Regular readers will notice my constant use of salt. I make very very few things that don’t have at least a bit of salt in them and have found, when asked to quick-fix other people’s cooking (help! the stew isn’t right! is there a food writer in the house?) that nine times out of ten the problem is that they didn’t use enough salt.
But salt is so bad for us. Except it’s not. Especially for those of us who avoid processed foods and mainly eat our own cooking. Properly seasoned home cooking is never going to get anywhere close the levels of salt used in the manufacturing of food or even restaurant food. So I don’t just salt, I salt often, in layers: a little bit at each or at least a few stages of cooking. Salt added at the end for seasoning is great, but it can never replace the physical (or is that chemical?) difference salt used while cooking makes.
All this to say that I came home from my stint in Portland last night to a dinner party already in progress in my house. It was a bit surreal, but I had signed off on it. Our house guest cooked and, as is his custom, did not use any salt. He is of the belief that people should be able to season their own food at the table. Which would be fine, but noodles cooked without salt can never recover their own flavor after the fact, fish cooked without that sprinkle of salt cannot recapture the oomph of savory delight the salt provides. So I sprinkled plenty of salt on my portions, but ate meagerly because now the food, instead of tasting like its best self, tasted of a bland and flaccid version of itself with salt on top.
All this to say that I fervently wish we had a store like The Meadow in San Francisco. It sells chocolate, wine, flowers, and salt. Yep, salt. Dozens and dozens of crazy, beautiful, delicious, different finishing salts that range from crystal-pure white to black as volcanic mud, from lightly salt-like to smoky or truffled. They even sell salt slabs you can heat up and cook on. I had carry-on, so the slab stayed behind. Luckily for us all The Meadow accepts internet orders.
Hannah | 29-Apr-09 at 8:56 am | Permalink
I agree so very completely! My boyfriend makes fun of me for my insistence on salting while cooking and the constant presence of sea salt in our house, but it really does make all the difference in the world!