Salt

Where does one begin a food blog?

God created man.  Man needed to eat.  Food was created.  But it was bland.  So God said, Let there be SALT!

That’s where we start --SALT of the earth.

Simple, right?

I’ll just head over to my highly-organized (ahem!) pantry and pull out salt.  Okay, here’s the Diamond Crystal stuff that I order on Amazon because my grocer doesn’t carry it.  The chunky sea salt, the kosher sea salt, the French Grey salt, the pink salt, the fine-grain sea salt, the Fleur de Sel, the truffle salt, which is great on eggs – and that’s just the first shelf!

Then to make matters even less simple – they all vary in saltiness when measured to the exact same proportion – 1 tsp of pink salt doesn’t equal the saltiness of 1 tsp of grey salt, and so on.

There is a recipe cure for not-enough-salt -- just add more!  Sadly, the remedy for too-much-salt is somewhat less savory.  The fixes range from cooking twice as much as originally planned, to adding masses of potatoes.  The final foolproof cure – cram it down the Insinkerator with both fists and start all over again!

The good news is being salt-challenged as I have been during my entire cooking career is not a poor-chef characteristic, but rather a misnomer associated with thinking salt is created equal. I assure you all salts are not.

I was lucky enough to have gotten my hands on true fleur-de-sel.  This was before Amazon bought Whole Foods Market, who has since removed the product from their aisles.  It was available in the bulk section for some ridiculous price like $45 an ounce.  Being the curious cook I had to try it.  I got about $10 worth and used it as a finishing salt for a few precious dishes.  The results opened my eyes wider than silver dollar pancakes.  It was as if I’d never experienced salt before.  Imagine food flavors enhanced without tasting like salt had really been added. Obviously, it’s beyond description, and the less expensive options labelled as fleur-de-sel are nothing like what I experienced with the real deal.    

Pink salt is slated as nutritionally complete.  I have found that for cooking purposes, it doesn’t measure consistently.  These days, I use Diamond Crystal – a recommendation from the kitchen gurus at Bon Appetit Magazine, for they too have been victims to the varying ranges of salt.

According to the Bible, if salt loses its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?

The foregoing observations are to be taken –yes – with a grain of salt!