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Salts and Rubs |
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Written by Lara Ritchie
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Sunday, 01 June 2008 |
Gone is the old admonition of salting only seconds before cooking a steak. Today, restaurant chefs and home cooks alike are using salts and rubs in a dizzying array of techniques to create sumptuous flavors.
“Without salt,
there is no end to blandness.”
—Chinese proverb
Salt is one of the oldest and dearest spices we know. Some of today’s salts come with a hefty price tag. Note, back as early as the sixth century, salt actually served as currency. (Too bad you can’t barter today with this pantry staple.)
Salt’s role in cooking is invaluable. In bread-making, salt strengthens gluten, traps moisture, and aids in the structure, texture, and color of the loaf; it also slows down the rate of fermentation by reacting with the yeast.
Salt’s ability to retard the growth of bacteria has been known for centuries, resulting in tasty treats such as cured meats and cheeses.
Salt also preserves color in cooked fruits and vegetables. In processed foods, it serves as a binding ingredient and increases shelf life.
Salt is a mineral, which is either mined or evaporated from waterbeds—the most famed of the latter, sea salts, being France’s Fleur de Sel. Salts from the sea that have been minimally handled end up with trace minerals, which offer health benefits.
Our common table salt is a mined salt with a fine grain. It is most commonly found iodized, with magnesium carbonate and sugar additives. Through governmental intervention, iodine was added to many table salts because many Americans lacked sufficient iodine in their diets, which negatively affected their health. Today, Americans now find iodine in more parts of their diet, without having to add it in, so such addition is often not needed.
Kosher salt is also a mined salt, with a bigger and lighter crystalline structure than table salt. It can be found iodized or not. Many chefs claim kosher salt is sweeter and has less metallic taste than table salt. The biggest difference between kosher and table salt is that the same volume of kosher salt weighs about half the amount as the same volume of table salt. Many bakers use a one-to-two ratio when baking with table versus kosher salt.
Sea salts vary in color, flavor, and texture. One example, Alaea, a Hawaiian salt, is coral in color, a result of the clay beds from which the seawater is evaporated. Different textures and colors of sea salt can play a creative role in food’s presentation. A beautiful spinach salad is even more appetizing with a sprinkling of coral-colored salt. Other salts, such as black salt from India, waft a sulfur aroma and offer a highly distinct taste to Indian cooking.
Flavored salts demand room in today’s pantry. One of the oldest of these is a Danish style smoked salt. Smoked over fires of various types of wood, this salt is a clever way to increase barbeque taste and aroma on fish, meat, and vegetables dishes. Truffled and herb-blended salts have taken some of the work out of cooking. With one shake, you can add salt seasoning as well as herb and truffle flavors. A salt with Herbs de Provence in it recently turned my routine grilled halibut into a dish of legend.
Salt is also one of the main ingredients in rubs. Its role is to react with the other ingredients in the rub to increase their flavors as well as the flavor of what you are cooking.
A longstanding debate has been when to rub and salt food. The old standard was to wait until just before cooking to rub and salt. The reasoning behind this technique was that the salt in the rub brings out too much water and dries out meats. Chefs are now discovering that salting and rubbing meats ahead of time actually results in increased flavor. Meat absorbs some of the salt and spices, giving more bang for the buck. Any griller “worth his salt” rubs ribs well ahead of time. And cooks have found that rubs are not just for meat, but enhance vegetables and fruit, too.
Salt has the uncanny property of being able to sweeten foods, too, as when sprinkled on melons or tomatoes. Yes, salt has even made its way into the dessert section of the menu. This is not an entirely new concept. Pastry chefs are topping chocolate cakes with sea salt and rubbing fruit with sugar, salt, and spices to roast and grill. Try this approach at home and expect your neighbors to call asking “what’s grilling?”
The beauty of the rub is its individualization. Curry rub blends are the most notable and long practiced of rubs. In India it is common for a family to have a tin of particular spices that makes up their own family curry, concentrating on flavors that that family enjoys. Entire books have been devoted to the art of spice blends and rubs. Some blends challenge the palate to spicy hot combinations, while others seek ways to romance the grill. Since smell is one of our strongest ties to memory, it is no accident these family rubs and blends become part of a well guarded pantry.
Salts and rubs play a pivotal role in cooking. The texture of salt on a pretzel is a must. Fries without salt might spark a revolt. Prime rib cooked without a rub could be just any other cut of steak. With little effort, rubs turn an ordinary meal into something worth coming home to.
Salts and rubs have earned their position in your pantry. The time has come to give them their due.
Lara Ritchie is the culinary director and a teacher at Nothing To It! Culinary Center. |
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