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THE SIX STARTERS: one fleur de sel, one sel gris, and one flake salt for the foundation; one colorful flake, one colorful traditional, and one choice smoked salt for play.

THE TWELVE KINGS: two fleur de sels, distinguished by either flavor or crystal delicacy; two flake salts, distinguished by color and or heft of the crystal; one sel gris for the uses described above; one shio for raw proteins, prized broths, and for play; one rock salt to lend a gemstone look to food once in a while; two traditional salts that revel in the color, crystal, and mineral diversity of this broad class of salt; two smoked salts, one flake and one traditional or one bold and the other subtle; one flavored salt like truffle salt for a sneaky shortcut to decadence.

THE FIVE RULES OF STRATEGIC SALTING

Eat all the salt you want, as long as you are the one doing the salting.

Skew the use of salt toward the end of food preparation.

Use only natural, unrefined salts.

Make salting a deliberate act.

Use the right salt at the right time.

Strategic Salting Rule #1

Eat all the salt you want, as long as you are the one doing the salting.

Admittedly, this first rule may sound crazy. It might sound more reasonable to just say, “eat less salt.” But that is the inevitable result of salting your food at will. Whole foods are naturally very low in salt, which is why we developed a taste and traditions for salting. When you are the one adding the salt, you are allowing your own sensibilities to find the balance of flavor that’s appropriate to your taste.

We’ve spent so many thousands of years alert to the allure of salt that we’re almost certainly predisposed to salting without even thinking about it, driven by an instinct that says, if salt is available, let’s taste it. The industries built around our busy lives take full advantage of this instinct. Salting is an easy way to create a powerful flavor impact, which is why many restaurants tend to use a lot of salt, as do most packaged food manufacturers.

If we took out all the salt put into food by food chemists and chefs, our salt consumption would drop radically; 75 percent of the salt we eat comes from processed or prepared foods. Only 10 percent of our dietary salt comes naturally in the foods we eat (and far less if you are a vegetarian), and typically only 15 percent from salt we add ourselves. If you follow all of the tenets of strategic salting, your discretionary salting will likely drop even further. Following Rule #1 can reduce your salt consumption dramatically.

The two main benefits of salting your food yourself are better nutrition and better flavor. With your own hand adding the salt, you will instinctively rely on the natural calculations made by your mind and body about your nutritional needs, and you will get the most desirable taste sensations and impact from whichever salts you use.

Strategic Salting Rule #2

Skew the use of salt toward the end of food preparation.

This is not to say you shouldn’t cook with salt. The culinary arts rely dearly on salt for both cooking and seasoning, but more often than not you need less than you might think. When you add salt near the end of cooking or right before eating, it is incorporated into the food less homogenously and provides more layered flavor; often more of the salt that enters your mouth is undissolved, giving your palate the stimulation of salt crystals frisking about.

Strategic Salting Rule #3

Use only natural, unrefined salts.

Unrefined salts, especially those produced by small manufacturers that are not governed by the economics of industrial-scale manufacturing, contain larger quantities of minerals and more carefully crafted crystal profiles. This gives you better flavor and greater nutritional value. And using natural salts in your kitchen sets the bar for all the foods you use: once you get hooked on the beauty of natural salts, it is nearly impossible to sacrifice that beauty on substandard ingredients.

SUPERMARKET SALT

Sodium content is a