Salted_ A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes - Mark Bitterman [5]
We eat lots of things: animals, plants, fungi, bacteria. Salt is the only mineral we eat. Its international intrigue comes from the fact that it can be used to improve the flavor of all the others, and that it does more to enhance those flavors than any other ingredient. It is the only universal ingredient, and it is the most potent one. Yet salt in its own right can be as distinctive as any plant or animal. More so, in fact. There is no variety of plant or breed of animal that has been cultivated as food for as long, in as many places, and in as many ways as salt. It is not only the only universal food, it is the most varied. Honoring salt is not only important for understanding the bounty of nature, it is vital to the understanding of cooking and eating.
Using salts with character and integrity awakens us to the full potential of the ingredient. Salting mindfully, and with a basic understanding of a salt’s properties and behavior, will lead inescapably to better nutrition and better tasting food. Master salt, and virtually every food will shine in a new light.
There are five good reasons to think independently and critically about salting:
Salting is one of the more ingrained habits in cooking, and all habits need to be questioned.
In understanding and mastering the principles behind salting, you become better equipped to get the best results for your individual cooking style, personal tastes, and unique nutritional needs.
At the least, appreciating the distinctive qualities of salt inspires clarity and distinction in our cooking. At best, appreciating them unleashes an elemental force in our diverse culinary traditions.
The risk is low and the payoff is high. No matter how pricy the salt you choose, it will likely be the least expensive ingredient in your dish—and if it comes off right, it will catapult the food’s flavor into the stratosphere.
Using all-natural artisan salts is fun, easy, and satisfying on many levels. Once you start using artisan salts, you will never go back to refined salt.
The mission of this book is to make you think differently about salt and empower you to make food that is better in every way. My hope is to instill an appreciation for salt, to make salt more accessible, and to inspire cooking that benefits from taking advantage of the relationship of natural salts to all the other ingredients we eat. The book sets forth a categorization of salts that brings order to the multitude of salts out there and gives everyone from eaters to chefs—even salt makers—a framework for understanding and appreciating the salts of the world, and then using them to their greatest effect.
This book does not approach this challenge with a totally detached perspective. I believe salt awakens us to our senses and our instincts like no other edible substance. I believe it connects us to our environment and our traditions like no other substance of any kind. If we grant these suppositions—or maybe just allow them for the sake of argument—we open ourselves up to some ideas that may seem bold or extreme, but that are also fun and empowering. Here are the major assertions that inform this book:
Salt is the single most important ingredient in cooking and the single most powerful tool for improving the flavor of food.
No two salts are the same, any more than two varieties of mushroom are the same.
Some things do not belong in our food supply. Industrial salts like cheap sea salt, kosher salt, and table salt are products that few people want in their kitchens if they understand and face up to how they are made.
There is no equating industrial salt with artisan salt. Artisan salts are better than industrial salts. Think of industrial salt as you would think of open-heart surgery: use it only if your life depends on it.
Buying good salt can change the world by supporting traditional economies that preserve ecologically and culturally valuable resources. Buying standardized salt issuing