You’re crazy!
I salt my melons, too.
it is not just the size of the grains in kosher salt, but the shape and fragility. Think about those big cubes of salt on pretzels. When I was a girl, they were often single crystals of salt all about the same size. Table salt is the same way, little uniform cubes. Kosher salt is flaky and the flakes are not of a uniform size. The flakes also seem to be more brittle and break apart more readily than table salt. Fleur de Sel has a shape like a fractal tiny little cube adhered in odd ways to bigger conglomerations of cubes. Solid crystals of salt will dissolve slowly because they have little surface area compared to many other shapes. When I cooked with uniodized table salt, it seemed like the salt took longer to affect the taste, and when it finally did, boom, it was too much. I wonder if this is due to the uniform crystal size. I find it much easier to judge how much to use with kosher salt and can tell much more quickly.
I found an article on Slate with many pictures of salt.
And for those worried about salt and blood pressure, the picture is a lot more complicated than the public has been lead to believe. Lately I have been reading that raising your potassium intake can offset the potential negative affects of high sodium intake.
I am in good company then.
So, how YOU doin?
Extra salt is my “secret ingredient” in chocolate chip cookies. Makes them so much better.
I put salt in most things I cook. I agree that it enhances flavor, rather than “just making it salty”. Though I did once oversalt some fried potatoes once because I neglected to take into account that I was using garlic salt + salt and not garlic powder + salt. Those were salty.
You might be surprised to learn that “hand measuring” can be very accurate. An old show I used to watch (Justin, the cajun cook) did a demonstration of it once. He said he’d been getting mail about saying “a tablespoon of salt” or “a teaspoon of pepper” and then using his hand to measure it. People just KNEW his portions were too large.
So he measured out several amounts in his hand, then measured them with measuring spoons. They were exact measurements. The trick is knowing how much the well of your palm holds- if you cook enough, you get the hang of it.
And my son, who is sitting here with me, thinks this post need a “smack” smilie, so I must oblige!
:smack:
Oh, and if you over salt a soup, drop in a piece of raw potato for a couple of minutes- it will leach out the salt.
When I worked at Pizza Hut I could measure out 3oz of shredded cheese with my hand and my manager once called me out for not using the scale. I showed him several times in a row that the amount I grabbed in my hand was exactly 3oz if I put it into the scale, and he stopped bugging me about it. It just takes a little practice.
Justin Wilson. I do that too. It’s easy to learn - if a recipe calls for a teaspoon, measure it out then put it in your hand. Do this a few times at different measures and you’ll have it.