Science: When to Add Salt During Cooking-and Why (It Makes a Huge Difference)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- Buy Cook's Science today: bit.ly/4bbaKE8
Buy The Science of Good Cooking: bit.ly/44A7wr7
Buy our winning dutch oven: bit.ly/4aaxAuj
Buy our winning baking sheets: bit.ly/44CDOBV
Buy our winning glass mixing bowls: bit.ly/3wxWGFy
What's the role of salt in cooking? Is it important to add it at certain times? Most recipes (and culinary schools) advise seasoning food with salt early in the cooking process, not just at the end. We decided to investigate this conventional wisdom to see if the timing of seasoning makes a notable difference.
Recipe for Roasted Carrots: cooks.io/1yxBofN
Recipe for Best Beef Stew: cooks.io/1yxBsME
EXPERIMENT
We roasted carrots and prepared beef stew in two ways: For one batch we seasoned the dishes at the very beginning of cooking and, in the case of the beef stew, also when we added the onions. For the other batch we withheld all the measured salt in the recipes and added it at the end.
RESULTS
The roasted carrot samples were drastically different from one another. Those seasoned before roasting, with 1½ teaspoons of salt, were properly seasoned and flavorful throughout. Meanwhile, the carrots seasoned with the same amount after roasting were seasoned only on their exteriors and also tasted far too salty.
When it came to the beef stew, when we salted the meat before cooking (with 1½ teaspoons of salt) and seasoned the onions (with ½ teaspoon of salt) when they went into the pot as directed, the stew and particularly the meat itself were more evenly and deeply seasoned than those in the sample salted only at the finish. Furthermore, as with the carrots, the stew's gravy tasted far too salty when the salt was added at the end.
EXPLANATION
We know that salt penetrates food slowly when cold. (In a previous experiment, we found that it took 24 hours for salt to diffuse into the center of a refrigerated raw turkey.) While the process is faster during cooking-for example, our science editor noted that the rate of diffusion of salt into meat will double with every 10-degree increase up to the boiling point-it's still not instantaneous. Furthermore, salt penetrates vegetables even more slowly than it does meat (this is because the salt must cross two rigid walls surrounding every plant cell, while the cells in meat contain only one thin wall). Adding salt at the beginning of cooking gives it time to migrate into the pieces of food, seasoning them throughout. Meanwhile, if you add salt only at the end, it provides a more concentrated, superficial coating that immediately hits your tongue.
TAKEAWAY
For the most even seasoning and well-rounded flavor, we strongly encourage seasoning foods early in the cooking process as we direct in our recipes. However, if you forget, do not make up for it by simply stirring it all in at the end. Instead, start with a very small amount of salt-we used a mere 8 percent of the original amount of salt for the carrots after roasting (⅛ teaspoon versus 1½ teaspoons) and 31 percent for the beef stew (just over ½ teaspoon versus 2 teaspoons)-and then taste and season further as desired. On the flip side, if you are watching your salt intake, you could wait until the end of cooking to season your food, knowing that you'll be able to get away with a lesser amount.
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America's Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
Each week, the cast of America's Test Kitchen brings the recipes, testings, and tastings from Cook's Illustrated magazine to life on our public television series. With more than 2 million viewers per episode, we are the most-watched cooking show on public television.
www.americastes...
More than 1.3 million home cooks rely on Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines to provide trusted recipes that work, honest ratings of equipment and supermarket ingredients, and kitchen tips.
www.cooksillust...
www.cookscountr...
If you like us, follow us:
americastestkit...
/ americastestkitchen
/ testkitchen
/ testkitchen
/ testkitchen
if you had told me the reason to salt food before cooking at the beginning of the video it would have diffused into my brain more quickly and completely
😂😂😂
this
though in their defense this is a short and digestible video, compared to watching a 15 minute video where the first 5 minutes is a 3D animated intro logo with obnoxious EDM followed by an overhyped sponsorship, and then finally the equivalent of "this could have been sent in an e-mail" buried within the last couple minutes of the video.
it's like seasoning your video with useful information at the beginning and letting it marinate through the rest of the video with explanations afterwards, instead of forgetting literally everything and after frustratingly hunting down the 5 seconds it would take to just get to the damn point
Would you do a video on the timing of seasoning with other seasoning materials?
In Japan, it's a common knowledge to season in the following order: sugar, salt, vinegar, soy sauce (and other sauces). I heard that the reason for the sugar being the first is because it has the larger size of molecules compared to salt.
Does anybody reading in the future have any insight on this to share?
Great video. Thanks....I have noticed that effect also when cooking, and with other spices also. The penetration of flavor into the food is one reason stew always tastes better "tomorrow". Anything made using seeds, like caraway, anise, need extra time to develop flavor. Not suitable for microwave instant cooking. Thanks for the tip.
I wonder why my marinara sauce tastes perfect fresh off the stove while refrigerated for a few days makes it taste bland and like nothing?
The owner of a local restaurant said they don't salt their food during the cooking process because the first thing most people do anyway is salt it even before they taste it. Which, I suppose is often true, but to me their food just didn't taste good whether I salted it or not. I haven't been back.
Cornelius Sneed I am truly amazed at this. You see it everywhere. People receive their food and without even taking a bite, they salt it. We used to have fun as kids, unscrewing the top of the salt shaker in diners so that it would 'just hang on'. When people would go to use it, that top would come off and dump the whole of the shaker on their food. Ah, the good ol' days. I'm sure you'd get arrested for assault or something now...
Shamrock Rancher And with the paranoia about salt these days, it would probably be "assault with a deadly weapon." :)
I would stop eating at that restaurant.
People should learn how to eat. I learned it in my childhood, others don't, it seems?
That's just ridiculous.
I think that a sign of a good restaurant vs. a mediocre one is whether or not they put salt and pepper shakers on their tables. If there are none, it means that you're meant to taste the food as it's presented to you with the proper seasoning that the cooks have added.
I learnt from Sarah Moulton that beans should not be salted until they are cooked. The tip did help me. If salted early they remain hard in the center.
thank you for making this video. I can show it to some of my friends who watch me cook and look shocked at the amount of salt I add to dishes in the beginning. I've tried to explain it to them, but have years of cooking experience without the scientific knowledge of WHY I know I'm right. I just do what I know works and know that it's the right way. of course, when they acrually eat the food, they seem perplexed thag it doesnt taste too salty. cooking down onions without salt in the beginning also takes forever and produces a much less desirable flavor. when salt is there at that stage, it pulls out the water, thus making them cook quicker and sweeten more robustly.
These comments are way too salty.
That's because all the comments were added after the video was finished. If the comments had been added while the video was being made, they'd be more penetrative and have better balance.
Setamine So, the patreon might have less salty comments (no clue if they have a patreon)
beeble2003: LOL Best comment I think I've ever read!
I was about to make a similar comment. You did it first. I bow out.
The Joy Of Drinking most would just type it out.
Yikes. I'm a tad disturbed by the listening comprehension of some of the people in here. It's fine that people are concerned with their sodium intake--regulating sodium levels is very important in managing cardiovascular health, amongst other things--but that wasn't the point of the video at all. It was simply that the time in which salt is added during the cooking process produces noticeable effects on the final product. I thought they made it pretty clear that adding salt at the end (even at reduced levels to compensate for being superficially concentrated) was not an even substitute, as the main idea was how to produce more well rounded and deeper flavors. Not "hey guys, here's a great diet tip to reduce your salt!"
Never underestimate the stupidity of some people. There is literally a person in these very comments who's equating salting pasta water to racism.
There are no studies that significantly suggest that reducing sodium intake improves cardiovascular health over the effects of noise. Studies have occurred where the opposite happened.
Agreed... in one recent study**...decreasing sodium in normotensive, generally healthy patients (without CHF, CAD etc) actually elevated blood pressure.
** www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170425124909.htm
Thanks, I should of cited but I was lazy.
flips220 Sodium intake does not affect one's health, if you are healthy as a base. I can't believe hoe perpetuated this myth is. Have lots of salt. It's good for you unless you're going absurd in portion.
The right amount of salt can make or break a dish, I've learned this the hard way.
Same, friend…… Same 😑
I tried it on hard-boiled egg.
Use of a hypodermic syringe and needle may help :)
Subrata Ray Chaudhury, or just put salt in the pot.
Hmm... never thought of it. Thanx
R P I don't know science how will the salt penetrate the shell so easily?
Well traditional salted egg was done like so. It took days though. They even put mashed red bricks..
I am curious how salting at different times can affect vegetables in particular. I have heard that while sauteeing onions or peppers, salting them during the process helps them release water and caramelize better. Also, I have noticed that when I boil fresh green beans (on stove or instant pot) that if I salt them before hand they tend to come out mushier... but if I salt them in the end, they have a nicer texture... not quite so mushy. I don't know if there is science behind this or simply my own experience, but it seems to be pretty consistent in the results.
@@maniswolftoman I agree about salting burgers just before hitting the pan. As far as steaks, I like to do a dry brine as it significantly tenderizes the meat (especially cheaper cuts!). With chicken I prefer a wet brine. Here in Central America we cook a lot of dry beans. So far, it seems like salting them beforehand makes them take longer to cook, which would make sense if it draws out the water that you are trying to get INTO the beans!
I managed to find this out through various attempts at trying to improve my own cooking. Adding about half or most, sometimes just gradually, and topping off at the end with a little greatly improves the flavoring. This is the same for most seasonings including liquids.
Salty flavour aside, does salting actually change the flavour of the other components of the food? I think it does. I find onion caramelises to a sweet flavour when salted, but tends to burn when not salted. Salted butter is a completely different product to unsalted butter. Take unsalted butter, you can never add salt to make it taste like salted butter. I hoped this video would investigate this phenomenon.
This is exactly what I was hoping the video would address.
Does seasoning with salt affect flavour? Well, yeah
Your tongue senses the five basic flavours (now six actually), i.e. bitter, sweat, sour, umami (savoury) and salty. Salt reduces the perception of bitterness and increases the others, so it makes things taste more like themselves + reduces bitterness
Adding salt to strawberries, for instance, makes them taste more sweet
Great video, this is exactly why if you want to eat healthy, you should add salt in the end when cooking. It makes the salty flavor much stronger even with less salt(thus less sodium).If you add salt too early, you will be consuming a shit load of sodium without even feeling the saltiness. Of course in restaurant business the overall balanced and rich flavor is more important
Dawg if you eat normally sodium will never be an issue in your diet, just cook good food man, deep flavor will always be more important than making your meal 3% healthier
I think some people got the wrong takeaway from the video. If you salt at the end with less salt, you do get a superficially salty exterior but the food will be flavorless inside. The food won't be the same as seasoning beforehand but at least you can salvage it. This is why people marinate and brine things. Not to mention salting is required to cook some foods properly. I know salt can help draw out moisture to soften onions. The timing of salting a steak before grilling can also affect it a lot too. Maybe there's a better way to lessen sodium consumption without having "unbalanced" foods.
I put salt while food is being cooked, neither in the beginning nor in the end. Been doing it for years and food tastes fantastic everytime.
I love this explanation! Thank you! I try to not use as much salt, but my food, while well-prepared, sometimes lacks that depth of flavor. I’ll think about this when I make supper tonight. Again, thank you for the post! 🥰
This isn't true for everything. Salt can dry, and toughen things. An example is beans, if you add salt early on, they will never get tender.
Theo Campbell so trueeee
You're supposed to boil hard beans until they become tender with just water... Then after it's tender you take a portion you're going to eat for the day(s) and then season it & cook with vegetables and cilantro in a pot.
Who puts salt with the hard beans?
Theo Campbell wrong
Incorrect. That's an old myth. Acids however can affect things.
you add seasoning the last 30 minutes of cooking.
Beans were just an example.
I love videos like this. Straight to the point, no bs involved.
If you wanna reduce salt consumption, would it be more recommended to salt after with lesser amount of salt?
Yes
@@maniswolftoman Obviously they didn't pay attention.
This was my childhood! My dad had a heart attack and mom started cooking without salt. But when I complained of the blandness, what did my mom do? Shake in salt, making it completely inedible!! -- bland over-salted food!
Thanks, great information
Patricia Howell Cassity ttttttt5
Finally. I see all these recipes around the internet but I don't understand why they are doing what they're doing and that makes it hard to do my own recipes. I suppose there are some food science textbooks out there I can check out.
Alternatively, you can use far less salt if you salt later in the process. I wonder if there is a sweet spot, particularly for something like a stew, such that a minimal amount of salt can be used but also the food is properly seasoned.
have you found a sweetspot?
If you're making carmelized onions, don't salt in the beginning. They'll take longer to carmelize
and they make the resulting dish too salty
I always thought the salt would draw the water out, caramelizing it quicker
Sounds like a good reason to add salt only at the end so that you can use much less to get the same level of saltiness - much healthier vs worrying about even distribution.
Or you can just use LESS salt with the same timing in regards to the recipe.
Using less salt but still using it at only the end does not get rid of the superficial first-thing-you-taste saltiness that we're trying to avoid.
It's like trying to avoid burning something on the pan by simply using a smaller pan - no, the root problem is the amount time vs heat.
@@kozmobluemusic Exactly.
I know this comment is 6 years ago, but still disagree. Adding salt isn't just to "add saltiness". Salt during the cooking process brings out more flavor in whatever you are cooking. Also, salt isn't unhealthy unless you really overdo it.
I was hoping for a bit more here. As you can already see with the carrots they have a different texture. I learned from my mother that salting onions before saute makes them evenly soft while adding salt only at the end allows for some crust. Isn't this true here as well? It would have been quite interesting what the opinions where of not the same amount was used but the carrots had been salted to taste...
Apart from the diffusion salt also changes the chemical composition. So what's the effect of salt on the Maillard reaction?
It depends what dish you're doing, if it's something like bolognaise or dahl where there's nothing big in the pot for it to soak in to then you're fine leaving it until after cooking. With meat chunks and carrots it's just common sense to salt and spice before cooking because you need everything to soak in... some big things like falafel are OK to leave unsalted as long as you're using salty sauce for dipping them into. I prefer to leave the salting until it's on my plate personally at any opportunity possible because it means I don't make it too salty for other people's tastes and also I can eat less salt if I want
Aren't there situations where adding salt before causes undesirable results? E.g. eggs?
An important exception to this is scrambled eggs. You want to wait to the eggs are 2/3 to 3/4 done before adding salt. If you add salt before or at the beginning of the cooking process you'll end up with nasty separation in the proteins.
Show us on video how to 'separate' the proteins with salt. That would be a first for youtube.
NORMALIZATION OF IGNORANCE I’m not saying Gordon Ramsay knows everything and everyone should follow his rules of cooking but he has mentioned that adding salt before cooking can turn your eggs watery. I personally would trust a world known chef but do you fam
Just a heads up... a few years ago, I needed to replace my salt and pepper shakers and settle on some OXO grinder types. I love them. I highly recommend them. I purchased them thru Amazon and one of the things I love about Amazon is the posting of peoples feedback and 'what others bought'. One of the things mentioned was Himalayan salt. It was 5 stars and everybody raved about it. Everybody. I thought to myself 'come on, what the hell? It's just salt'. Boy was I wrong! I ordered some with my grinders because I just had to taste if there was a difference; boy am I glad I did. It's hard to describe but it is 'smoother' than any other salt I've ever tried. Simply delicious and noticeably different. It's pink in color and supposedly has all kinds of additional health benefits thru its nutrients. I only use it to flavor food in cooking. When it comes to salting water for pasta, etc., I use regular salt.
I just watched three videos in a row and learned three new things. I'm now a subscriber of my first food channel.
Great video! This scientifically sounds logically sound. The full portion looks like a bit too much salt though, I think that is an excessive amount of sugar.
so actually if you want less salt in your meal, just add at the end.
Only if you also want a less-flavorful meal. If you want less salt in your dish -- use less salt along the way, but still salt your dish AS you're building/cooking it. The stuff about adding salt at the end was IF you forget to add any salt while cooking the dish. Then he said to add 25% of the salt specified in the recipe to START with.
CitizenPerkins add spice and herbs for flavor dolt
+Tazboy -- I take it you didn't watch their video because it clearly states to add salt as you're creating the dish. At no time did the video say to "add spices and herbs for flavor instead of salt." But, it's your creation so you can cook it however you like.
Sodium doesn't have much to do with hypertension. It makes a very slight difference in one third of individuals. If you're worried about it you can eat more potassium rather than less salt (e.g. there's potassium chloride + sodium chloride reduced sodium mixtures).
No that will make it gross you want the salt to soak in
I ALWAYS salt normaly my raw meats before freezing ( and labelled them as such) . I noticed a huge difference in taste and juicyness with no effort and no brining waiting time before cooking. It's a brine already done ahead of time.
Cooking is both a science and an art. Once you know the best points to add an ingredient in a dish, it can make a big difference. However, each person should do what they enjoy as not every one thing is universal.
Except for eggs! Don't add salt to eggs before cooking them, it fucks with the proteins.
>no
This 100 times! You'll end up with a watery mess :P
Well its pretty hard to add salt to eggs before COOKING them.
I do however add salt (and other things) before baking an omelet. Am i doing it wrong ? Never noticed any problems.
Kenji from Serious Eats wrote a segment on this. I think as long as you salt them right before or a while before (he tested like 16 minutes) scrambled eggs will turn out fine. Every time point in between the first and last were inferior, though.
I put hot sauce on my eggs 😁
my questions have had been answered
Almost 70 years old and NOW I ´ve learned a good tip.Luv U. Thanks!!!!!
I think noting exceptions to this rule would have made for a better video. Adding to much salt to scrambled eggs before they start to set breaks down the eggs releasing water into the pan and making for eggs with a not good texture. Adding salt when they are partially set helps avoid that and still gets salt throughout the eggs.
Which would lead me to reason if one were attempting to lower their sodium intake, they might opt for seasoning at the end. While it might not taste as good, it could be much healthier.
No.
Don't change _when_ you add the salt in a recipe, just the _amount_ .
This is great information for people who want to lower the amount of salt they use. If you add the salt after cooking, you can decrease the amount you use to 25%.
Why don't you decrease the amount you use before cooking, lol?
So it's ideal to salt at the end, then. He said it, adding same level of salt at the end made it top salty. So add less salt at the end and you just got the same sodium taste but with less salt in the meal. Healthier. Thanks!
Wow! This is a game changer when it comes to cooking.
Very interesting, however 2 teaspoons of salt in a casserole seems like a huge amount of salt to me.
You just need a bigger casserole!
Bit of a dull comparison, don't you think? Of course, you can't just throw-in the same amount of salt in the end as if you were to salt in the beginning. That's just plain obvious. But how about salting at the end to a degree where the saltiness is just about right with recommendations at to the amount of time one should salt before the finished?
That would have been a worthy comparision where we would also compare just how much salt is good for you and perhaps how to save on salt especially for those who shouldn't be doing too much of it in the first place.
In my experience salting/flavouring at the end is a bad idea even if you're mindful of how much you use.
My mother often leaves the rice or such either unseasoned or uses too little and when I tried to correct it with mainly salt early on, well, let's just say the rice tasted more salty but still bland and the beans commonly tasted slightly less bland but more salty, now I try to mostly use herbs as salt doesn't really help but it's still a lot harder than if one would just season it right during cooking and doesn't give as good results.
If you feel like you're eating too much salt (which, to my knowledge, is mostly a myth brought on by testing for a correlation by force feeding mice more salt in comparison to body size than any human would ever consume) you can do a lot with herbs and other ingredients as well as just cooking at home, even if you like your salt you won't add nearly as much as food companies do.
It still taste too salty, especially on dry food.
The video already explained why. The salt would form a coating, and it would taste awful for your tongue
You must be fun at parties.
Listen to 2:15 again, maybe you weren't listening the irst yime...
Yeah, a great example is in pasta. Usually you throw the salt when water is boiling and before putting the pasta. But if you put salt only 2 minutes before the pasta is ready you need only half the amount of the salt to have the same result. Result: cheaper and healthier.
A chef friend told me that the cheaper cuts of beef, the hard working tastier tougher cuts that take more cooking, skirt, brisket, leg etc should be browned before getting any salt otherwise they toughen up. while soft expensive tender fillet,sirlion etc can be salted before cooking.
"...we found it took 24 hours for the salt to diffuse into the center of a refrigerated raw turkey"
"..during cooking the rate of diffusion increased. In fact, it doubles with every 10 degree increse in temperature up to the boiling point"
24 hours is 86400 seconds. Suppose the turkey was refrigerated to 32 degrees. 212-32 = 180 degrees difference. This means 18 doublings in the rate of diffusion. This means the boiling turkey will diffuse the salt 2^18 = 262144 times faster than the refrigerated turkey. It took 86400 seconds for the refrigerated turkey's surface salt to reach the center. This implies it would take the boiling turkey's surface salt 86400/262144 = 0.33 seconds to reach the center. Suppose the turkey has a 4 inch radius (a generously small assumption, I think). Then, the salt traveled 4 inches in 0.33 seconds, or 12.12 inches per second or 1 foot per second. Not too shabby, salt.
I've always heard that during grilling it dries the meat if added before it's been seared. Is this true?
supposedly salt on the meat before grilling draws out surface moisture which allows for a better sear otherwise the grilling energy goes to evaporating moisture instead of chemically changing the steaks surface
But when you add salt at the beginning of cooking meat it will take more time to cook. with steaks, the osmosis process will take the moisture out and the steak will be drier and more elastic.
That's why you baste as you cook
Personally I rarely use salt as I steam most vegetables. When I roast, griddle or grill, meat, fish or veggies, I do add some salt first as I do with casseroles, but I use very little salt imparting flavour by adding herbs and spices. I note that the video fails to mention the best time to add salt to green leafy vegetables. I was always taught NEVER to add salt early on in the cooking process to green leafy vegetables as it toughens them. My cooking experience suggests this is true. Any other views on this?
adding impurities to water increases the boiling point hence the temperature rises and makes a faster well cooked dish.same applies in case of pressure cooker where the boiling point is increased by inducing pressure.
This sounds like a good way to reduce sodium.
+Chilax why would you want to reduce sodium?
+AGENT 181 some people have health problems.
Chilax reduced sodium diets are far worse for health. of course you would not of heard this before... www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyponatremia/basics/causes/con-20031445
You need pretty serious chemistry to reduce sodium. Much easier to oxidise.
For a normal person yes, but reduced sodium is often recommended for people with High Blood pressure.
According to my mom, you don't salt anything because it's unhealthy.
And that's why I cook my own food now.
What about when cooking for extended periods of times, like in a crockpot? Many recipes that come with the appliance have you adding the salt at the end. Even when we tried adding salt in the beginning, it tasted like there was no salt in the dish at all. Do extended cooking times cause salt to lose its saltiness?
Interesting. Makes perfect sense. What I've been doing (also adding a little at the end to "fine tune" the taste. DOES make a difference. Good tip. Many home cooks might not be aware of this.
My takeaway from this, despite the recommendation, is to salt at the end of the cooking process at a reduced volume than one would salt early in the process. Rarely do I even add salt during anymore unless I'm browning or roasting meat. Everything's so salty these days.
TheASTrader "everything's so salty these days" obviously you've never read about or even heard of "other days"
ThisAccountWasOnlyMadeToComment are you triggered
before they had refrigerators everything was packed in salt, if youthink nowadays food is salty just imagine it back then.
For people who just want to taste salt on their tongue, yes just adding some at the end can do the trick. For people who aren't just attracted to the mere taste of salt, but appreciate the function of salt in the cooking process and throughout your food, it's not a very appealing option.
If you are worried about your overall salt intake, I recommend simply eating less.
13freitag13 Or maybe he wasn't referring to quite so olden days before the refrigerator.
I'm surprised there's no mention of water content loss when salt is added?
That is because it is insignificant. There are many videos on UA-cam that show experiments that prove it is insignificant.
it is significant loss of water! do you know how pickles are prepared? using salt to remove water from the vegetables. You try yourself add the salt to the vegetables and come back later and see the amount of water that comes out
it depends guys
always depend on what foot
if you want it crispier or not
if is a boiled meat or a roasted one
And also, let's remember that as the video here noted, if you want to eat less salt, it's better to salt after cooking.
it alwasy depends on what kind of result you're looking for.
I do understand that you "study" cooking, but here in Italy we have a culture about food which is something that can be incredible for somebody from a foreign country.
When I lived in the U.S. I could taste flavours in foot that most of my American friend could not recognize... and I'm a such a beginner if compare to my father, he can almost recognize a recipe only tasting it.
I should really dedicate him a youtube channel lol
My disgusting school dinners in the 1950s were cooked and served unseasoned. Cruet sets (salt and white pepper) were provided to "season" the food on the plate. It was simply inedible.
I always add salt at the very end. Things like Clam chowder and such are particularly sensitive for certain people who want only a bit of contrast to the creamy nature of the food. So I always let people add what they feel is right
Craig With a Wig you can always just hold it hot after salting, the flavors will all meld.
This video assumes that food will be eaten just after salting.
Dude!, that's a lot of salt!
For us on a limited sodium diet.. this is a good tip to keep salt low and still have "some" umami..thanks.
There's so many recipes on the internet that have the salt left out and they're lousy. Salt is the only politically incorrect seasoning (Mayor Bloomberg, etc). I've found salt-correct recipes in my hand-me-down cookbooks printed before the age when Americans became scared of their own shadows. Thank you for the most truthful video.
Am I alone in thinking this is all common sense?
Joey Flores I thought the same thing. I'm a bit irritated I wasted 2:45 min of my life to hear what I already know.
I think maybe they wanted to make the distinction because with other foods like dahl and bolognaise it's OK to add salt after cooking so as not to have too much salt for people's individual preferences. Then again they didn't mention anything like that in the video so it is a bit strange like teaching grandma how to suck eggs
Common sense is not that common
Some people just arent good cooks and need this info...
Joey Flores I didn't know to be honest, never had anyone teaching me cooking so it's useful
All of you people nagging on about sodium intake are behind the times. There have been new studies which show that "Salt Doesn’t Cause High Blood Pressure" and "no statistically significant association between blood pressure and sodium in the diet"
There are worse things to worry about than salt intake.
Yikes, what the heck are you talking about? You're all kinds of misguided. Show me these "new studies". You can't just make claims like that without providing sources. And I mean, real, actual, legitimate, quality, reputable, peer reviewed research from credible sources. Not some random blog or biased news article. High sodium intake most definitely does have effects on blood pressure. And it's not just blood pressure, it's cardiovascular health as a whole. And it's not good.
Here are some _new studies_ for you.
www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b4567.abstract?ijkey=9114399e55ce69e8e241818f6deefcbc15545489&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f1326.abstract?ijkey=9c584e00a5b89062393a359fd590af5229963b73&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
circ.ahajournals.org/content/129/9/956.short
circ.ahajournals.org/content/126/24/2880.full
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1304127
I understand that you think your intentions are good, but please don't go spouting unfounded information like that. You could actually cause serious harm to others that way, without even realizing it.
flips220 Here you go buddy: ajh.oxfordjournals.org/content/28/3/362
There was another study where they determined that while SBP was present with increased sodium intake, it was not the cause. They discovered that, almost exclusively, people with SBP also had a high BMI which was the major factor of SBP and high sodium was a bi-product of the type of foods they were eating.
Read it a few months back - trying to track it down!
***** Fair enough, I applaud you for actually giving me something valid to look at, and not just some random opinion piece. However, I do have some issues with the article you referenced.
-First is the cohort they used to reach these conclusions. It's based on the Nutrinet-Sante study. A web-based questionnaire conducted in France that individuals could take from the comfort of their own home. It relies entirely on those people providing accurate, honest information, about personal matters such as anthropometry, socioeconimic status, lifestyle, etc., all while under no supervision.
-Next, about your article, since the data is based on that previous study, it means no actual experimentation, collection, or analysis of sodium levels in the bloodstream actually took place. Again, the data came from a web-questionnaire, which consisted of things such as point scale questions ranging from "I don't like it at all" to "I like it very much" while showing illustrations of food and the like. No actual quantitative measure of sodium was ever analyzed or discussed in either study.
-Next, your provided study does indeed come up with the results that there is a positive association between salt intake and systolic blood pressure in _men_. They did not find that association in women, for reasons not explained. They conclude that body mass index (BMI) is the main contributing factor in high SBP (which is fair, I can agree to that, despite my personal distaste for BMI as a measure in regards to health). *However*, going back to the Nutrinet-Sante study, which all of this is based of off, it was found that *salt was one of the factors positively associated with higher BMIs.*
-Again, you have to take all of this _with a grain of salt_ (heh), because this is all just based on people's stated preferences of food. Possibly not even what they were *actually eating*, since they were only responding to the choices given in the questionnaire. I wish I could read French, I would be able to explore this further. It's ridiculous to think that they'd have people submitting their blood pressure from home, and grouping it with items on the questionnaire, instead of what they were actually eating. But then that would require them to submit the nutritional info for their personal intake, and I don't see that included in any part of the study. I'm getting a little sidetracked here. Surely they accounted for this. Don't put too much stock in this bullet point. I'm sure I'm missing something here.
-I'm tempted to put something about French diets and French taste profiles, and how that probably doesn't apply to everyone, but I don't know enough about that to go anywhere with it... so.... phooey. :P
-Lastly, all of this is only concerning blood pressure. While that is a very important factor in regards to cardiovascular health, it is not the only factor. Even if I gave you the benefit of the doubt, saying that salt levels play zero role in hypertension, there are still the overwhelming amount of studies and evidence saying that high sodium intake is a major risk factor for things like cardiovascular disease, heart disease, stroke, etc. etc. Again, see some of those studies I first linked.
flips220 Very good points. Perhaps the other 'study' that I was reading was the translated version of the same study. Either way I didn't find it again so it must have been buried into the caverns of google.
I guess my original comment was a bit OTT. I do get a bit frustrated with how overly concious governments (and people) have become in regards to these types of minerals/substances. In turn you end up with people who will never touch salt ever in case they may get high blood pressure. My mum will never use black pepper because there was a study a long time go which stated it gives you cancer....
Salt isn't the devil, in the same way that alcohol isn't the devil. If you consume too much of anything, you will likely find Mr.Reaper waiting for you sooner than you expected.
Thanks for putting time into your replies while being impartial and gracious.
I wish you the best of days (no really, I am in fact a wizard)
+flips220 Dangers of Salt reduction... articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/17/dangers-of-salt-restriction.aspx
I strongly encourage adding at the end, but in smaller amounts. I've never run into his problems when cooking
So there is a difference by seasoning at the beginning and seasoning at the end.
What about salting (using the same amount) at the beginning say, 40%, then during cooking salting another 40% and after the cooking the remaining 20%? Does that make any difference? I remember reading from somewhere, the chef recommend to season throughout the entire cooking process.
As for the stew that was seasoned at the end of the cooking in the video, if it was kept for, say, 24 hour in a fridge, does the seasoning penetrate the meat and somehow change how it taste?
I use goat urine, it has a salty flavor but because it is liquid it can soak into in the meat better.
And its 100% natural not processed like most salts.
where you get it?
Hyperborean Colonialism are you sirius?
Eoin D he got it from his wife
I'm married to a man actually.
Do you add it early in cooking or after it's cooked?
I remember watching a Heston Blumenthal video where he said NOT to season steak before cooking as it draws out too much moisture and you end up with dry steak.
well then he's wrong
um.. kden lol
Let's consider a few things:
The amount of moisture that salt draws from a steak is insignificant compared to the amount of water lost during cooking.
Steak tastes dry because it is overcooked, not because water is lost during cooking. Basically, there are two protein structures that denature during the cooking process. One is myosin. We want myosin to denature because it makes long bundled strings that make meat tough. These proteins also physically hold on to a lot of fats/water while coiled up. This breaks down in the 105 F to 120 F range.
The other protein is actin. Actin is a much more tender protein and it does not need to be broken down. These proteins sort-of bond with fats/water. Actin doesn't lock it up like myosin does: it just holds it. If you cook a steak past the 160 F range then you have denatured almost all the myosin and now you have nothing to bond with the moisture. But, if you cook a steak in the 130 F to 140 F range (medium to medium rare) then you end up with a lovely, tender steak. Its all about protein denaturing.
Additionally, salting meat before cooking pulls out amino acids/carbs/sugars/etc and it deposits on the surface. This allows you to make a nice sear because the sear is made from all the amino acids/carbs/sugars/etc being exposed to very high heat and making thousands of complex compounds.
If you don't believe me about salted steak not drying it out, then I suggest you either a) look up some additional information. Good Eats (old TV show on the Food Network) addresses this. Cooking For Geeks (book by Jeff Potter) addresses this, and ChefSteps (UA-cam channel) addresses this.
drawing moisture is a myth
Candace Lin misinformed just watch how dry aged beef is prepared
Thank you for confirming what intuition already told me! 😊✨
Always trust intuition
I've learnt that adding salt will stop the softening process when slow roasting so add it near the end. This also goes for soy sauce when cooking dishes like kakuni pork belly. Something about the sodium apparently. Is this true?
Man that is a lot of salt in those dishes. Use herbs and low salt recipes, eventually your tongue will adjust to the levels and the regular amounts of salt in most prepared or processed foods will become distasteful.
iinRez Yeah, it's like people who are used to drinking soda. "Water is tasteless why would anyone drink it"
furthermore I am smart and scientific I swear
Spencer Teolis haha!
lol
Im still learning about when to add salt in certain recipes eapecially beef and vegetables....even if I add salt before, it is VERY minimal....and I love sea salt which is potent
except when sautéeing mushrooms unless you do it way before cooking and drain them before they go in the pan. if you salt in the pan before cooking, it draws out too much moisture for the mushrooms to get any clean caramelization.
Also, Americans add WAY TOO MUCH SALT to all of their dishes. American food is almost inedible due to its high salt content.
which "american food" are you talking about? white middle class americans are notorious for underseasoning their food
Literally all restaurants, fast food places, 7/11's. Every fucking where. Its not 'under seasoning' , its a normal, european amount of seasoning.
speaking as if european food is seasoned is a lot to begin with (except southern europe)
Ever watched a Gordon Ramsey cooking video? It's not just an American thing. Salt, when added, enhances the other flavors in the dish.
Sarita Bohannon lol every where else in the world whites do not like too much seasoning
So basically you just confirmed what was taught to you in culinary school after centuries of cooking knowledge. The video is OK for those who want to grasp the WHY, but honestly this video has a very misleading title which is why I came to watch it. I already knew everything in here, my mother taught me a lot of cooking.
Therefore if one is following a low sodium diet, seasoning after cooking will mean one may use less salt yet still enjoy a salty taste.
I do not follow a low sodium diet. I was hoping to hear when to add salt to pasta water and scrambled eggs amongst other things.
6 months ago I started using Himalayan Salt. The taste and flavor is superior to normal sea salt. This is worth trying out as I am now using far less than I use to.
meat or animal cells don't have a cell wall only plants have a cell wall.
I'm sorry you are so stupid. Not sure what is scarier: 1. People showing how little they understand about the world around them or 2. That they are spreading their stupidity. www.diffen.com/difference/Animal_Cell_vs_Plant_Cell
thismortalcoil696 For animal it is called cellular membrane ( an oily barrier composed of phospholipids ). Cell wall in plant composed of cellulose and pectin which is tough
fubar you fucking DONKEY
thismortalcoil696 tell me you are joking!! Or else DO NOT BREED!!!!!!
Dhikra Zaher nope! Plant cells also have cell membrane! So, it is not that the cell wall for plants is called cell membrane, it is just that animal cells lack cell walls!
I take offense to calling the adding of salt 'seasoning'. I agree that food should be salted early - but 'seasoning' includes herbs, spices, and extracts. I recently started working with a young idiot who has no clue what 'seasoning' means, other than adding salt at every stage of cooking. By the time he is done with a sauce, I can't eat it - it has no flavour other than salt. Salt is great, necessary even, but most restaurant food these days has 100% of your daily requirement of salt in one serving of one side dish.
Him using the dictionary definition of _seasoning_ offends you? Salty, indeed.
Please cite the dictionary that defines 'seasoning' as the addition of salt only.
Heather Spoonheim look up the word on dictionary.com for your answer
to heighten or improve the flavor of (food) by adding condiments, spices, herbs, or the like.
It doesn't even mention salt.
Heather Spoonheim We're talking about the word 'seasoning', not 'season' which is the verb you provided.
Whenever I want to feel good about myself, I just read a comment thread on UA-cam. Works every time.
With onions I always chop the onion and then salt them 10mins before I fry them. It makes a huge difference and helps extract the flavour.
Secrets of Salting:
1. Use as little as possible - preferably none.
2. See Rule 1
Mr Gwarn Stylee
your food will taste garbage lmoa
Eoin D LOL...at the start, yeah...
Eoin D I never use salt in my cooking, only ever had complaints from people who can't eat a meal without a salt shaker at hand.
Everyone else is pleasantly surprised when their dish doesn't taste like salt has been added, yet it's still delicious for them. My current GF has stopped using salt too after I cooked a few meals for us.
I believe that just like with sugar and sat fats, the average person has become so accustomed to these elements in their diet that to remove them makes them automatically unpalatable.
Saying meals taste bad without salt is like saying water tastes bad without syrup and carbonation (Coke/Pepsi).
quality unsalted ingredients are superior to poor ones that have salt and other things added to compensate for their lack of flavor.
Tobias Davies sure im not gonna say your cookings tastes Bad or bland, but The fact is that salt enchaces other flavors and intensifies them, thats just how our pallet works.
So if you want low salt without losing taste, adding salt right at the end will give you almost the same flavour with a third or less the salt.
you have no basis for this. and are posting on a video that categorically proves your arguments to be false...
well, as stated by the video, it will be more intense, but superficial. if you only want the top of your foods as being tasty then that's a route you can consider.
yakyakyak69
" Unlike some, we look at information and extrapolate it OUTSIDE OF THE BOX!"
how can "information" be outside the box? it IS the box....
if you are extrapolating outside the box, you are probably making up shit, and you haven't got a lick(pun intended) of evidence.
"According to this video 2/3rd LESS SALT"
LIAR.
you didn't watch the video did you??
25% is NOT 2/3rds you are either a Liar, an Idiot, or BOTH.
and he said IN CASE YOU FORGET, (to add the salt during cooking).
just admit you were wrong, or fuck off....
" can be used at the end of cooking, to benefit on low salt diet. (Duh)"
actually this isn't discussed either... you are still making things up...
may want to come back to the Inside of the Box, that we all call Reality....
Creationsofmyown Your listening comprehension is terrible. Please see the video at 2:00. He says you can put in the salt at the end, but it will taste more superficial. The good point is you will use so much less salt. Which is the point of the OP.
klovershows
"Your listening comprehension is terrible. "
actually it isn't...
"Please see the video at 2:00."
why do i give a fuck? he doesn't say "for low salt without losing taste, add it at the end"
" He says you can put in the salt at the end,"
no he doesn't... he says IF YOU FORGET you can still add it at the end...
" but it will taste more superficial."
you mean GROSS, and only on the outside... didn't you WATCH the video before you pretended i missed the point????
" The good point is you will use so much less salt."
and have shitty tasting food, salty on the outside bland in the middle.
"Which is the point of the OP. "
who is a fucking idiot trying to use a video that debunks him, to support him.....
there is NO PART of this video that has ANYTHING to do with a Low Sodium Diet.
go fuck yourself.
agree but you also change the boiling temp as well ..
I haven't salted any of the meals I cook for many years. When I was young and expecting our first child I could not eat salt. If I did my feet would swell double their normal size which made walking difficult and pain full. My hubby just adjusted by just using a salt shaker. With each new baby hubby used less and less added salt. After the last baby hubby was only using a small amount of salt on eggs and potatoes and on nothing else. If we eat out now he complains that everything is too salty. We feel we get enough salt in many of the many products we use such as catsup and etc.
Wow I'm glad my culture naturally knows how to properly season food. I learned nothing from this.
Your comment taught us nothing
Uh, so does every fucking culture, dude. He was testing the common knowledge.
Ledé• Lapri lol I really thought it was going to be some ground breaking next level information. Then again not everyone knows this sadly so it’s a good thing he made the video because I do see a few people who’re shocked.
i was thinkin just that lol
A lot of people who were never taught to cook by their parents go to UA-cam to learn how. Don't be angry if someone shares beginner info.
how about if salt is not good for you and you want to decrease the amount of salt you take?
if this is the case , you can add a smaller amount of salt at the end and still achieve some salty taste on exterior of food.
What do you think?
Is there not also something to be said for pre-seasoning helping reduce the water content in the food and thereby also intensifying the base flavour?
Should you salt and season meat if you've already marinated it a long time, or should you do this before you marinade.
+America's Test Kitchen if I summise your test results right... it could also mean that we could do with a lot less salt by simply using a sparce amount of "finishing" salts at the end of cooking instead of seasoning in the beginning. It superficial but it doesn't affect mouth feel or texture(?) But flavour wise salt around the exterior only might give better flavour. Especially if not every bite contains it.
bottomline -if for health reasons u want to eat less salt add a pinch in the end. Adding as a 1st step will taste less salty so u will naturally consume more salt.
The fact that salting food at the end of cooking leads to less salt being perceived as saltier means that people who are trying to lower sodium intake can use this factor to reduce the total amount of salt used in a dish - according to the video 75% less. Of course the taste won't be identical and perhaps a little of each is in order. One third of the standard recipe salt at the beginning followed by a finishing fifth at the end, would reduce total salt to something like 1/2 the original quantity with a very similar saltiness. Traditionally cooked food with less than the traditional amount of salt would cut sodium by a lot below the amounts found in mass-produced processed foods. Cooking from scratch versus using prepared foods is probably a much bigger factor in salt intake than how much table salt is added in cooking.
thank you Mr Souza. now I know why my refried beans came out so salty this morning.
hope to see you more on TV.
here's the thing though. You use less salt over all if you use salt afterwards as opposed to during cooking. Just as is stated in this video there was far less salt used after cooking as opposed to in the process period so isn't getting less salt in your diet and good thing? perhaps using only half or a quarter the amount of salt during cooking and then a slight bit after is the best way to go?
well, i wont dispute what you are saying in this video, but i cant agree with it either. Salt draws moisture from food and will make it tough and take longer to cook to tender. Take dry beans for example, add salt at the beginning and they can cook for hours and never tenderize, but add salt towards the end and they will cook much faster. Same goes for some meats. I've found that adding the salt towards the end - not at the end - works best. Depending on how long something has to cook adding salt about ten minutes or so before its done works best.
... about 3/4 of the way thru cooking.
However, daals & pulses do not cook right through and even harden if salt is added at the beginning. Especially in Indian cooking, the daals & pulses need to be cooked till mushy but whole and which can easily be crushed into a paste between two fingers. That's why we cook them in a pressure cooker.
how about tenderness? does salt make food harder or increase cooking time?