Question for Mom

Clockwise from left: table salt, kosher salt, sea salt flakes, sea salt

How important is salt in a recipe?  --Jeffrey L.

It’s very important when it comes to flavor.  With most dishes you cook, you can add salt at the last minute or leave it to the eaters to add salt themselves in case they’re on a salt-restricted diet.  With raw meat, it’s better not to sprinkle salt on it before you cook it, because salt will pull the juices out—and that can make the meat tougher.

If you are baking bread, cakes, cookies, pie crusts, muffins—anything with dough—adding the right amount of salt is extremely important.  Make sure you add it when the directions tell you to--during mixing--because it affects the baking process.  Salt strengthens the dough and also affects the taste.  I once forgot to add it when making bread, and the end result was awful.

The biggest problem with salt is adding too much.  There is no effective way to remove salt once it has dissolved.  See this post. 

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