The Uses of Salt

> The Salt Crust
Cooking with a salt crust has the distinctive feature of retaining the heat and steam like a natural parcel. Meat and fish which are cooked with a salt crust must be salted because the salty flavour of the salt paste does not spread to the food that it wraps. However, if spices or scented herbs like laurel, thyme and garlic are mixed with the salt paste the food inside will be delicately flavoured.

> Salts and Marinades
Certain fish like anchovies or sardines are marinated in salt which cooks them slightly. Salt will ‘cook’ thin slices of meat or fish which are blanched by the salt. This is above all used for preparing sushi dishes whose accompanying sauces are salted.

> Salt and Meat
Salt will make meat ‘sweat’ until it releases the water or juice that it contains. This is why meat must never be salted before it has started to cook and has formed a thin, cooked layer on the surface which will prevent its juice from disappearing into the stock; otherwise the meat will be dry and not very tasty.

Salting meat before cooking has the following consequences:
- Colouring: salt prevents meat from browning regularly
- Taste: the meat’s juices contain the aromas
- Juiciness, tenderness: the juices are made from water and, when they escape, this dries the meat
- Salivation and chewing: the appearance of the meat is changed making it less appetising. The meat is also more difficult to chew because its texture has changed.

Salt is not added in the same way for very rare, rare, medium or well-done meat. Many cooks add salt after cooking for small portions and before the cooking for big portions. Those who salt before cooking often do this so that the salt will penetrate inside the meat and salt it through to the centre.

>  Salt and Stock
To obtain a very tasty stock, the cooking water must be salted immediately after adding the meat and vegetables which will release all their juices and flavours into the stock.

> Salt and Vegetables
Salt is used to ‘sweat’ the water from vegetables, making aubergines or cucumbers, for example, more digestible. Salt also contributes to the golden colour of pan-fried potatoes. Without salt, the potatoes would remain white. Adding salt to the cooking water of cauliflower will prevent the cauliflower from discolouring.

> Salt and Desserts
Salt brings out the sweet taste: salted caramel is a good example of this. In a salted caramel sauce, the salt in the lightly salted butter produces this sweet effect.
In pancake batter, salt brings out the flavour and works as a preservative, stabilising the batter which is living matter.

> Salt and Fruits
A few grains of salt will improve the flavour of a bland melon or not quite ripe strawberries!

At the table, salting heightens the perception of food in the mouth. However, it is important to taste the food before reaching for the salt cellar. Salt reveals the quality of food, starting with lettuces and tomatoes (salads).

Salt added to cooking water for food is mostly eliminated before the food is served to guests. Only very small quantities of salt penetrate the food.

 The ‘Whys’ of Salt in Cooking

> Why is it necessary to salt meat after initial cooking ?
If you salt before cooking, the juice of the meat and the fish will react by osmoses.
The water in these foods will travel from the most to the least concentrated environment, i.e. the cooking utensil. It is important to form a crust that will prevent the juice from escaping and subsequently drying the meat.

> Why do cooks prefer coarse salt when adding salt at the end of cooking
To really enhance the juices, give a crunchy taste and sharpen the salty tang of the food.

> Why is salt added to sweet desserts ?
Because of salt’s capacity to bring out flavours: salt wakes and brings out the aromas, sharpens the dessert and makes the sweetness tastier.

> Why does salt freeze ice cream more quickly ?
Salt melts at temperatures below 0°C which means it tends to cool ingredients with which it is mixed via heat exchange. Depending on its concentration in salt, the freezing point of the brine varies from 0 to -12°C.

> Why do we add salt to pulses halfway through cooking ?
Because if salt is added at the beginning of the cooking process it will make the pulses hard. Adding salt, when the pulses are already rehydrated and softened by partial cooking, seasons the pulses without hardening their skin.

> Why is it necessary to correct the seasoning at the end of preparation ?
Because we only salt moderately during the various cooking stages in order to make sure excess salt is not used which would be impossible to correct. When the composition and the cooking of the dish are finished, the seasoning must be checked and corrected if necessary.

> Why do we keep the salt which is recuperated from cod ?
Because this is a very aromatic salt which adds a very distinctive note to certain fish dishes. This custom was prohibited at the time of the gabelle (salt tax) as it was considered to be a type of fraud.

> Why is it important to salt the cooking water for vegetables ?
To completely salt these vegetables, of course and to partially prevent their mineral salts from escaping and dissolving in the water if the water was not salted.

   Tips and Hints

Adding a pinch of salt , by increasing their viscosity.
Adding a pinch of salt makes it easier to beat eggs, by increasing their viscosity.

   Salt Fusions

With the arrival of exotic restaurants, sweet and savoury dishes have become remarkably popular. Yet, this is not a recent custom: cookbooks in the Middle Ages show that this fusion of flavours was regularly used.

From the more traditional duck à l’orange to caramelised pork, this culinary combination gives free rein to everyone’s imagination.

There is a tendency to believe that these two flavours are conflicting when, in fact, they are complementary.

Oriental cuisine is famous for two salt-based condiments. One is a sauce made from fermenting Soya beans in brine. The other sauce comes from the autolysis of fish in salt. This is Nuoc-Mâm sauce which is used in Vietnamese restaurants. It is similar to garum which was very popular in Rome from the first century BC.

Far from being there to hide a multitude of sins, salt gives a distinctive flavour to many items of food. If you are not convinced, take a cookbook. You will notice that, except for bread and the culinary practices where salt plays a key role, only a little salt is necessary for good food.

 To enhance the aroma of coffee, add several grains of salt to the ground coffee before adding the water. Not necessary if the water is soft.

To avoid smells and to reduce the smoke from cooking fat, throw coarse salt on the fire when barbecuing.

To clean snails and whelks by soaking them in salted water, macerate them in coarse salt and vinegar until they no longer foam; then rinse them and cook them in a court bouillon.

To peel certain thin-skinned vegetables (e.g. potatoes), scrub them in a tea towel with coarse salt.

To remove the skin from an eel, sprinkle the eel with fine salt and wait for 15 minutes; use the same method to scale fish.

To chill the contents of a bottle more quickly, put four or five soup spoons of coarse salt in the ice-bucket: the salt will quickly reduce the temperature.