References about salt on salt in food

Salt is not only an essential nutrient, it is essential for many functions in most of the foods we eat. These references supplement our discussions of salt in food and public policy issues of salt and health (which has its own set of additional Salt Institute references and references from third parties ).

General overview
Salt: essential nutrient
Salt and food technology
Recipes
- Salt roasting
- Appetizers
- Pickles
- Breads
- Drinks
- Beef and lamb entrees
- Pork entrees
- Poultry entrees
- Seafood entrees
- Side dishes
- Desserts
- General seasoning mixtures
- Condiments
- Seasonal dishes

General overview

Humans have used salt in foods since pre-history and one reason is that it just tastes good. We are still trying to figure out determinants of human taste and our appetite for salt.

Jane Bradbury's article "Taste perception, cracking the code " in PLoS Biology is good background. She explains what we know about taste buds on the tongue and then transitions from physiology to molecular biology. During the 20th century, electrophysiologists and other researchers worked hard to understand this seemingly simple sense system, but it wasn't until 1998 that they discovered the first olfactory receptors. These proteins, which are exposed on the surface of cells in the nose, bind to volatile chemicals and allow us to detect smells and led investigators to investigate the molecular aspects of taste. This has led to explanations of possible ion channel receptors for salt and attempts to distinguish, physiologically between non-tasters and super-tasters.
The Monell Chemical Senses Center is a leading institutional investigator of taste, including salt taste. Monell researchers feel they have located the sodium taste receptors giving a "salty" taste within taste buds, but admit to being baffled by how the receptor cells convert chemical information from the sodium molecule into the electrical language of nerves.
Colorado State University has a useful page on the physiology of taste discussing taste buds and taste receptors.
Maureen Rouhi's article on "Unlocking the Secrets of Taste " in Chemical & Engineering News argues that "taste is the least understood of the human senses."
Joel C. Geerling and Arthur D. Loewy published an impressive investigation of "Central Regulation of Sodium Appetite " in the February 2008 issue of Experimental Physiology. They point out that the sodium appetite in many species is stimulated by low sodium intakes and that these same neural channels likely offer insight into human salt appetite as well. Their work builds on the original insight of Curt Richter in the 1930s and reviews data from physiology, pharmacology, neuroanatomy and neurobehavior about how sodium intake levels stimulate or inhibit sodium appetite. They propose a framework for brain circuits that integrate signals of sodium sufficiency with neural signals for gustatory (including taste) salt detection and highlight areas for future research into understanding the neural circuitry responsible for sodium appetite.

Salt is the world's oldest food additive. The FoodTimeline figures it entered the human diet right after water. The site has an engaging discussion of culinary research and observes that most foods we eat are not invented; they evolve. The International Food Information Council (IFIC) has a good backgrounder on food ingredients . Check out the Food Product Design "Ingredient Insight" on salt to understand the reasons why food processors consider salt "a good formulating friend." Chefs recognize the value of salt in their craft and grapple with strategies to make healthier foods as reviewed in this article from RestaurantsUSA . In fact, the New York Times carried a story about chefs' "obsession" with salt and CNN.com carried a piece on great chefs' "salty talk" about the virtues of salt .

The Cook's Thesaurus offers great tips on using salt in cooking. And About.com has a good article on "Cooking with Salt and Salt Measures." Harold McGee's 1984 kitchen classic On Food and Cooking discusses salt beginning on page 640; this is a basic source book for serious food lovers and cooks.

Within food circles, it's probably safe to say that the discussion has moved beyond "how much" salt to "which salt?" to be used. The vast variety of specialty and finishing salts has captured public attention and been the subject of innumerable media stories. Among the best is Emily Kaiser 's article "Chefs who salt early if not often" in the New York Times quotes one observer that "salt is the new olive oil" with all the varieties available and notes that advice to hold off salting until just before serving is antiquated. The exotic appeal of salt's has even reached the height of salt merchants claiming the lofty title to "selmelier ."

Salt is basic for every kitchen. In fact, with its indefinite shelf life, it should be an essential component in every family's food storage program.

How much sodium and how much chloride are in a teaspoonful?

One basic question about home use of salt is how to determine amounts, in short: how much sodium and how much chloride are in a teaspoon of salt? The answer is a bit more complicated than you might suspect, but our research shows that one level U.S. teaspoonful of granulated evaporated salt contains approximately 6,200 mg sodium chloride, or approximately 2,400 mg sodium.

The density of granulated evaporated salt varies depending on crystal size, structure, gradation, and degree of compaction. The reported range of densities is 1,200-1,300 g/L. Michaels (1991) uses 1,300-1,315 g/L for Hygrade and Fine salt from Sifto’s Goderich evap plant. Niman (1979), and Bandy (1989) use 1,250 g/L for granulated evaporated salt (loose bulk density = 800 cc/1,000 g). Niman (1979) gives the density of Alberger as 624 - 750 g/L depending on gradation. Akzo Salt Inc. (1992) gives the density of General Purpose granulated evaporated salt as 77 lbs/ft3 (1,233 g/L), and of Granulated Iodized as 75 lb/ft3 (1,201 g/L). Akzo Salt Inc. gives densities for Alberger Natural Flake Salt as 39-60 lb/ft3 (625-960 g/L), and Tru-Flake Compacted Flake Salt as 59-70 lb/ft3 (945-1,121 g/L) depending on gradation. The coarse products are generally of lower density.

Assuming evaporated granulated salt with a density of 1,250 g/L and 1 U.S. teaspoon = 4/93 mL (1 metric teaspoon = 5.0 mL):

Salt (NaCl): 1,250 g/L = 1,250 mg/mL x 4.93 mL/U.S. tsp. = 6,162 mg/U.S. tsp.
Sodium: 6,162 mg/U.S. tsp. x 0.39337% Na = 2,424 mg/U.S. tsp.

A simple summary is that about six grams of salt makes a level teaspoonful and just under 2.4 grams is sodium. This is exactly correct for salt with a density of 1,217 g/L. Based on a salt density of 1,250 g/L, one level teaspoon contains approximately 6,200 mg NaCl and approximately 2,400 mg sodium.

Michaels, Peter G. 1991. Sifto Canada, Inc. Personal correspondence

Niman, Clarence E. 1979. Salt is not “just salt”-considerable differences exist. Food Engineering. September.

Bandy, Jack. 1989. Technical Spotlight, Vol. 90-9. Cargill, Incorporated. February.

Akzo Salt Inc. 1992. Chemical Week. Pp 455-458. October.

Salt, essential nutrient

Salt is a nutrient that is essential to life and good health. Having originally evolved from a marine environment, the human body's salt/water ratio is critical to metabolism. Human plasma contains 0.9% salt (sodium chloride) in order to maintain the electrolyte balance necessary for blood circulation . In the normal course of metabolism, we routinely eliminate sodium along with most other waste materials and the minimum balance must be replenished if we are to survive. Most of our salt intake comes from foods, and some from water. Of course, any activity resulting in excessive loss of sodium such as exercise, has to be counterbalanced by increased salt consumption to make up this additional loss.

Salt and food technology

The number of applications fulfilled by salt in foods are as varied as the number of different foods there are. These range from a taste enhancer to a taste suppressant; as a mediator of water activity and a regulator of texture, mouthfeel, juiciness and friability. Blanching in salt water retains color and crispness in vegetables destined for freezing and salt initiates granule formation producing the unparalleled taste and texture of Parmesano Reggiano cheese.

Salt is not only our oldest known food preservative, but it fulfils a critical anti-microbial function in the most modern hurdle technologies employed in the production of high quality minimally processed chilled foods that have become so popular in recent years.

Despite the myriad established uses of salt in food preparation at home and in the food industry, the overarching attraction of salt for people is sensorial. Simply put -- salt makes food taste good. Salt doesn’t just deliver salty flavor, it delivers flavor in many ways.

Salt is the oldest, most common and most important single flavoring substance. From a food appeal point of view, salt cannot be considered to be merely desirable, but by far the most satisfying of flavor components for all starchy and protein-based foods. This propensity for humans and animals to prefer a salty taste may originate from our marine evolution or may simply be a mechanism to ensure we receive an adequate amount of this essential nutrient in our diet. When faced with foods that don’t meet their taste expectations, most people will simply take up a salt shaker as add enough to satisfy their needs.

Thus, in a country such as Italy, where bread baking traditions result in regional products that vary from high to almost no salt, consumers at home and diners in restaurants will readily make up any taste deficit by voluntarily adding salt at the table prior to consumption. The same can be said for the consumer response to all other food products – those that demonstrate a deficiency in taste will be corrected by the consumer on a voluntary basis. Throughout history, even during periods when it was a very costly commodity, salt was considered to be an economic necessity of life.

One of the most important uses of salt in taste is to moderate bitterness in certain foods. For example, some of or most nutritious cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, spinach, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, mustard greens, radicchio will not be acceptable to consumers unless a certain amount of salt is added. This is particularly true for children as the most recent results of tests from Ohio State University reveals. Restricting the amount of salt that consumers can add to these foods risks their access to the nutritional benefits they hold. Of course, bitter natural foods such as olives would not be an edible food commodity unless they were fully debittered with salt.

When added in small amounts, salt intensifies the sweetness of many foods such as caramel, taffy, fudge, fruits, mild vegetables and various sauces. For example, lightly salting a slice of watermelon makes it taste sweeter. Salt also make food taste more palatable by suppressing other unpleasant flavors. In these instances the goal of the consumer or manufacturer is not to make a food taste salty, but rather to enhance the overall taste profile and acceptability of the food.

Salt has a profound effect on the texture of an incredible array of food products. Because of its functional impact on the gelation properties of proteins, salt is used to respond to consumer preferences for texture, mouthfeel and ease of swallowing for all national and imported cheeses and cheese products, processed meat and fish products. Items such as bologna, frankfurters, restructured beefsteaks, chicken pieces , dry-cured ham, surimi from all fish sources, battered calamari rings, minced fish balls, etc., etc., serve as some examples. Salt has a critical impact on the texture, color and cooking loss of a range of fresh, processed and dehydrated vegetables, such as runner beans, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli and cauliflower.

Of course, not only food processors love salt. The use of salt by consumers to improve the texture of foods is very common. Preparing for the holidays, a cursory search on Google using the terms ‘brining turkey’ yields more than 300,000 citations! As an example, a quote from the San Francisco Chronicle reads, “The Chronicle Food section cooked 28 turkeys to find the best method of producing a plump, juicy bird. Our favorite -- by far -- was the turkey that we brined before roasting.”

The level of salt used in bread manufacture significantly affects the physical nature of the final product. Most standard bread is made from doughs containing somewhere around 1.5 - 2% salt by weight of flour. Salt has a significant physical effect on the properties of wheat gluten, resulting in a less sticky, more manageable dough. Salt also affects the rate of fermentation, and its addition is timed after the dough has been partly fermented. The role of salt in controlling fermentation is not only due to the increase in osmotic pressure, but also to the actions of sodium and chloride ions on the semi-permeable membranes of yeast cells. Inadequate levels of salt will result in excessive yeast fermentation, resulting in gassy, soured doughs that are difficult to process and result in loaves with an open grain and poor texture.

Many types of flat bread have become widely available in recent years. These include single-layered, leavened dough products such as naan, pizza crust, ciabatta and focaccia, batters such as crepes and pancakes as well as double layered products such as pita bread, and unleavened products like chapattis, paratha and tortillas. Salt is an essential ingredient in most formulations, many of which are sourdough or yeast-leavened products. Salt, temperature, aeration and flour quality are all used to control bread quality.

Salt affects the physical nature and properties of biscuit doughs, especially hard doughs, in a similar way to bread. In doughs with significant gluten development, such as crackers and semi-sweet types, salt toughens the gluten and gives a less sticky dough. It may also slow down the rate of yeast fermentation. Typical levels of addition are generally less than 2%, based on flour, resulting in about 1.5% in the final product.

Salt has a variety of technological functions in meat products. While many of the major effects relate to preservation, especially in cured and salted products, it also has other, direct effects on the nature and quality of the product. Some of these involve texture and flavor as noted above.

Salt is used in the manufacture of both hard and soft cheeses. The salting of some of the most famous Italian, Swiss and Dutch cheeses is carried out after they are formed into rounds. The rounds are then immersed in saturated salt brine, for up to 20 days. For many traditional manufacturers, the saturated brine baths are a source of pride, some having been in continuous operation for more than 100 years (showing perfectly cubic sodium chloride crystals from 5-6 inches on a side, sitting in crystal clear brine).

Salt is the oldest food preservative known to humankind – it has been used for thousands of years. The main mechanism of salt preservation is through the reduction of water activity. Microorganisms require water to survive and grow and salt preferentially ties up a portion of the water, leaving the microorganisms without sufficient free water. In inhibiting microbial growth, salt interacts with both the acidity (pH) of the medium and its temperature, as well as other factors present.

A couple good overview articles on salt (there are many) are "The Many Benefits of Salt" by Lynn A. Kuntz in Food Product Design and "How Food Preservation Works," on the How Stuff Works website .

Salt is the key ingredient in smoking and curing foods. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration explains how it works . Rom Well Real Cooking explains why home chefs may wish to smoke their brine-cured meats for added safety and taste. For do-it-yourself meat processors, Morton Salt publishes a popular booklet on how to butcher pork. It's online at Mother Earth News with tutorials on how to cut and cure pork , preserving pork and poultry , and how to cut and cure beef, veal and wild game .

Many countries' food labeling regulations include sodium.

Salting fish made long-range explorations possible in the age of sailing ships.

Recipes

Salt is a gustatory delight. Search any website of quality recipes (e.g. Epicurious , Cooking.com , RecipeCenter.com , AllRecipes.com , RecipeLand.com , StarChefs , SpiceBurst , or MealsForYou ) and you'll find most items have salt. Check out online culinary libraries like Chef2Chef . Or search some favorites collected below (Note the amounts of salt are those used in preparation, not necessarily to be ingested):

Salt roasting
Appetizers
Pickles
Breads
Drinks
Beef and lamb entrees
Pork entrees
Poultry entrees
Seafood entrees
Side dishes
Desserts
General seasoning mixtures
Condiments
Seasonal dishes

Salt roasting

In the late 1990s, the "buzz" in food salt surrounded the wide variety of specialty and finishing salts. The latest "buzz" is about "salt roasting," a method of preparing meats, fish and vegetables by immersing them within a bed of salt which seals in steam and nutrients. When cooked, the salt shell is removed and discarded and the delectable foods served to delight diners. Russ Parsons had a great overview of the new fad in the Los Angeles Times, "Salt roasting, it's white magic ." It derives its cachet from its origins as part of the healthful Mediterranean diet.

For all those who have had the good fortune of attending one of Italy's fabulous wedding celebrations, the endless supply and variety of unbelievably good food is always a wonder to behold. Starting with the antipastos and wending its way through the myriad courses through to the luscious desserts, the feasts are a delight for all the senses. Invariably, however, the crowning highlight of the meal will be a huge fish (or several of them) roasted in salt.

The platters are taken from the oven and brought before the assembled guests. Everyone gathers round in anticipation while the bride and groom swiftly crack the salt encrusted delicacy with small wooden mallets. Gently brushing away the salt, the servers take over and start doling out the succulent fish to the eager guests. No matter how often Italians or other Mediterranean people eat fish and other foods made this way, they keep returning to it. They know what's good.

Just what is it about salt-roasted fish that makes it so good? This is an interesting question because salt roasting does not only apply to fish, but can also be used for meat, poultry and even vegetables. Why it is so popular for fish is simple. It is one of the simplest and most foolproof methods to prepare fish at home that is as good or better than you can get in a gourmet restaurant. With the ongoing recognition of the nutritional importance of fish including the cardiovascular of their omega3 fatty acids, salt roasting is set to become one of the more popular methods of healthful cooking.

For anyone who was tasted salt roasted foods, they are amazed at how juicy and flavorful they are. There are reasons for this. Salt roasting combines the nutritional benefits of gentle steaming with the flavor-generating properties of roasting. When the fish (or other food) is encrusted in salt, the salt fuses together to form an almost impenetrable barrier sealing in moisture and flavor. In addition, the contact of the food with the fused salt ensures a dry heat roasting on the surface, in much the same way as conventional roasting, except that the flavor is completely sealed in the salt casing. The salt never penetrates into the food itself. The salt roasting method ends up being a perfect hybrid of steaming and roasting with the added benefit of ensuring zero loss of aroma and flavor. Despite all the newer, more elaborate methods of cooking that have been developed over the years, it's no accident that salt roasting remains a mainstay method for anyone wanting to bring out all the flavors and nutrition inherent in different foods.

Here are links to salt roasting recipes we hope you’ll enjoy ( also available as a PDF file (pdf 12.60 kB) ).

Fish

Salt Roasted Sea Bass or Rockfish Video
Whole Salt Roasted Fish from Epicurious
Baked Sea Bass in Herbed Salt Crust
Jamie Oliver's Pesce intero al forno in crosta di sale
Salt Roasted Red Snapper I
Salt Roasted Red Snapper II link to PDF to be created
Salt Roasted Whole Salmon
Salt Baked Branzino
Salt Baked Fish
Trout Baked in Coarse Salt
Whole Fish Baked in Salt I
***Sauce (for whole fish baked in Salt)
Whole Fish Baked in Salt II
Whole Fish Baked in Salt Crust
Whole Red Snapper Baked in a Salt Crust