Salt?

Sometime in the middle of quarantine in 2020 I watched the show Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat on Netflix and I’ve been thinking about salt ever since. 

Here are 2 things about me:

1. I don’t like to cook. I’m awful at throwing things together and almost always fail if I don’t have a recipe to follow. I feel fortunate that I don’t have a family to feed and can get away with popcorn or cold cereal for dinner some nights. Having to cook for a living would be the most awful job I can think of. 

2. I cook anyway. Mostly from scratch because I like to know what I’m putting into my body. I avoid boxed and premade foods almost entirely. I will admit that when I cook something that tastes good and is good for me it makes me happy and I enjoy that feeling. Luckily, I’ve learned to eat leftovers so I don’t have to cook every day.

But back to salt… When my dad’s kidney failed and he went on dialysis, he had to cut sodium completely from his diet. My parents were empty nesters by that time but the whole family kind of went along with it when we had family dinners. The food we brought or mom made just didn’t have salt, or very little. It was a big switch at first. That first year when mom didn’t add salt to Grandma’s roll recipe we all mutinied and said the rolls must have salt! But you get used to it and I cut a lot of salt from my diet as well, even when I was by myself. I figured I was still getting plenty anyway and it was probably better for me. Since dad’s been gone, I have added some salt back into things but I think I still eat a lot less than average Americans. I usually don’t add the full amount called for in recipes and I don’t do the extra things like salt my pasta water. I never add salt at the table unless it’s mashed potatoes or popcorn.

I’ve been thinking about it though. Yeah, sometimes I make some tasty stuff, but it could be because those recipes had the right amount of salt or fat or whatever to make them taste good the way they were written.

I borrowed Samin Nosrat’s book from the library. The Netflix show was based on the book. I’m reading about things that can improve my cooking. So the other day I put salt in some ground beef I was cooking for enchiladas. It wasn’t even a lot, but wouldn’t you know, I swear the meat tasted…meatier. Now I’m thinking about trying it again with something else. Maybe I’ll salt the pasta water!  LOL

I still feel that I don’t need to add tons of salt back into my cooking, but maybe I can learn to add some where it counts to get good tasting food that is still healthy. Plus, if healthy eating is what I’m after, I need to look at sugar intake instead of salt.

Anyway, yeah I think I might buy myself some different types of salt this year and maybe improve my cooking skills. I’m still not gonna like doing it, but tasty results will make me feel better that I did it anyway.