Posted by Robyn Lee, August 18, 2008 at 7:30 PM
"Given the importance of seasoning, it's odd how often it is overlooked in recipe books," notes Bee Wilson in her Telegraph piece on specifying quantities of salt in recipes. She points out that Indian chefs tend to be precise in specifying how much salt to use in a recipe and when to add it, but other chefs will list salt or pepper without a quantity. Although this may work for accomplished chefs, "for the inexperienced cook it can be hard to judge."
My experience as an inexperienced cook lacking intuition is that not being told how much salt or pepper to use in a recipe usually results in something that tastes less than palatable. If I use too much I'll ruin my dish; if I use too little it'll taste bland. I'd rather err on the side of bland than something that tastes like a salt lick. Unfortunately, this means I cook more for sustenance than deliciousness. (On the upside, no one ever asks me to cook for them.)
How do you cook? Do you appreciate it when recipes specify how much salt to use or would you rather add what you see fit?
Posted by Robin Bellinger, June 24, 2008 at 3:30 PM
I thought I was past the part of my pregnancy where I worry about what to eat and onto the part where I worry about what we’re going to do with the kid when she’s out and about. But I just managed to find another source of concern, one I could have allayed easily enough at the beginning: most pregnant women should use iodized salt for cooking and seasoning, and I don’t.
The vast majority Americans are using iodized salt without even thinking about it. We began adding iodine to much of our salt in the 1920s, after the draft during World War I revealed the extent to which hypothyroidism, a result of iodine deficiency, plagued the population. Thanks to the fortified salt the problem all but disappeared, which was an especially happy occurrence for women of childbearing age: hypothyroidism can make it difficult for a woman to conceive, and if she does conceive her baby’s brain development will be more or less severely impaired by her condition.
I came across this fact for the first time last week, and a worried little light bulb went off in my head. I checked the pantry, and sure enough the kosher salt I use for cooking and the shmancy sea salt I use for seasoning are not iodized. I cook almost everything I eat myself, so I wasn’t getting iodized salt from processed food or restaurants. Had I significantly lowered our daughter’s IQ or done even worse with my salt snobbery?
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America's fat problem: "I say unto you: Fat is good! Fat is necessary. Ask any chef. Fat does not make you fat, eating too much makes you fat! We aren’t filling our bodies with sodium because of the box of kosher salt we use to season our food, we’re doing it with all the processed food that’s loaded with hidden salt. And American cooks and American diners need to understand the differences."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 19, 2007 at 3:14 PM
Adrienne of Nosheteria on the wonder that is salt-baked potatoes: "Salt and potatoes but not salty potatoes. Baked but not oven-roasted. Toasty warm but not crisp skinned. Simple to make and impressive when brought out of the oven. Why hadn't I ever thought of this? Because now, it's the only way I want to eat new potatoes."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 1, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Today's à la carte: "How many times have you seen a recipe instruct you to “season with salt and pepper”? This is incorrect! You season with salt, but you flavor with pepper. Yes, pepper is a flavoring, not a seasoning. And it’s only one of the flavorings used in French cooking."
