDLESS salt

I have often tried to find this measure, but it has eluded me. Despite my forum signature, I have never been accused of having a heavy hand with the salt. Though, personally, I do love the taste and feel of salt on my tongue. I am open to allowing people to do their thing (...whatever that may be -- and, honestly, some of you are beginning to sound a little scary to me), and I don't find Cynthia's friend, who likes a liberal amount of salt in her surrounding pathetic at all -- she just has a different palate! Huh, interesting discussion.

I wonder if other folks crave salt at different times of the year. I know that I like salt better in hot weather, particularly if I'm working and sweating a great deal.

Not so much in cool weather, even if I'm working and sweating just as much.

Most of the time, I like the little explosions of salt I get from sea salt, but from time to time I want it, need it even, straight.

I am against (though not to the point of fanatacism) the use of NEEDLESS salt. We get so much of this that we are desensitised and need more and then more to have thinsg taste right to us. / Dare I draw a parallel with people used to drinking Parkerized fruit bombs, when presented with a subtle mature Burgundy, who instead of falling to their knees in admiration, loudly parrot "Where's the fruit?"

Yes, people get more than they need nutritionally without adding salt, if they ever use canned or prepared foods. Normally heavily salted, which gets the interest of consumers in focus groups or trial markets. (In the tradition of bright, loud, shiny things. Or fruit bombs.)

Salt is a cheap prop for otherwise-empty flavors. An article about this once mentioned that if you removed the salt, sugar, flavor enhancers, and cheap fats from products like commercial "chicken soup mix," what was left would taste like dishwater. (Several Jewish grandmothers were then enlisted for blind taste tests and they added lots of supporting comments, as well as some contrasting real recipes.) Made from fresh ingredients, without all these props, soups taste like soups.

Also Bill: Increasing the salt in pasta water will increase the salt noticeable in the pasta. Try a blind test sometime. (Advice from an applied scientist and inveterate food experimenter.)

Normally heavily salted, which gets the interest of consumers in focus groups or trial markets. (In the tradition of bright, loud, shiny things. Or fruit bombs.)

I've recently read "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. He spends some time talking about "sip tests" and how they work. Interestingly enough, in the case of Coke and Pepsi, it seems that they are not very useful (except as a marketing ploy), as a sip test is a completely different prospect than drinking an entire can/bottle of either soda. Which makes sense once it's put that way.

This made me think quite a bit about the process of wine tasting.

Oh, I agree completely. Unless you've killed an entire bottle, the wine doesn't have a chance to speak to you.

[Jenise]

Cynthia: Interestingly enough, in the case of Coke and Pepsi, it seems that they are not very useful (except as a marketing ploy), as a sip test is a completely different prospect than drinking an entire can/bottle of either soda.

Something a few of us repeat often about whether to trust the points in a WS review or the guy on Cellar Tracker who bought and drank the whole bottle.

[Jenise]

and I don't find Cynthia's friend, who likes a liberal amount of salt in her surrounding pathetic at all -- she just has a different palate!

Okay, pathetic was a poor choice of words. But I had in the back of my mind another certain person I know who also salts her tortilla chips (and then dips them in Ranch Dressing), and who puts ketchup and hot sauce on everything, and who basically can't enjoy simple, natural, honest flavors and that, I do think, is pathetic.

...and who basically can't enjoy simple, natural, honest flavors and that, I do think, is pathetic.

WOW!

and who puts ketchup and hot sauce on everything, and who basically can't enjoy simple, natural, honest flavors and that, I do think, is pathetic.

I often put hot sauce on foods, Jenise, not because I can't enjoy simple flavors, but that too many foods taste bland and unappealing without some seasoning, and I really enjoy the capsicum burn and resulting endorphin rush. That is why the spice trade has been such a big deal for millennia, and is also why chile peppers have spread 'round the world in the few centuries since their "discovery" in the Americas. I rarely add salt to anything except small amounts while cooking some dishes to enhance flavors, but much more often will add a dash of black pepper or crushed chiles and/or various fresh and dried spices, as a means of livening up the natural flavor. Even a fresh from the vine heirloom tomato tastes better with a tiny dash of sea salt and a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper - too my taste buds, anyway.

To get this thread back to peanut butter, unsalted peanuts are bland without a little salt, but it doesn't take much to really make the peanut flavor pop.

I always thought that salting the water was to limit the temperature at which it boils.

Yeah, I don't think much salt makes it into the pasta, it all goes down the drain with the water

Folks, a lot of you are really wide of the mark here.

I've been telling my students - literally for decades - the principal reason we add salt to a liquid is not to impart a salt flavor to the food we are cooking, but rather to retain the natural flavor already in the food!

Ever heard of osmosis? I think even the intelligent design folks will concede its existence.

Most of the foods we cook in water already contain natural salts. Most of the water we cook in has no - or very little - salt. Therefore the salt in the food, being eminently diffusable, will do its damnedest to equalize the salinity inside the food with lack thereof outside the food. In other words it hits the culinary road.

And when the salt migrates from the food to the liquid, it serendipitiously draws along with it flavor and nutrition.

By not salting a liquid in which one cooks solid food one is actually detracting from the "naturalness" and flavor of the food.

Your explanation of osmosis is not quite correct. In osmosis, the solvent--not salt (the solute)--moves from the solution of lower concentration (the hypotonic solution) to the solution of higher concentration (the hypertonic solution).

In other words, if there is no salt in pasta water, the water (hypotonic) migrates into the pasta (hypertonic) to equalize the concentrations, which lessens the salt concentration in the pasta.

If the pasta water is salted, depending on its concentration, the migration of water is minimized or reversed.