Salt to taste--how to do so mid-recipe?
So many recipes call for you to "salt" or even "pepper" to taste early or mid-recipe. I have no problem figuring how to salt to taste once the dish is done, but how does anyone have any tips for salting to taste mid-recipe? For instance, yesterday I made one of the recipes out of the COTM Flexitarian Table that called for "salting to taste" a marinade that also called for a lot of soy sauce. I'm sure it's going to taste salty no matter what. How do I know at such an early stage how much salt is the right amount?
~TDQ
The Dairy Queen
May 07, 2008 05:19AM
It's hard to judge with a recipe using soy sauce if you have never prepared it before. You need to prepare it without salt (or a VERY small amount), try it, and adjust the next time you make it if needed.
Personally, if I use soy sauce in a recipe I never add salt.
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It's essential to good cooking to season food early as it cooks and not just at the end.
You figure out how much to use by tasting your food constantly as you cook it.
In the case of your marinade, taste it before salting it, then, if you feel it needs salt, add a small amount, taste, add more if it needs it, and so on.
If a marinade calls for a lot of soy sauce, you probably won't need salt unless you used low sodium soy sauce. And even then it might not.
Season to your taste but do it as you cook and not at the end, as the ingredients will not be able to absorb it then. And taste, taste, taste as you cook.
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I agree, and I hate to say it, but every dish handles saltiness a little differently, so it's often a matter of trial and error.
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Ditto to everything C.Hamster says. Taste as you cook. Otherwise, how do you know if the food is good?
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For the most part, I take the approach that I want it to taste good at every stage. I don't try to add enough salt for the whole dish at the beginning, I add enough salt for the ingredients I've got working. That is, if I'm starting by sauteeing mushrooms, I just add enough salt and pepper to make them taste good. I season as I go when I add more ingredients. A couple of caveats, though: you have to allow for the ingredients to come (ie, if you're going to be adding a smoked sausage or other inherently salty product, you might want to go light on the salt with other ingredients). You also have to keep in mind whether you're going to be reducing the soup/sauce...that will concentrate the saltiness.
Its also important to remember that "to taste" might mean "nope, to my taste it doesn't need any salt at all."
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Good question. A lot of it comes down to experience - for example, I know that when I'm preparing something like meatballs, one teaspoon of salt per pound of meat is about right. In a dish to be cooked in liquid, try to undersalt at the early stages, it's a lot easier to add more later than to desalt anything.
Marinades are trickier, because the result depends not just on the actual marinade itself but also on how long you plan to leave it in there before you cook it. I go along with those who've suggested that if there's a lot of soy sauce in the marinade already, you probably don't really need to add salt at all. And of course there's the whole issue of "to taste" - I salt most things a bit less than I used to, but there's no such thing as "too much pepper" to my taste, so I try to tone it down to the taste of my audience.
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This is so interesting, everyone, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Whenever a recipe calls for salting to taste, I confess, I just throw a pinch in and hope all works out. Lately, now that I'm really trying to improve my cooking skills, I'm coming to believe that my dishes are undersalted, as a general rule. I guess I need to start tasting things as I go along to see if I can develop the skill of knowing when things need enough salt, etc. I suppose it wouldn't be such a bad idea to take some notes about how much salt I put in at each step and how the dish tasted at the end (too salty or not salty enough) so I can adapt remember next time ...
~TDQ
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I got lots of great replies here, as well, to a similar question:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/441216
I'm still working on it!
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Good question. I have the same problem with marinades. I mix it and taste and then add meat but I don't want to taste it partially through cooking. As it gets closer to being done, I'll taste it but think it's a little late at that point.
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Just another tip
You can make the marinade ahead of time, then cut a small piece of meat (or mushroom, tofu, etc), marinate it with one teaspoon or so in separate dish so that you don't contaminate the marinade, then do a quick fry with minimal oil. This will give you an idea of the finished taste without commiting the entire dish, and you can adjust the marinade accordingly.
Also remember that many marinades need to sit for a short time for the flavors to develop before adding to your meat/vegetable.
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It depends on what the salt is doing, and how it gets distributed.
In a marinade the salt moves flavor and liquid in and out of the meat.
In something like meatballs and bread, you need to salt adequately during the initial mixing. Salt added at the end is not going to penetrate to the middle.
But salting stews and soups at the end is fine. That salt spreads throughout the liquid.
In addition there cases where you want to apply the salt at the end. Salt, especially coarse salt, on the surface of food has a different impact than salt that is uniformly distributed. In fact, if you are trying to cut back on salt, this last minute, surface salting is best.
Also keep in mind that appropriate saltiness is partly a matter of taste. If you are used to highly salted processed foods, your own cooking will taste dull if you do not use enough salt. But you can train yourself to expect less salt.
I aim to salt a soup or stew just to the point that the flavors start to 'pop'. That is, I try to just cross that boundary between a dull, undersalted dish, and a well salted one. The salt should bring out the other flavors, without being the dominate one itself.
paulj
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I agree that it depends.
The first lesson I was taught in culinary school was about the importance of correctly seasoning the food. About 8 containers of chicken stock were set out -- they had different amounts of salt added to them from none to way too much. You tasted them one by one. It was apparant that there is a point, as you say, where there is a "boundary:" on one side the food's taste is much enhanced; on the other the taste is diminished by too much salt. The goal is to learn where the boundary is and make getting there a part of your routine.
I do disagree with your assertions that stews and soups can be salted at the end. Especially stews. IMO the protein in the stew should be seasoned before it's browned off and stewed. Same for the miripoix or other base ingredients. If it's not, you'll be leaving a lot of flavor out. Same for many soups, especially the heartier variety.
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Salt and seasoning should be added during the cooking process. But the only way I know is trail and error.
You should know the taste you desire from your end product and the order of ingredients to be added and when.
In the case of our Clam Chowder I season the soup to be "too salty" prior to adding my cream. So that at the end I need to make a minor adjustment if needed.
Salt and other seasoning maybe required early in the cooking process in order to flavor the ingredients for a richer and deeper flavor.
Remember soy sauce is not soy sauce. Some are saltier than others while some have less salt but lend a deep color to the dish.
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One thing to note about salting early in the cooking process is that it helps to draw out moisture, thus helping to enhance the flavours.
A classic example would be sautéing onions. By adding a bit of salt right away, the moisture is drawn out of the onions, letting its flavours concentrate and allowing carmelization to begin.
In short, adding salt at different stages of the cooking process serves different reasons. Early on, its main function is to help enhance the flavours of other ingredients. Later on, as you "salt to taste" you're... well... adding salt to suit your taste.
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