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Where do you stand on salt?

2

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 548 ✭✭✭Seomra Mushie


    rubadub wrote: »
    1g of sodium is 2.5g of salt

    100g of pat the baker white bread shows 0.5g sodium on tesco which is 1.25g of salt. 3 slices is 114g

    Aye, that's quite a sneaky trick on the part of food producers. A LOT of people would read sodium as salt.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,594 ✭✭✭oldrnwisr


    I think that salt is probably the most useful ingredient in the entire kitchen. I can't imagine not using salt in my food.

    Salt has a number of uses other than as a seasoning. It's important to add when sweating onions because it draws out the moisture and helps to sweat the onions quicker without them caramelising. It is also useful when making burgers since the salt draws out the myosin proteins from the meat making it hold together without the need for additional binders or flavours. It is, of course, also useful for curing meat and fish and for preserves such as pickles or my favourite, mushroom ketchup.

    I don't usually like appeals to authority but as far as I'm concerned the arbiter of such debates is Harold McGee and this is his take on salt:

    Harold McGee on Salt


  • Registered Users Posts: 64 ✭✭hiromoto


    I really wouldn't like to eat food a salt obsessive has prepared. Cook all your own food from scratch, season it properly and you'll be well within healthy limits and have lovely tasty nom noms.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,774 ✭✭✭Minder


    I grew up with salt and pepper on the table but haven't done that for decades. I season as I cook with salt and hardly ever with pepper. As said plenty of times on the thread, salt enhances the flavour of food. Pepper is a spice and changes the flavour of food. Pet hate - dusty pepper scattered over food in a blanket.

    The day will never arrive where I start paying any attention to the naysayers and doom merchants that dominate the airways with lifestyle advice. Too much red wine, too much sugar, fats are bad, too much red meat, too much of any colour meat, this is bad for you, you shouldn't eat that....

    Too much advice is BAD FOR YOU.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,184 ✭✭✭neuro-praxis


    hiromoto wrote: »
    I really wouldn't like to eat food a salt obsessive has prepared.

    What is a salt obsessive?


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  • Moderators Posts: 24,367 ✭✭✭✭ChewChew


    When we were growing up, when setting the table for dinner ya just had to put salt and pepper on the table! So I used to put it on all my food thinking I had too!! But a good few years ago, I stopped and actually realised I didn't even like the taste of salt so I Dont use it at all now!!

    I'll use it where a recipe says so, or if I'm making a homemade soup sometimes I'll put in a little. Mostly though if I am having people over, I will ask them if they want salt on the table. I find when seasoning its not always necessary as there are so many other herbs and spices I use so I don't miss salt in a seasoning.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,701 ✭✭✭jam_mac_jam


    Use it on some things, like potato. Generally if I cook with it I use very little. I don't think it deserves the bad name it has. If you are eating processed food all the time then you need to worry about it otherwise the odd sprinkle itsnt going to kill you.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 4,665 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tree


    Salt is nessecary for more than just flavour.

    In breads and pastas, the salt allows the gluten fibres to come closer together and tighten. You'll get a pasta with a better bite, or bread with more standing power if you use salt.

    Also, unless you eat horrendous amounts of salt (or have a genetic defect), you'll find your body is a pretty damn good regulator of salt, and your kidneys have mechanisms for balancing the blood electrolyte levels.

    Sensible amounts of salt are great and essential for cooking.


  • Registered Users Posts: 64 ✭✭hiromoto


    What is a salt obsessive?

    A member of the salt police.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,184 ✭✭✭neuro-praxis


    thanks for clearing that up


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,602 ✭✭✭emzolita


    same as most people I add ground rock salt to certain foods whilst cooking, instead of seasoning at the table. But has anyone seen that American Chef on the Food Network Barefoot Contessa?
    She's obsessed with salt. She doesn't use sea salt, but table salt. A recipe of hers for a salad dressing contained a TABLESPOON of tablesalt, and then more salt to season the salad afterwards. Dunno how she's on telly, she's awful.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,701 ✭✭✭jam_mac_jam


    ootbitb wrote: »
    your body thinks salt is poisonous.

    take a tablespoon of salt in a glass of water and you throw up.

    trust your body.
    Em no isn't your body would be in trouble without it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,194 ✭✭✭saa


    bread isn't something I eat daily but I hear rye crackers are very high in salt, I love them though, bit of phila. mmm.

    I love salt on scrambled eggs and a jacket potato, can't think of anything else I'd add it to. Used to put it on everything savory jaysus.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    Why do people use maldon sea salt cooking? surely the flakes'll dissolve and just taste the same as any sea salt or rock salt for that matter?


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,016 ✭✭✭✭vibe666


    i don't use it at all due to some kind of sensitivity which causes me to get severe (as in almost to the point of breaking limbs) cramps if i take in a lot of salt.

    i've changed my diet to cut out as much processed food as possible and it has subsided and rarely troubles me now, but even having salt on a bag of chips can set it off so i'm mindful to steer well clear of the stuff.

    it took a while for me to get the correlation between the cramps and my salt intake, but once i'd reduced it, it ceased to be a problem and the less salt i take in, the less i want to use, so i've never felt the need to push the envelope the other way, given the amount of pain and suffering it causes me!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,645 ✭✭✭Melendez


    This post has been deleted.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,016 ✭✭✭✭vibe666


    Melendez wrote: »
    This post has been deleted.
    that's the thing, anywhere i've seen mention of cramps and salt together, it always seems to be because of too little salt, not too much, but i've had it happen too often for it to be a coincidence.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,925 ✭✭✭aidan24326


    Minder wrote: »
    I grew up with salt and pepper on the table but haven't done that for decades. I season as I cook with salt and hardly ever with pepper. As said plenty of times on the thread, salt enhances the flavour of food. Pepper is a spice and changes the flavour of food. Pet hate - dusty pepper scattered over food in a blanket.

    The day will never arrive where I start paying any attention to the naysayers and doom merchants that dominate the airways with lifestyle advice. Too much red wine, too much sugar, fats are bad, too much red meat, too much of any colour meat, this is bad for you, you shouldn't eat that....

    Too much advice is BAD FOR YOU.


    This is true. There is so much nutritional advice out there and so much of it conflicting or even just plain wrong (baffling how a spoofer like GMcK still gets on tv). Best to use your own common sense about things, and eat a balanced diet overall. I'll admit to consuming more salt than I ought to though.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,016 ✭✭✭✭vibe666


    aidan24326 wrote: »
    This is true. There is so much nutritional advice out there and so much of it conflicting or even just plain wrong (baffling how a spoofer like GMcK still gets on tv). Best to use your own common sense about things, and eat a balanced diet overall. I'll admit to consuming more salt than I ought to though.
    as far as i can see, she's only on TV because she makes people poo in a box. i guess people don't have enough s**t on their TV as it is. :pac:


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,534 ✭✭✭KKkitty


    Being a mother of two I rarely use salt on their food. As far as my own is concerned I've started using less too. I'd use it to boil potatoes and when they're cooked I'd use pepper as a seasoning agent. If I was doing bacon for example for dinner I wouldn't use salt to season my food. Gillian McKeith annoys me telling people what not to eat. She looks haggard.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 22,734 ✭✭✭✭The Hill Billy


    [off-topic]

    Gillian McKeith (born September 1959)
    Gillian+McKeith+h4P1u2RdMdzm.jpg

    Nigella Lawson (born January 1960)
    l.jpg

    Ok, so Gillian is a few months older than Nigella, but you catch my drift...

    [/off-topic]


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,925 ✭✭✭aidan24326


    vibe666 wrote: »
    as far as i can see, she's only on TV because she makes people poo in a box. i guess people don't have enough s**t on their TV as it is. :pac:

    It's dumbed-down tv for the masses. She has no worthwhile credentials, her PhD is worthless, unaccredited, and unrecognised by any proper academic institution, and she's been exposed many times as being utterly clueless about the science of what she claims to be an expert in. We're digressing I know, but it's important that people realise she's a faker and a spoofer. I expect most people on this forum already know that, but obviously alot of people don't or else she wouldn't still be getting tv shows.


  • Registered Users Posts: 517 ✭✭✭rich.d.berry


    I love salt. I do a fair amount of exercise and perspire copiously when doing so. I find that afterwards I crave salt but don't use excessive quantities. A small packet of crisps tends to calm my craving.

    I eat mostly cooked from scratch meals with the occasional frozen pizza or battered fish and chips (once a week or so).

    I'm 48, my blood pressure is normal and I have no cholesterol problems. For me, exercise is the key.

    On a related topic - I seldom add salt to food once cooked, definitely not without tasting beforehand. I know of a few people who will sprinkle salt on their food without even tasting. Are there others who consider this rude, or is it just me? It's like they're implying that they don't trust my ability to flavour the food properly.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,969 ✭✭✭✭syklops



    On a related topic - I seldom add salt to food once cooked, definitely not without tasting beforehand. I know of a few people who will sprinkle salt on their food without even tasting. Are there others who consider this rude, or is it just me? It's like they're implying that they don't trust my ability to flavour the food properly.

    +1 to this. As someone who takes pride in his cooking, I think its the height of ignorance.


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,663 ✭✭✭✭the beer revolu



    On a related topic - I seldom add salt to food once cooked, definitely not without tasting beforehand. I know of a few people who will sprinkle salt on their food without even tasting. Are there others who consider this rude, or is it just me? It's like they're implying that they don't trust my ability to flavour the food properly.

    It's not just rude, it's stupid. How do they know if the food is oversalted for their taste already or not. When I see a person do that I automatically loose a little respect for them - whether I've made the food or not.


  • Registered Users Posts: 441 ✭✭Ddad


    +1. It might seem rude but I've refused salt to guests in my house because they asked for it before they tasted the food.

    "Can I have salt please?"

    But you didn't taste the food?

    "Yeah I know but I always add salt at home"

    Taste it and see if it needs salt.

    "It tastes nice, can I have the salt anyway":confused::mad:

    No, if it tastes nice you don't need it. I spent two hours cooking it to get it to taste nice and you wabt it to taste salty. No

    I've had the conversation a few times. Yep. I'm a control freak with food and seasoning. I don't have a light hand with salt either.;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 22,734 ✭✭✭✭The Hill Billy


    Taste is subjective. What tastes 'nice' & adequately seasoned to you - may be bland & under-seasoned to someone else - or indeed overly salty to another person.

    If I were not allowed to season the food I had been given to suit my own palate - I would be pretty pee'd off.

    Your guest most likely said that it 'tastes nice' when the fact of the matter was that it was bland to their palate, but they did not want to seem to offend (particularly if you are that fussy about the food you serve).


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,370 ✭✭✭✭rubadub


    How do they know if the food is oversalted for their taste already or not.
    Past experience I guess. If 99% of the time they ended up adding more salt in the past then some might do it automatically.

    If you are concerned about what your guests/customers like then it is safer to add less salt to a dish as it cannot be taken back out, but can always be added. So I would guess the average dish contains less salt than the average person would like.
    Ddad wrote: »
    "It tastes nice, can I have the salt anyway":confused::mad:
    They are hardly going to say "its not nice, can I have salt anyway". They are being polite, and obviously do think it will taste even better to them with more salt.

    I don't see the big deal, go to any chipper and you will see people asked "salt & vinegar?" answering, yes please/none/lots/a little bit. I always ask for lots myself, I see a wide variation in peoples taste for salt.

    Do any people out there try and guess how sweet people like their tea in advance? its a fairly similar idea.


  • Registered Users Posts: 441 ✭✭Ddad


    Fair enough, I see where your coming from.

    The point I was making is that a lot of people add salt without tasting their food. They've desensitised their palate to the taste of salt. Indeed, I think a lot of people have lost any sublety they once had in their palates and don't taste an iota unless it's salty as seawater. My mother, father in law and mother in law are all on blood pressure medication and they all add a shed load of salt automatically to anything they eat. I've seen them add salt to rashers!

    I put a lot of effort into the food I cook. I work hard at it and I'm good at it. It's insulting to see the food seasoned again at the table before it is tasted. It might seem arrogant but I'm not going to facilitate someone to mess up a dish and thrash their health while their at it.

    I have a special interest in salt and salt consumption as I've studied it and written some reports on it for some college courses I did in the past. Salt is potent stuff, particularly when it comes to health and it's abuse and that of processed carbs and fats is one of the major contributors to the ill health of a lot of our older relatives. I'm making a stand for the health of the nation in my own little way;):D


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,969 ✭✭✭✭syklops


    Ddad wrote: »
    Fair enough, I see where your coming from.

    The point I was making is that a lot of people add salt without tasting their food. They've desensitised their palate to the taste of salt. Indeed, I think a lot of people have lost any sublety they once had in their palates and don't taste an iota unless it's salty as seawater. My mother, father in law and mother in law are all on blood pressure medication and they all add a shed load of salt automatically to anything they eat. I've seen them add salt to rashers!

    I put a lot of effort into the food I cook. I work hard at it and I'm good at it. It's insulting to see the food seasoned again at the table before it is tasted. It might seem arrogant but I'm not going to facilitate someone to mess up a dish and thrash their health while their at it.

    I have a special interest in salt and salt consumption as I've studied it and written some reports on it for some college courses I did in the past. Salt is potent stuff, particularly when it comes to health and it's abuse and that of processed carbs and fats is one of the major contributors to the ill health of a lot of our older relatives. I'm making a stand for the health of the nation in my own little way;):D

    When I first started dating my girlfriend, I would make her something and ask "How is it" and she would say "Its nice but its not salty". As time went on I discovered every single meal I cooked wasnt salty, I realised the problem was hers. I stopped putting salt in things as I knew she would add salt anyway. Overtime I have managed to wean her off it.


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