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About half of the salt in the world is extracted from sea water, and the other half is mined from rock. The flavor of a particular salt (other than saltiness) comes from traces of minerals such as magnesium chloride, sulfate, calcium sulfate, and clay, and from plant material like algae, which may be present in the source material. Unrefined salt is about 98 percent sodium chloride; highly refined table salt is about 99.7 percent.

Humans seem to be hard-wired to like the flavor of salt, due undoubtedly to the fact that we need to take in some salt every day. But even though salt is an essential nutrient, the amount of salt that is preferred varies widely from culture to culture and from person to person. There is evidence that the ability to perceive salt diminishes with age. Most young adults can detect the presence of salt in a 0.05 percent solution, while adults who are over 60 don’t perceive saltiness until the concentration is twice that level. This could be part of the reason that many adults consume more salt than they need nutritionally, exacerbating hypertension.

Most of our recipes call for specific amounts of salt. At times the amount is determined by the need for a certain chemical or physical reaction, as in brines or cures, but when the salt is just for flavor we want you to feel free to adjust the amount to your taste. We tried to keep the level in most recipes moderate, but if you know you like very little salt or you are on a salt-restricted diet, you should start with less and add more to taste.

FLAVORING METHODS

Although there are thousands of seasonings and seasoning blends, there are only four methods of infusing flavors into solid food:

• Rubs are a way to flavor the outside of an ingredient by literally rubbing a dry seasoning mixture into its surface.

• Brines are a mixture of salt, water, and flavoring that use the power of salt (see above) to open up the physical structure of an ingredient, allowing it to form chemical bonds that infuse its fibers with moisture and flavor.

• Marinades are similar to brines except that acid is the active ingredient. Although marinades have a reputation for tenderizing as well as flavoring, they really affect only the surface of the ingredient.

• Injection physically saturates the interior of a food with flavored fluid. Injecting brine or marinade will increase their ability to affect the interior of an ingredient, but it is easy to overdo it, so be careful; too much will cause the interior to pickle, dehydrate, and toughen.

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B. Rubs

Traditionally, rubs were made for barbecue preparations to create an intensely flavored, crispy crust that would contrast with the moist, meaty interior developed through hours of slow cooking and constant basting. But now you are just as likely to see them on quick-cooking steaks, chops, burgers, and boneless poultry as a speedy way to surround them with intense flavor.

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Most rubs contain a significant amount of salt and sugar, as much as 25 percent. The salt attacks the protein in meats, opening up the structure of the amino acids so that they are better able to absorb the flavors in the rub. At the same time, the sugar combines with the amino acids, creating a structure that breaks down quickly into hundreds of flavorful compounds when it hits the heat of the grill. These reactions of sugars and proteins, known as the Maillard reaction (after Louis Maillard, the French chemist who discovered them), is why browned meat tastes so good (see page 17 for more on browned meat and the Maillard reaction).

Resting a rubbed ingredient for 10 minutes while the grill is heating helps the salt and sugar to do their jobs, but it will not help the rub to permeate more than skin-deep, which is not a bad thing. One of the interesting dynamics of flavor perception is that we perceive flavors in sequence. Take sweet and sour, for example. When you eat something seasoned with sweet and sour flavors, rather than meshing into a single flavor, the pair refuses to combine. Instead the two flavors vibrate: sweet/sour/sweet/sour.