Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I agree with a number of comments here, esp. about how adding salt during the cooking process is different than at the table. Although salt is salt chemically, different processes yield different shapes of crystals and determines whether salt adheres to food or bounces off.

Besides preferences and conditioning to different amts of salt, there is a decided range in human sensitivity to seasoning. What I taste may be quite a bit more or less sensitive than what you taste. No cookbook could ever account for all of this, your best bet is cooking to your own or family's tastes.

What about Cascadian Farms? You're illustration shows 10 packages, but you said that you sampled 14. What were the other four? Thanks.

If you change your name to 50 Cent, I think you give up certain rights to the use of your name. It will be a sad day for free speech if he gets a dime. Oops! I hope that's not been taken too!.

I'm not sure how "novel" this is. Ever look at the egg in an Egg McMuffin? I don't know what they use at McDonald's, but I bet it looks a lot like a muffin tin. And cheddar cheese, bacon or ham. I don't want to be a drag, but I think we're re-inventing a wheel here. My favorite always has been with sausage.

Oh dear! Salt can be tricky for a new cook, in all the ways others have mentioned. I hope I can add a little :)

When a recipe calls for "salt to taste" it means taste it first, then if you think a little salt would help, add some, "because most people who have tasted this recipe like a bit of salt with it."

I break "rules" all the time, mostly regarding seasoning; I encourage new cooks to experiment, too--except in baking where precise measurements are much more important. As I eat a lot of raw foods, it's easy for me to pick up a cucumber, tomato, radish, celery stalk, lemon, orange, cantaloupe or watermelon and just take a bite. From there I can choose salt, pepper, vinegar, cheese, etc. or nothing at all. But my taste preferences will likely be different from yours. Say I'm making chicken broth: I add a lot of onions and celery, plus lemon juice--those nearly negate the need for salt.

Salt is one of my favorite seasonings (and crucial in preserving), but because I like the look, feel and taste of the expensive or imported ones (Maldon is my most affordable), I save it for garnish and wouldn't (i.e., can't afford to) put it in pasta water. In fact, I don't always put salt in pasta water, and maybe I should, but I got on a low salt kick and perhaps I just got lazy. The few times I cook pasta it's almost always in leftover veggie water, or with a bouillon cube (which is mostly salt), or some variety of seaweed.

By switching to a larger grain/flake size, I've found I use less salt--a goal one should consider, especially if you eat processed foods and/or don't read labels. If you've been eating "fast foods," you probably have developed a love for salt, but for the wrong reasons. Take French fries--ever tried oven fries? Slice (leave the peel on), toss with olive oil, a pinch or two or three of coarse salt and freshly ground pepper (add rosemary, yum!); cook until the texture appeals to you. Serve with dips or eat as is. They don't become nasty overnight like fast food fries do.

Depending on the soil, fertilizers, water conditions, etc., my celery may taste very different from my neighbor's. I'm no nutritionist, but excess sodium in many American's diets can cause health problems, as can sugar, fat, and other stuff that is OK in smaller doses, but devastating in larger amounts.

I hope these comments give new cooks some confidence :)

Hey Chefhorn - I don't use a blackberry, there are no subways where I live, and both my thumbs were lost in a horrible 'vagina dentata' incident years ago.

But it does sound like a challenge to type that way.

Hey FastFoodCritic - let me see you 1 thumb a response via a blackberry on a bumpy subway while holding a venti latte and see if you fare better!

Ha ha ha ha ha, Chefhorn!

But you forgot to mention that each of the people's tongues who will be tasting the final dish have to be individually measured to be sure the tastebuds are in the right places and extant then they must be swabbed and tested by the CSI Team for chemical sensitivities!

Only then can the correct salting process of the dish continue.

Heat a 1/8 inch thick, 99.9% pure aluminium ,10 inch saute pan to percisly 412F (use an infered surface probe calibrated to your exact elevation for accurate results) next measure the sugar content of the tomotes. Using the following excell spreadsheet, find the coorespnding cell that maches the brix content and add exactly the amount of salt caled for. make sure the the salt has less than 2% dissolved minerals...

THATS why you specific salt in recipes, because the factos that govern it's usage are so variable that it's impossible to specify..