Mmmmmm, salt and bread. Two of my favorite things.
KC and I were talking just the other day about a former roommate of hers who forgot the salt in her homemade bread. She didn't find the result as charming as Fisher describes here.
I love salt. I salt my vegetables, my fruit, my orange juice. But like Fisher, I was raised to believe it is rude to salt food before you've even tasted it. And I agree that food is commonly oversalted, in restaurants especially. After eating in certain restaurants, I find myself completely parched a few hours later. And that does not give me a warm feeling about those restaurants.
My dad had high blood pressure, and his doctor recommended a salt substitute called NoSalt. We kept it in a special shaker by the stove. It tasted terrible. Poor Dad, he should have just eaten the salt.
"Good bread will forever send out its own mysterious and magical goodness, to all the senses, and quite aside from all the cookbooks, perhaps the best way to learn how to make it is to ask an old, wise, and, above all, good woman."
Amen, sister.
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8 comments:
Yes! I can't stand it when people dump a bunch of salt and pepper on food before tasting it. It's astoundingly rude.
I've told you about Rick's minimalist approach to salt. He basically doesn't add it to anything (except bread dough and whatnot). I find that hard to take, and I usually get out the shaker. I bet, though, it wouldn't take long to get acclimated to a much-lower salt diet.
Good bread and good women. Yes. Hallelujah.
I really like salt. I sometimes just pour some in my hand and eat it. I’ve also been known to eat boullion cubes.
I love freshly baked bread. I don’t have it very often. Sometimes my mom makes homemade rolls for holidays, as does Erin’s grandmother. The smell as the bread is baking is to die for.
I, too, like the part about not seasoning before tasting. It's on par with asking, at length, what is in a dish before tasting it when the person in question has no allergies or conscientous objector status, which a host should know about anyway. My co-worker is marrying a girl with appalling manners in this regard, who quizzed me on the contents of my punch at a bridal shower and then explained to the bringer of the cake why it didn't suit her.
People who are rude to hosts should come with a danger sign. If that's how they act around company ...
I don't tend to add salt. But I used to not do it growing up thinking that it was unhealthy to add sodium, where since then I've read that table salt isn't the culprit in our daily diets.
(I should probably worry about other factors, like calories and fat, before hemming and hawing over salt.)
I noticed in her sirloin steak grilling tips that she foregoes salt for soy sauce, which I dislike. I have a low-sodium brand, and even that has ruined some dishes I've made. Anyone else on soy?
LOVE soy. It brings a lot of flavor to the table. You just have to make sure to use it cautiously.
I love soy sauce. But it's easy to overdo it.
If you want to make a dish taste totally different (and very Korean), add a touch of sesame seed oil. A friend of mine named Moon-Bok taught me that.
Good rec, Ben. I do like sesame seed oil.
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