Question
Diane Dankert
I heard if salt is added at the start of cooking, it will become more fully integrated & less will be needed. But in class, it was suggested we add salt at the end of cooking to limit salt. Thoughts?
Answer
Yeah, so that's again, depending on what you're cooking, right? So, um, in the whole food plant-based courses, we typically say to at the end of things to be able to see exactly how much you're using. Now in traditional cooking, you do it through the entire process. So, um, you know, you might add salt at the beginning of something. So say if I'm making a dish, uh, let's just say shepherd's pie, if I'm making a vegetarian shepherd's pie, I might caramelize onions at the beginning of that and I might add some salt into it to help caramelize my onions to be able to get that full flavor out, release those sugars, and then I might build up upon those with my lentils and mashed potatoes and I might salt the potatoes separately and then afterward might salt the entire thing separately as well too. Now you can always see exactly how much salt you're putting into something just by keeping an eye on it. Or if you go to a restaurant, you're not able to see how much salt is in anything because they're behind in the kitchen and you can't see exactly what you're doing. So most professionals will tell you to salt basically as you're going through a meal, to be able to, um, make sure you're getting the full flavor of it as you go, and it'll build, uh, you know, different dimensions within that dish. Um, and different flavor profiles. So kind of be elevated, which is great. Um, now suggesting to add it at the end is great because you can just, you know, make it as is and you can add the salt at the end to just get as much as you want to. Now for years, um, I didn't use salt at all in cooking and I always said there's a salt shaper, a salt shaker on every table in America, and if people wanna add salt, they can. Now there's certain things where I break that rule a little bit. One of them is being pasta. I usually cook my pasta in salt water. Um, I'll add salt to the water and then cook it as well. Um, and it's more salt than I use for other cooking as well, but it adds just a different flavor profile to the pasta. Um, now there are certain dishes, um, that I might add a little bit of salt to, like the sushi rice like I was talking about earlier. I might add a little bit of salt to that rice, but I don't add salt anywhere else to that dish. But you do get a high sodium content from your tamari depending on which tamari or soy sauce you're using as well. So I think it's really kind of paying attention to, if you're looking to pay attention to it, you just need to kind of look at each, um, area you're doing in and not being too overbearing with your salt just a little bit can go a long way and adding it to the end, um, instead of adding it all the way through, we'll keep you right on target to where you want to be.
