Strategies for lower sodium cooking, part deaux...

[Strat50]

Today, we'll cover some sauce and soup techniques, as they are related, only really differentiated by the amount of liquid.

When preparing any bechamel type sauce, including sausage gravy, etc., add the salt at the end.

Salt your beans at the end. Let your aromatic herbs and veggies do their thing before adding salt.

Add any acid before the salt. Citrus juice, vinegar, and so forth. This can greatly reduce the amount of salt one needs.

If making a soup or sauce with a cured meat base like bacon, ham, etc., again, salt at the end.

If making a soup with cured meat, and vegetables, first saute the meat, then the veg, and salt at the end of the cook.

If using bouillon or commercial meat stock, make it a bit weak tasting if cured meats are present. The salt in the cured meat will become more apparent during simmering.

The prevailing idea here is to salt at the end of most cooks. If one is just sweating veggies for soup or whatever, a bit of salt helps, but less is more here.

If more folks have an interest, we can do more. Or, hit me up with specifics.

Greetings from a blustery Houston, Alaska

[bbqLuv]

Thank you, You're the salt of the earth.
Frito Corn chips are salted after cooked, or so I read somewhere way back when.

Salt in your beer to bring back a head. salt is added afterward.

[HawkerXP]

Don't forget salt on the napkin keeps the beer from sticking. Salt is added before.

[efincoop]

Thank you for sharing this. It is very different approach than I was taught. I plan to give this a try.

[Strat50]

Same here. I was taught to continually season, and I still do, just with much less salt. The food still tastes excellent.

[fzxdoc]

Thanks for writing this up, Strat50 . So many recipes have you salt along the way--salt the meat, salt when veggies added, then salt to taste at the end. Respected chefs say that salting throughout stages of the cooking process makes the food more flavorful. I always fear that it simply may make it too salty.

I never use as much salt as called for in a recipe, preferring to adjust for salt when the dish is made.

Kathryn