Foodies Basics: How much salt is enough?
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Has this happened to you? You’re preparing a meal from a recipe you’re following and it’s time to add the salt. You check the recipe, but most of them will tell you to “add salt to taste”. But how much?! It’s true that everyone has different tastes and some like more salty flavors than others, but we home cooks could use a guide, right? Are we talking about a pinch of salt? Or ½ a teaspoon? It occurred to me that there must be a guideline somewhere.
Helga
Let’s talk about regular salt, leaving out the expensive gourmet varieties such as Pink Himalayan, Fleur de Sel or other flavored salts. When we use salt as a condiment in a recipe, it intensifies flavors and creates a balance between acid and sweet flavor notes by actually decreasing sourness and increasing the sweetness in sugar. I have learned that using salt in dessert recipes intensifies flavors, especially in chocolate and caramel.
There is also the difference between fine salt and granulated salt, this is where you can make or break a dish. If a recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of coarse salt, but you have fine salt in your kitchen, then use ½ teaspoon. Fine salt is “saltier” than coarse salt. I prefer to add a little and work my way up to reach the desired flavor. You can always add more. But, how much salt do we need?
We found this as a general guideline, it gives us an idea of how much salt we should use, and we can tweak it according to our own preference, or health issues (we shouldn’t be putting too much salt in food anyway!).
- 1 teaspoon per quart for soups and sauces.
- 2 teaspoons per pound for boneless raw meat.
- 1 teaspoon per 4 cups flour for dough.
- 1 teaspoon per two cups liquid for cooked cereal.
- 1 teaspoon per 3 cups water for boiled vegetables.
- 1 Tablespoon per 2 quarts water for pasta.
- 1 Tablespoon coarse or kosher salt = 2 teaspoons table salt.
We hope this helps next time you find yourself wondering how much salt you should add to your recipe.
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This post is also available in / Esta entrada también está disponible en ESPAÑOL (SPANISH)
