The Gourmet Mama

Photo by Leonid Mamchenkov

Salt used to be a precious commodity. It`s an essential mineral and before the technology made the extraction of salt easy, it was extremely valuable. That`s why we say, “Worth his salt” . . . it was really worth a lot and some workers were even paid with salt. So if you were worth your salt, you were a very good employee.

While there has been a lot of hype about salt free diet, the truth is that salt is usually pretty good for you. In moderation. It brings out the flavors in the food and makes even bland items like pasta pop with taste.

Using salt is something that most people don`t know how to do properly. The best dishes will have salt incorporated right into them. That means, rather than sprinkling the salt on afterwards, you season the dish at the beginning. When you go to cook chicken breasts, for example, sprinkle it with salt before cooking. For pasta, the water should be salted. This technique allows for the salt flavor to penetrate the food and make it truly taste great.

How should you add salt? Sprinkling it from fairly high up is the best method of getting even distribution and preventing clumps of salty areas.