Let's talk about salt!

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I'd love to hear anyone's opinion (especially a real chef's) on the potential dangers of blanket advice to lower our salt consumption.

Whilst it's obviously a good idea for some, there are plenty of us who could suffer.

Check out this site for loads more interesting stuff on this subject:

http://www.saltsense.co.uk/

― Marcel G, Wednesday, 14 December 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

Lo Salt tastes like shit in my opinion.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Thursday, 15 December 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

For table use and most cooking I've started using coarse kosher salt that I keep in an extra pepper grinder I had sitting around. I still keep a cheap round box of salt on hand for salting pasta water.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 15 December 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

I quit using iodized salt awhile ago; I eat enough sea vegetables to make up for it. Kosher salt is good, all-purpose stuff. I like using sea salt, for the idea there may be some palliative lithium and other minerals in there. I put some fleur de sel on my wishlist, because there's so much hype about it I want to try it.

In the US at least, the push isn't to cut back on salt per se. It's sodium that troubles some folks. The current medical advice is to cut back if you have borderline or high BP and see if it actually makes a difference. If it doesn't, then have at the shaker.

― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 15 December 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

Let's talk about salt!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 15 December 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

And here.

― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 15 December 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

Marcel didn't write that one, though.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 15 December 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

True. Neither did the British Salt Council. But we talk about salt!!

― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 15 December 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

May as well.

I once measured out the amount of salt I could healthily eat in a day, to see. It was absolutely loads, more than I normally use, and I use a fairly heavy hand with the salt.

Of course it's Maldon sea salt, is there anything else?

― Matt (Matt), Saturday, 17 December 2005 02:31 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

Why do people consider sea salt a special or gourmet salt? I have not been able to taste a difference. Doesn't salt just taste like salt? I love the stuff and would love it if there were varieties of tastes that occured naturally in the old sodium chloride.

― Daddy's Little Duder (unclejessjess), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 06:34 (nineteen years ago)

I keep a shaker of salt at my computer and 1 in the kitchen. I just ate a pinch of it.

― Daddy's Little Duder (unclejessjess), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 06:34 (nineteen years ago)

If you don't taste any difference, then just keep buying Morton's. Have you tried fleur de sel? Or pink sea salt? If you want pure sodium chloride, taste some pickling salt. Even uniodized table salt has other stuff in it to make it flow and not reform into one huge crystal. I like sea salt for the idea that it has other minerals in it, lithium in particular, as I said above. After years of not using iodized salt, it tastes very metallic to me, like a sweaty penny. But if you can't taste any difference, don't waste your money on it. More for me.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 12:51 (nineteen years ago)

a local williams sanoma just had a display of at least 4 different types of salt - some red, yellow, and even black stuff. it was all very salty.

I *can* taste the difference between regular and sea salts, and I'm reluctant to use the sea salt for things like baking. who wants minerally muffins? but then, it's not like you use a lot...

some indian recipes call for "black" salt. but it's more of a maroonish-tinted offwhite. i'm not sure i've ever tasted it though. i imagine something sulfury, am i way off?

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

I keep some fancy sea salt in a shaker and bailene sea salt for everything else. Iodized salt tastes chemical-y to me too but it's not so offensive that I avoid salting my food at a resturant or whatever. The place where it makes the most difference to me is on popcorn--the finer grain works well and you can taste the fanciness.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

You can also generally use less Sea Salt, as a lot of table (pouring) salt has addiditves to stop it bonding, which mask the delicious salty taste - meaning you need more.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 31 March 2006 13:36 (nineteen years ago)

My father really loves salt. Once upon a time, his friends gave him a salt lick (designed for deer, but perhaps ok for humans, too) for his 40th birthday. He has taken to using a salt pig to hold his Maldon Sea Salt as of late. Sea salt is fantastic on eggs.

― ng-unit, Friday, 31 March 2006 15:25 (nineteen years ago)

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