I’ve received a heap of emails the last day from folks arguing that they really can taste the difference between different kinds of salts, especially products like “smoked” salt. I concede that these folks have a point, but I’d argue that smoked salt isn’t actually a “gourmet” salt but rather a flavored salt. These types […]
READ ONPart of the reason, as I said yesterday, is merely caché. Yet there are some other good reasons why many chefs prefer to work with flake salt. For one, it’s easy to pick up. And I mean that literally. Granules of table salt run from between your fingers like tiny ball bearings when you try […]
READ ONWould you believe salt crystallization is a force that can literally move mountains? Actually, I suppose “erode” is a more accurate term. Mountains on the shores of seas, salt lakes or salty streams are prone to erosion when salt water soaks into them. When the water evaporates the salt it leaves behind crystallizes, prying stone […]
READ ONRemember the below post about salt suppressing bitterness? Turns out that ain’t just Joe blowin’ steam. Thanks to reader Kelly H. for the tip!
READ ONTrace impurities may not have much impact on the way a salt tastes, but the size and shape of the salt crystals definitely do. Again, not because the salt is any different chemically, but because crystals of varying sizes and shapes have different surface areas, and so dissolve at different rates. Salt grains come in […]
READ ONAs I wrote late last week, I’m not a big believer in “gourmet” salts. I don’t set a table with half a dozen different colored salts in little finger bowls. All the fuss over salt these past few years, well…it’s just a lot of hooey in my opinion. All “eating” salts are chemically identical: NaCl, […]
READ ONIt occurred to me that this would be the perfect recipe for a week devoted to the subject of salt. These tantalizingly salty chocolate cookies are a type of sablé (“sandy”) cookie originally created by Pierre Hermé. The recipe was translated to English by Dorie Greenspan, and appeared in her book Paris Sweets. There, Greenspan […]
READ ONSalt also has some very interesting properties that impact taste indirectly. Notably, its tendency to give up some of its chemical energy as it dissolves. This happens whenever salt comes into contact with anything wet. In the mouth, it results in minute electrical charges being delivered directly to the taste buds. It’s a very minor […]
READ ONI mean, why not? There’s already a lively discussion going on about it in my in-box. So what they hey? It’s a pretty darn interesting subject. The chemical world is filled with all manner of salts. However the particular salt we think of as “salt” is sodium chloride (NaCl). It’s an inorganic compound, the only […]
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