March 30, 2016 The main rule is It's better to undersalt than to oversalt! After all, this is easy to fix, but over-salting is much more difficult to deal with, and, most likely, such a dish will be spoiled.

The taste of a dish largely depends on how and when it was salted, but usually we salt food “automatically”, without thinking about the existence of rules and recommendations.

When to salt

Dishes should be salted at the end of cooking. This rule especially applies to iodized or sea salt, since iodine, vitamins and microelements contained in such salt are destroyed by prolonged heating. In addition, if you add salt at the beginning of cooking, it is difficult to calculate the ratio of salt to the volume of the dish. And most importantly, it is at the end of cooking that the products absorb salt better.

However, some dishes are salted during cooking. For example, it is better to salt meat broth half an hour before cooking, and mushroom broth at the very end. Beans are salted 5 minutes before the end of cooking, as they cook in salted water for too long.

In rare cases, the use of salt at the beginning of cooking is completely justified. For example, pasta, dumplings and dumplings, vegetable broth, fish and fish soup. If you are preparing these particular products, first salt the water and then add them to the pan.

How to salt

Different foods need different amounts of salt. For example, fish requires more salt, but meat does not need so much, because if it is over-salted or salted at the wrong time, it will become tough and tasteless.

Meat is salted very sparingly; most often it already contains salts. If you do not like salty food, then you can not salt the meat at all, but add spices to it or serve it with sauce, or lightly salt it before serving.

If you are cooking liver, it is better to salt it at the very end, as salt will make it tough.
Fish is salted more abundantly than meat, regardless of how you plan to cook it (boil, fry). It is best to salt it 10 minutes before cooking - this way it will not fall apart when frying.

Vegetables are salted less than fish, but more than meat. The amount of salt for potatoes will depend on how you cook them. If you boil potatoes, it is best to salt them immediately after they boil. Jacket potatoes are salted immediately or not salted at all. Fried potatoes are salted at the end of cooking - this will make them crispier. Mushrooms are salted more than vegetables.

What to salt

Many people usually use one grind of salt. But the taste of the finished dish largely depends on what salt you use.

It is better to use coarse salt when preparing first courses, adding it to boiling water when cooking vegetables, pasta, cereals, or preparing marinade.

Medium salt - when cooking meat, vegetables, salting or smoking fish, for preservation.

Fine salt is ideal for use in ready-made dishes and directly at the table.

Also note that there should be no additives in salt. Manufacturers often use potassium ferrocyanide E-536 as a food additive that prevents clumping and caking of salt (especially finely ground salt). In its pure form, potassium ferrocyanide is a toxic substance.

It is best to give preference to organic salt; the Ecocluster assortment includes

Useful tips

Did you know thatsalt Can it remove the bitterness and enhance the sweet taste? Or that the time at which salt is added during cooking also affects the appearance of the dish? How to eat less salt? What to do if you oversalt your food? You will find answers to these and many other questions in our article.

1. In order to understand the degree of saltiness of the dish, cool it. If you try it hot, it will not seem as salty to you as it actually is.

2. When cooking soup, taste only the broth. If its level of salinity suits you, then all its components will be well salted.

3. The salad should be salted just before serving, and if you season it with mayonnaise or salty sauce, then it does not need to be salted at all. This is because tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables, when in contact with salt, begin to release juice, losing both their appearance and taste.

4. While preparing a dish, try it a minimum number of times, because the more times you try, the more your sensitivity to salt will dull.

5. Different manufacturers have different salt tastes, so it’s better to choose “your” salt and always use it.

6. Be careful when using ingredients that already contain salt. These are mayonnaise, tomatoes in their own juice, canned vegetables, tomato juice, olives, capers, tomato paste, pickles, cheese, bouillon cubes, canned fish, deli meats. Little or no salt may be required. Also try to use unsalted butter when cooking.

7. If you cook with spices, remember that some of them enhance the taste of salt. Therefore, it is better to deliberately under-salt your dish, so that after adding all the sauces, spices and seasonings, you can make sure that there is as much salt as needed.

8. Any filling for pies, pies, vertut, kulebyak, cabbage rolls, etc. It is salted more than usual because some of the salt will go into the unsalted vegetable or dough casing (or will go into the cooking medium) during baking, boiling or frying.

9. The vast majority of dishes are salted at the final stage of preparation. Last but not least, this is done in order to avoid over-salting, because when the dish is almost ready, the amount of liquid is already as needed (important for soups), and dishes made from meat and fish, mushrooms and vegetables already have such a consistency that the salt can remove them. soak evenly, and not just superficially, as would be the case if you added salt at the beginning.

Another reason to add salt at the end is that food will cook faster in unsalted water. Moreover, if, for example, you cook beets and carrots in salted water, you will only worsen their taste.

Among other things, there is a list of products that need to be salted only at the end of cooking. These are beans, peas, lentils, mung beans.

10. At the beginning of cooking, dishes are salted only in two cases: if you need water, broth or milk for preparing flour products, or if you want to boil fish.

A few more tips from the chef

- get rid of bitterness with salt

It is for this reason that some coffee lovers prefer to add a pinch of salt to it before brewing. And this is why salted olives have such a great taste; raw they are very bitter. You can test this property of salt very simply: put something bitter on one side of your tongue and salt on the other. You will instantly feel how the salt kills the bitterness.

- add a little sweetness with salt

Here we are talking about products that combine both sweet and bitter tastes. A good example is grapefruit. The sweet pulp of this fruit is hidden under a bitter film shell. If you remove the entire film, the fruit will become even tastier. But you don’t have to remove the film, as this is quite troublesome, but just add a little salt, the bitterness will go away. At the same time, salt will not only remove the bitterness, it will also enhance the sweetness.

- enhance the flavor with salt

Salt enhances the flavor of many foods; try salting melon or grapefruit and you will see great results.

When and how to salt fish

It is best to rub fish with salt before cooking, and not salt it in the usual way, like other foods. Fish needs a lot of salt, approximately 3 teaspoons per 1 kilogram. If you want your fish soup to be without under-salting and without over-salting, then add about 4 teaspoons.

You will need a little more salt for the soup, because other components of the dish take some of the salt for themselves. The main rule in the case of fish is to salt it before cooking.

How and when to salt meat

Since meat itself is not a fresh product, it does not need a lot of salt. For this reason, most problems arise with meat dishes. The amount of salt depends on the method of cooking the meat. Baked meat requires about half a tablespoon per 1 kilogram, an average fried steak will need 1 teaspoon of salt, and for cutlets half a teaspoon per 1 kilogram of minced meat will be enough.

Salt the fried steak after cooking, while you are setting the table, it will arrive just in time. If you have time, you can salt it one hour before you start cooking, then it will have time for all the juices released to be absorbed back, and the meat will turn out soft. Do not salt the steak immediately before cooking; salt will draw all the juices out of the meat very quickly.

When cooking meat, it is better to salt it after the water boils and you remove the foam. This way the salt can penetrate deep into the meat and it will have a deep flavor. As a rule, if meat is salted before the end of cooking, it does not have time to become saturated with salt, and it turns out salty only on the outside.

How to salt sweet pastries

It's no secret that sweet baked goods also need to be salted. This is done in order to emphasize the sweet taste and lightness of the dough. As a rule, one small pinch of salt is enough for a sweet dough. Yeast dough needs two pinches, and puff pastry made with butter needs half a teaspoon of salt per kilogram of dough.

Salt unsweetened baked goods

Flour dishes with meat filling can be salted evenly if you under-salt the dough a little and over-salt the filling. Be sure to salt the meat fillings well, then upon contact with the almost unleavened dough you will get an excellent balanced taste.

How to salt porridge

Milk porridges should be salted less than porridges cooked in water. Salt should be added to any cereals and porridges when they are almost completely ready, so it will be absorbed more evenly.

Buckwheat already initially has a slightly salty taste, so its preparation requires a minimal amount of salt. A couple of pinches of salt per 250 grams of cereal will highlight its natural taste. When it comes to rice, the same amount of salt will require more - about 1 teaspoon.

Salting vegetables

It is best to salt vegetables at the very end of cooking, because salt added at the wrong time can cause vegetables to become tough. There are a few things to keep in mind. For example, when preparing fried eggplants, before frying, heavily salt the oil and fry the vegetables in it. However, do not salt the eggplants themselves at all, as they will take the amount of salt they need from the oil.

It is better to salt the potatoes about 15 minutes after the water boils, when they are almost ready. For one kilogram of potatoes, take half a tablespoon of salt. Adding salt in time makes vegetables more juicy. For this reason, vegetable salads, tomato and squash caviar, and vegetable sauces are salted ready-made.

When to salt soup

It is best to salt the soup when all its components have already been cooked. The standard proportion is 1 teaspoon of salt per 1 liter of dish.

Salt dumplings and pasta

Any dish that is cooked in water or broth and consists of unleavened dough must be salted at the boiling stage of the liquid, because from the salty liquid the dish will itself take as much salt as it needs. For pasta, this is the proportion of 1 liter of water - 1 teaspoon of salt, for dumplings and dumplings - 0.5 teaspoon of salt per 1 liter of water.

What to do when we over-salt a dish? What methods of salvation are there?

How to save over-salted meat

Over-salted meat is much easier to salvage than anything else. For example, you can add a fresh sauce based on unsalted butter or flour. This sauce will instantly absorb excess salt.

Another way is to add rich sour cream to the dish. You will get an excellent gravy, and sour cream, mixed with meat juice, will give the dish a new taste and remove excess salt. If you decide to use sour cream, remember that it should not be added to the dish being prepared, as the effect will be insignificant.

Transfer the finished dish to a porcelain bowl (it's better than a metal one), add chilled sour cream, mix well and let cool. Later, if you want to heat the food, do it in a water bath.

A bland side dish will also help to save the situation with over-salting. When you have over-salted the minced meat, you can easily add grated raw zucchini, potatoes or finely chopped cabbage to it. Such additives will not only save the minced meat, but also make the cutlets more juicy and tender.

How to save over-salted fish

Fish absorbs salt more actively, so if it is over-salted, it will be more difficult to save the situation, because animal meat, as a rule, absorbs salt only in a superficial layer, which cannot be said about fish.

The first way is to stew salted fish in sour cream, adding a lot of onions and parsley (dill). The second way is to prepare an unsalted side dish, mashed potatoes or cereal.

The third way is to soak the salted fish in cold water. To do this, small fish need to be completely filled with cold water, periodically refreshing the water, and large fish should be cut into pieces so that the salt comes out faster. Water is often replaced with milk.

How to save over-salted vegetables

An over-salted vegetable dish will either have to be completely changed or thrown away. If, for example, you have over-salted root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beets, rutabaga), then the only way out is to puree them and mix them with the same puree, but unsalted. Of course, in this case, you will spend more time and products.

If the vegetables are only slightly salted, then add a little flour, fat, sour cream, beaten egg white or a whole beaten egg to the puree of such vegetables. It is important to understand that over-salted vegetables can only be saved by pureeing.

There is no need to worry about an over-salted vegetable salad at all. Add a few more cucumbers, tomatoes and more greens to it. Tomatoes will save vegetable stew from excess salt. They just need to be finely chopped and added to the dish while continuing to cook. Vegetables that you have cooked whole and over-salted, you just need to pour boiling water over them and cook for a couple of minutes.

How to save over-salted mushrooms

Mushrooms can be saved with flour, mashed potatoes or rice, which naturally must be cooked without salt. Stewing in sour cream or cream with onions will also help. It all depends on how much salt the dish is. If the oversalting is insignificant, then adding an additional portion of mushrooms will correct the situation, but there is no guarantee that the dish will become homogeneous in salt.

You may come across both salted and unleavened mushrooms, that is, you won’t be able to achieve uniform saltiness, but you will be able to smooth out the taste. Unfortunately, fresh mushrooms do not know how to draw out excess salt; unsalted acidic liquids (water acidified with lemon, sour cream) and starchy substances such as flour can do this.

How to save over-salted rice

The easiest way to “bring back to life” is over-salted rice. You just need to rinse it under cold water or boil it in unsalted water for a few minutes. You can also remove excess salt from pasta, buckwheat and many other grains. The main thing in this matter is not to overdo it, so as not to end up as a mess.

How to save over-salted soup

At first glance it may seem that nothing is simpler. Just add water and you're done. However, this method is best left as a last resort, otherwise the taste risks being hopelessly spoiled. It’s great if you have unsalted broth in stock, but if you don’t, then a bag of rice will come to your aid, which you need to keep in the soup.

Rice has excellent absorbent properties and will quickly absorb all the excess salt. There is another way to save soup - using refined sugar. A spoon with a piece of sugar is immersed in the soup, and the melted sugar is replaced with new sugar, doing this until all the unnecessary salt is gone.

Pasta and potatoes have good absorbent properties. If the recipe allows, add more of these ingredients. If not, just simmer a few whole peeled potatoes in the soup and then remove them after 10-15 minutes. The potatoes will absorb the excess salt without spoiling the taste.

How to save over-salted salinities

Sauerkraut, pickled cucumbers, and tomatoes are often heavily salted. They will be saved by running cold water, in which it is necessary to soak the vegetables.

How to eat less salt

It remains to talk about the most important thing, how to learn to eat less salt. The average person consumes about 15 grams of salt every day, although the body only needs 3 grams. Want to eat less salt? This is not easy, especially if you are used to salting everything. We'll tell you four ways to help you move towards a healthier, less salty kitchen.

Step #1

First, you must clearly understand that excessive salt consumption is dangerous, it is associated with the development of hypertension and increased blood pressure. The latter, in turn, is the main cause of premature death and the development of heart failure.

Among other things, excessive salt intake is associated with cataracts, stomach cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, edema and fluid retention in the body.

Step #2

Taste food correctly. Learn to taste your food before adding salt. If you are one of those who salt out of habit, then try to begin to re-understand the taste of unsalted food. Over time, you will realize how much salt hides the real taste of food. Learn new things.

Step #3

Reduce your salt intake. There are several ways to help you reduce your salt intake in cooking, at the table, in takeout and during lunch. Some dishes, for example soups, taste much better if they are salted a little. If you want to reduce the amount of salt rather than eliminate it completely, try pouring the salt into your hand first, which will allow you to see how much salt you want to use.

To reduce the amount of salt in the kitchen

Just stop adding salt to your food. Start by halving the amount of salt called for in the recipe. Continue to reduce gradually, replacing salt with seasonings.

At home at the table

Do not reach for the salt shaker; remove it from the table altogether. If you can’t help yourself, then shake the salt shaker once over your food and try to wean yourself from this habit each time. Be careful with seasonings, as many side dishes and sauces are seasoned with a lot of salt.

Takeaway

Ask that fast food they make for you not add salt. Don't eat food that you know has been salted. Chips, crackers, and French fries acquire their enticing aroma, not least thanks to the generous amount of salt.

Recipes most often recommend salting dishes to taste. And this complicates the situation for those who do not have much experience in preparing their own food. How much salt should you salt minced meat for dumplings or how to determine whether there is enough salt for the dough?

All people have different tastes and everyone also prefers a different amount of salt. But there are basic principles that we want to talk about. We use the most common fine salt as a basis.

Salting the fish

Salt the meat

Salt for sweet baked goods

Salt for savory baking

Salting the porridge

Salting vegetables

When preparing almost any dish, be it fish or meat, porridge or another vegetable masterpiece, baked goods, and sometimes even dessert, it is impossible to skip one important operation - “adding salt”. Salt helps all the flavors of your culinary brainchild to reveal themselves; even a dish completely devoid of spices and seasonings ceases to be bland if it is simply in moderation salt The addition of salt is especially important when preparing fish, eggs, mushroom and vegetable dishes, and boiling flour products. Meat, oddly enough, needs less salt. Sometimes (but quite rarely) meat may not be salted at all!

The cook will certainly be faced with the question: “How and how much to salt?” It would seem that salting is so simple. But it is often quite difficult to properly salt a complex multi-component dish. It's an art to add salt in moderation. But, if you have an impeccable “sense of taste” and culinary talent, then salting food correctly will not be difficult. What should those less fortunate do? Learn, try, make mistakes and correct your mistakes, as well as arm yourself with certain knowledge. We hope our article will help you with this.

“Salt in moderation” is understood differently by different people. In the cuisines of different countries, the understanding of how to salt is very different. For example, in the Middle East and Transcaucasia it is customary to salt dishes quite strongly, but in the Baltics and Germany, on the contrary, they are accustomed to bland dishes and, Even the degree of salinity to which we Slavs are accustomed is not acceptable for these peoples. And in different families, the requirements for salinity vary. Thus, an experienced cook, accustomed to feeding only her own household, may simply not please the guests, who may be shown the food under-salted or over-salted. It is not without reason that many restaurants, as it may seem, serve deliberately under-salted food. This is done so that everyone can add salt to their own taste. And most recipes do not strictly regulate how much salt should be added. And the notorious “to taste” just indicates that the cook himself must decide on the amount of salt and please certain people - his family, his compatriots, or, conversely, guests from another country.

There are salt standards that must be observed when preparing a dish (they are usually indicated in the recipe), and there are salt standards only for adding taste. The first ones are strictly constant and mandatory, the second ones depend only on your preferences. Before you start cooking, you need to strictly determine for yourself how much salt you need and at what stage it should be added. Here are the general rules for adding salt to food.

How to salt food?

Pickling rules:

• Incomprehensible “To taste.” If the recipe does not indicate salt levels, this means that the dish is salted only for taste and the housewife needs to be guided only by her taste, rely on the experience and preferences of her household.
• Why do you need to add salt at the end of cooking? The vast majority of liquid and solid dishes are usually salted at the end of cooking, which helps to avoid oversalting - when the dish is almost ready, the volume of liquid (essential for soups) will no longer change (everything that should have boiled away has already boiled away), and the consistency of meat and fish dishes , as well as vegetables and mushrooms, is already such that the salt will evenly saturate the dish (and not just the surface). That is, salting at the end of cooking is very convenient and helps to avoid many mistakes. Another reason is that food will cook faster in unsalted water (cooking, for example, beets and carrots in salted water worsens their taste).
• In addition, a number of foods need to be salted only at the end of cooking– beans, beans, lentils, peas, mung beans. Products that contain a lot of water - cucumbers, tomatoes, green vegetables and other vegetables, in the presence of salt, release liquid, lose their appearance and taste (these are the main ingredients for preparing salads and determine the rule - “salt the salad just before serving”).
• Add salt at the beginning of cooking. Salt is added at the beginning of cooking only in two cases - if you need a medium (water, milk or broth) for cooking flour products (for example, pasta, dumplings, dumplings or dumplings, dumplings, etc.) and if you need to boil fish - cooking fish soup, kalia (fish or meat soup in cucumber brine) or simply boiled fish. Here you just need to salt the liquid before putting the listed products into the boiling medium. To cook, for example, pasta, you need to take 100 ml of water and 10 g of salt per 100 g of pasta, and 1 tsp of dumplings. for 3 tbsp. water.
• Fillings. All fillings for pies, pies, cabbage rolls, kulebyak, etc. you need to salt twice as much as usual, since part of the salt during baking (frying or boiling) will be absorbed into the unsalted dough (vegetable) shell or transferred to the cooking medium - water, vegetable or other stewing medium. The cooking medium can become a waste or a sauce.
• Sauces, especially if they accompany boiled fish and the meat is also cooked a little more than usual.
• Taste for salt You only need to cool a small portion of the prepared dish.
• When used in cooking ingredients already containing salt It is imperative to take into account that in this case you need to add less salt, or even not salt at all. This includes the following products: tomatoes in their own juice, tomato paste, tomato juice, mayonnaise, canned vegetables, olives, capers, meat and vegetable bouillon cubes, pickles and other pickles, canned fish, cheese, sausages and sausages, deli meats and so on. In this regard, it is recommended to use unsalted butter when cooking.
• After adding salt to the dish, they also add spices, which can increase the feeling of saltiness. Therefore, real professionals in the art of cooking often deliberately under-salt their dishes so that after adding spices, various sauces and seasonings, they can make sure that the amount of salt is in moderation and that there is no need to add salt too often.

Read the sections on how to correct over-salted dishes and how to salt fish and meat dishes, vegetable and mushroom dishes.

Tips for the hostess on how to properly salt food Online .

When we salt the food we are preparing, and this could be fish, lard, salads, herring, etc., we don’t think about it at all, we do everything “automatically.” Although the taste of the dish depends largely on how and when it was salted. Let's see some tips for proper use of salt for cooking.

Tip #1

Remember, different foods require different amounts of salt. For example, meat does not require a lot of salt, because if it is over-salted or salted at the wrong time, it will become tasteless and tough.

Tip #2

When using sea or iodized salt, prepare dishes by salting them correctly at the end of cooking, and this rule must be followed. Microelements, vitamins and iodine, which are present in such salt, are destroyed during prolonged heating. So, by adding this salt at the end of cooking, we retain all its beneficial properties. In addition, if you salt food at the beginning of its preparation, you may not be able to guess the quantity, because during cooking the volume of the dish decreases due to the evaporation of excess liquid - the result is over-salting. In addition, food absorbs salt better at the end of cooking.

Tip #3

Broths are salted in different ways during cooking. It is better to salt mushroom broth at the very end, and meat broth half an hour before final readiness. Fish and vegetable broths are salted at the very beginning of cooking.

Tip #4

Beans, beans, peas, lentils, other legumes and dishes made from them should be properly salted at the very end of cooking, five minutes before readiness. This is done because they take too long to cook in salt water.

Tip #5

Some dishes need to be salted at the beginning of cooking. This applies to pasta and pasta, and dumplings. Also, when cooking vegetables and fish, salt correctly water at the beginning.