“Back to the salt mines.” My dad used to say that when we went to work and I often wondered what a salt mine was like.
Today I am writing about it. What got me interested is a book I have Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat, which is a really fun cookbook subtitled “Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking.” So I am sharing a few thoughts from that book and other sources.
Salt is essential for life and saltiness, along with sweetness, sourness, bitterness and savoriness, is a fundamental taste. And humanity has a long history of finding and using salt. Ancient processing sites have been discovered in Romania and China dating back to around 6000 B.C. Salt comes from evaporating sea water or mining, and until the industrial revolution, mining was one of the most dangerous jobs because of dehydration from breathing salt dust and having it on the skin, so prisoners and slaves did most of the mining. Salt was prized in ancient days as a food preservative, along with needing it to live, that at times it was more valuable than gold, and was brought by caravans over long distances to areas that had no salt. Today salt comes from evaporating sea water or mining ancient dried sea beds and there are mines throughout the world, some very deep, and here in the states, in places like Grand Saline, Texas and Saltville, Virginia.
Below you will learn something about salt and food, but one quick note from the internet: Sodium chloride (salt) has many industrial uses, like being the source of chlorine or used in making plastics, and only 3% of production is related to food and eating.
We need salt to maintain proper blood pressure, for our nervous system, muscle movement, and nutrition delivery in our bodies! We cannot store salt internally so we need to eat it. Ms. Samin says ”We are hardwired to crave salt to ensure we get enough of it…. Salt makes almost anything taste better, so it is hardly a chore to add it to our food.”
According to the author, there are 3 main types of salt we use in cooking: common table salt, kosher, and sea salt. Table salt is the finest and most dense and is what is in your saltshakers. Because it is dense, it is the saltiest, and may be twice as salty as other types (so use less). Avoid added iodine because it can taste a little metallic. If you need or want iodine, then look up natural ways to get it, like in dairy or seafood. Kosher salt: this salt has no additives and the two main brands are Morton and Diamon Crystal and because they are processed differently Diamond is less salty than Morton, and dissolves twice as fast as table salt, which is helpful to know when you are salting your food to taste. Sea salt: two types are refined or natural. The latter is processed through slow evaporation (years) vs. boiling sea water in a vacuum. Natural types are more labor intensive to process and so cost more.
So back to taste. Salt affects flavor, which is a combination of taste and aroma (what we smell). We can taste salt, but it also releases aromatic compounds in food, helping us smell, and increasing the pleasure of food and eating. It also reduces bitterness and increases sweetness. This makes sense now as to why I like my wife’s chocolate chip cookies when she sprinkles some kosher salt on them!
From the book “This flavor unlocking is also one reason why professional cooks like to season sliced tomatoes a few minutes before serving them so that, as salt helps release the flavor molecules that are bound up within the tomato proteins, each bite will taste more intensely of tomato.“ Try this with some grapefruit juice: take a sip, and then add a pinch of salt and see if you think it becomes less bitter and more sweet!
Let’s go eat something.
Cheers,
Dan