When to add salt: chef tips

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Did you know that salt removes bitterness and enhances the sweet taste? Or that the timing of adding salt during cooking can significantly affect not only the taste, but also the texture and appearance? Here are some culinary tips that you might find very helpful.

Getting rid of bitterness

Salt has the magical property of suppressing bitterness, which is why some coffee drinkers add a pinch of salt to their coffee before brewing. And that is why salted olives are so delicious (raw olives have a very bitter taste). It is very simple to check this property: you need to put salt on one side of the tongue, and something bitter on the other. You will immediately feel how the salty taste overpowers the bitterness.

Add some sweetness

This applies to those products in which both bitter and sweet taste are present. A good example of a similar product is grapefruit. The sweet flesh of this fruit is encased in a bitter, thin film. If you remove this film, you can enjoy the sweetness. You can also leave the film on (which is quite a hassle), but instead add a little salt and the bitter taste will go away. Moreover, salt not only removes the bitter taste, but also enhances the sweetness.

Enhancing the aroma

In addition to removing bitterness and enhancing the sweet taste, salt also enhances the aroma. For example, if you add salt to a grapefruit or melon, the flavor will become sweeter and stronger.

When to salt?

The timing of adding salt to various foods can have a significant effect on their flavor and aroma.

Legumes. Beans are not recommended to be boiled in salted water, as this will cause them to become tough and crack.

Mushrooms. Mushrooms also need to be salted only at the very end of cooking, otherwise they will turn out sluggish, wrinkled and not so fragrant.

Meat and sauces. If you want your sauces and meat dishes to reveal their full flavor, they need to be salted at the very beginning of cooking. Do you remember the recommendations for steak preparation: beat off, salt, pepper and leave to rest for 15 minutes.

Paste. Usually cooks salt water, which is just starting to boil, and only then add pasta to the salted boiling water. Also, many add very little pasta water to the sauce for this very pasta.