I use salted butter and I never even bother using salt in recipes – why DO almost all recipes call for that 1/2 tsp of salt? Is it just out of habit?
I don’t know what part of Britain you live in, but here the supermarkets only stock salted butter, boiled brains, turnips, pickled goat’s kidneys, and rows and rows of canned tomatoes (to be served cold, naturally). Suggested accompaniment: warm beer.
Well, a rubber tire on fresh from the oven bread would be heavenly!
No, it’s not out of habit. Besides making things taste better by increasing electrical conductivity on your taste buds (no, really!) salt is needed, even if only in small amount, for many chemical reactions that occur during cooking, from raising the boiling point of water to retarding yeast activity in baking bread. Them sodium and chloride ions really get around!
Ah! I told my mother there was a reason!!! (She keeps insisting on leaving salt out, claiming you don’t need it!)
I agree, except for the raising the boiling point of water. You need a lot of salt to raise the boiling point of water any useful amount. When a recipe calls for salt (say, salting your water before boiling your pasta), it’s as a seasoning, not to raise the boiling point.
Why salted butter? Why salt on green beens? 'Cause without it, the taste is lost
