 I'm Chef Robin. Welcome to our Hands in the Kitchen workshop. Today I'm going to be talking about salt. Salt is really common spice. Maybe you didn't have a lot of herbs and spices in your kitchen when you were a youngster, but almost everyone has had salt in their kitchen and uses salt on a daily basis. And maybe you don't know a lot about salt. And maybe now, as we approach our older adult years, we might have salt as a health concern. So today we're going to talk about the history of salt, the benefits of salt, the detrimental qualities of too much salt, and so much salt now. There's lots of different types of salt, so people are confused about how to use it. We're also going to get into the meaty part of when you actually use salt for cooking. And then we're going to take control and we're going to curb our salt intake. And I'm going to have some suggestions for doing that during the cooking process and also at the table. And because we love salt, we're going to satisfy our salt cravings with non-salt things. So let's talk about the history of salt first so that you kind of understand that it's been around forever. Salt is as old as dirt. Salt comes from the ground and its mind or it comes from the sea. And as far back as 6,000 years ago, it's been documented that indigenous people in China were using salt to actually preserve fish and seafood. And then of course we know about the colonial Americans who used it for salt and pork and sauerkraut and raw meat in general. So we definitely have made use of it as a preserving item to keep mold out, to keep storing it, to keep storing food for longer periods of time. In about 1920, iodine was added to salt in order to take on some issues with gout and goreter. People were not getting enough iodine in their diet. They didn't have a very diet like we do today. And iodine was matched up with salt. It went with salt very easily. Consequently, after that happened, some people began to think of salt as having a metallic taste. So if you are a purist and you eat a varied and balanced diet, you probably do not need that iodine in your salt. The salt that is iodized, only one half teaspoon of that iodized salt takes care of all your recommended daily requirements of iodine. So it is a way to get iodine in your system. But if you are eating a wide and varied diet, you probably do not need iodized salt necessarily. Then in the 1980s, things started to show up on the grocery store shelves called finishing salts. And these are salts that are unrefined and are from various locations in the world that have different qualities as how they go on your palate, on your taste buds. And they are only used for unfinished food. They are not used during the cooking process. They are just for finishing. So we are going to take those different kinds of salt that we talked about, iodized salt, finishing salt, and my favorite kosher salt and breakdown actually when to use them, the benefits of each, the plus and minuses of each. So even though you may be on a salt limited diet, salt is beneficial, is beneficial in your daily diet. It is important in the transmission of nerve messages. So it's also important helping with the balance of fluids in your body. It's also important for proper muscle function. Now that said, sodium is also in lots of fruits and vegetables and meat products and dairy products. So just salting and cooking with salt is not the be in and end all of getting salt in your diet. All food products have some amount of salt in them. And you can take advantage of that without having to add more. Because the effects of too much salt can lead to higher blood pressure, can lead to heart disease, can possibly lead to strokes. And this is an amazing measurement for adult Americans. The recommendations that we recommended daily allowance of salt from the American Heart Academy, from the American Cancer Society, from all those people that make those recommendations is one teaspoon of salt. It's a very small amount. If you are eating a lot of processed food, salt is probably way over that one teaspoon. If you cook with a lot of salt, or you have salt on your table and liberally apply it when you eat, you are probably way over this amount. It's incredible, but most people are up to two teaspoons a day or more. So just be aware that it's a really small amount that we actually need to function in good health. Let's talk about those various kinds and types of salt and look at the differences. So this is the salt that almost everyone had in their kitchen at home and probably still might have in their kitchen. The iodized salt, when it rains it pours. It's very uniform. It's a very small granulated crystal. Salt is a crystal. Because it's so uniform and small, it dissolves very easily. So a lot of people use it in their baking because it distributes easier than a chunkier larger salt and is absorbed easier in your baking products. But like I said before, when it rains and pours, it might be because anti-clumping agents are added to that salt. And if you're a purist as what you take in daily in your diet, you might not care for having anti-clumping agents in your diet. It is readily available. It is inextensive. It is a source of iodine. So those are all pluses. Also you only need to use a tinier amount. One teaspoon of this salt is much saltier actually than one teaspoon of kosher salt or one teaspoon of finishing salt. So there are differences in the amount of salt that you might want to use and you need to be aware of that when you look at your recipe. Because it's so concentrated, it is really easy to over salt with iodized salt. So just standing at your stove, it could possibly become an issue that you're using too much and you're just not aware. Or you do over salt and then it's very difficult to come back from over salty. But that is iodized salt, small concentrated granulars of salt, very inextensive everywhere every grocery store has. This is called the workhouse, the workhorse of the commercial kitchen, and this is kosher salt. So you can see that the crystal is much larger. That makes it much easier to control your measurement, but it also takes a longer time to dissolve. The reason it's called kosher is not necessarily because it was blessed by a rabbi, but because it was used for koshering meat, which means to draw out the blood from meat. But this is the salt that most chefs use just because it's easier to get a pinch. It's easier to see how much you're using. The drawback is that it does take a longer time to dissolve, and if you are using it as in a baked good, you need to make sure that it's really mixed in really well so that it's distributed well. It's also a refined salt, which both of these salts have gone through processes to get them to be a consistent shape, to get them to be a consistent color, to get them to be uniform in how they apply in the kitchen. So that's dependable, but that might not be what you're looking for as far as taste-wise goes. So both of these salts are used for stovetop cooking, baking, bracing, koshering, marinating. Then, like I said, in the 80s, there was the introduction of finishing salts. Finishing salts usually come from a particular place. This is an Alaskan sea salt, which has been smoked with alder, so it has a smoky aroma and a large flake. Most finishing salts are unrefined, which means they're not going to have that uniformity in shape. They're not going to have that consistency in color. They could be kind of all over the place. This is Himalayan pink salt from Himalayan mountains, rounding it up. But because these crystals have a different shape and a flavor, the way they hit your tongue is totally different and totally taste different than the way the kosher salt or the granulated salt, iodized salt would. So those are used for a pop of flavor at the end of food, like salt on chocolate, salt on salads, salt on the top of bread, something that you're finishing your finished food product with. So, iodized salt, kosher salt, finishing salt, also sea salt, which I didn't bring an example of, but sea salt is evaporated from the sea, has some trace minerals to it. Finishing salts and sea salts are much more expensive because even though they have not been as processed, the delicate nature of evaporating water out of salt or taking salt from a mountainside and leaving it in a more rough form tends to make smaller batches. So anything that's in a smaller batch and is more particular in a kitchen is more expensive in a kitchen. So it's kind of a catch 22, but as far as what you might want to have in your kitchen, either of these two, the iodized salt or the kosher salt is going to be perfect for cooking and baking and stove top work. So all right, let's talk for a minute about cooking with salt. Cooking with salt really amps up the flavor. The sodium that's already in your meat or dairy or vegetable or protein product kind of matches up with any salt that you're adding to it, and it just kind of increases the volume of that taste. So as much as we know that too much salt is too much salt, if you are cooking with the proper amount, it's going to bring out extra flavors. If you slice a piece of apple, if you slice a piece of potato and you put a little bit of salt on it, immediately it starts to draw out that moisture. So you're getting rid of moisture, which is kind of like a flavor diluter sometimes, and you're concentrating the flavors that are in your product. So when you add salt at the beginning of cooking, it helps to break down the cell walls of your vegetables, just like we talked about the apple or the potato slice starting to become moisture on the outside. If you're, if you put in salt at the beginning of cooking, if you're sauteing or stir-frying or starting the soup, it starts to draw out that moisture, break down the cell walls, makes it much quicker cooking time. It also tends to denature the proteins in meat so that your meat becomes more flavorful and tender. So almost all marinades that you use will have some salt component to them. If you have bitterness in food, like mustard greens or sometimes turnips, which have a bitter flavor to them, a little bit of salt will help to tone down that bitterness. And salt also helps to balance sweetness and sour that's natural in food. So it is really a lifesaver in terms of adding flavor to food. But it's not necessarily the be in and end all of being in the kitchen. So we're going to talk a little bit about careful cooking with salt and then how to move away from being so reliant on salt. Always, always, always, I can't say this enough, always measure from your palm. So put a little bit of salt in your palm and then take a pinch out and you have control. If you stand at the stove and when it rains and pours, it's going to pour and your product is going to be way too salty. You may have seen your grandmother do it, you may have seen your mother do it, but it is really dangerous for your final product to actually pour salt, whether it's from your salt shaker, whether it's from your salt seller, whether it's from the important little girl right here. Don't do that. Okay. The other thing that's an accident that can happen in the kitchen is you're using a salt shaker and the top comes off. Okay, who knows? Who knows why? It just comes, wears itself out and it comes off, but it does happen. So if this is how you measure your salt out, always make sure that the top is tight so you don't necessarily have an accident with salt and then just, you can always cut back and cut back and cut back. If you're following a recipe and it seems like too much salt, it probably is too much salt. If you're tasting and it seems like too much salt, it probably is too much salt. So start with a little bit at the beginning. Cooks usually salt the entire cooking product, process. They'll start at the beginning and taste in the middle of their soup they might taste and then at the final product they'll salt before it goes to the table. If it needs it, it may not be necessary and it's definitely not necessary to have salt on the table. In general, when you take something to the table, it should be ready to be enjoyed without more salt or more pepper or more tamari or something. So salt and anise of flavor, dows down bitterness, balances sweet and sour, measuring carefully and cutting back. Don't be afraid to cut back. It's much easier to add more salt than take salt away. So some people may have been told by their health professional to take control and start cutting back on salt in their diet because like I said before, it's really super easy to go over a teaspoon of salt in a day's worth of eating most definitely. So take control yourself. Eating more fruits and vegetables is a great way to start. Most people do not eat enough vegetables or fruit and I'm talking about trying to eat fruits and vegetables in their raw form. Not necessarily in a can that's already been salted but frozen vegetables that are still unadulterated, apples from the grocery store, carrots from the carrot bag. And so in addition to that, if you prepare your own food, more often than not, you have that control of how much salt is going into that dish. So when you shop at the grocery store, so if you're not able to prepare your own food, when you shop at the grocery store, you have to be a label detective. Seriously, salt is in everything. Salt is in cereal, salt is in salad dressing, salt is in marinara sauces, salt is in those things that we do not like to take the time to make ourselves. Salt is in suits, salt is in almost every bread product, pizzas at the wazoo. So you really need to read the labels. You want to look for things that are lower in sodium or no salt whatsoever. In addition to there being like so many items out there to enjoy, nowadays there are a plethora of merchandise that is low salt and no salt. So there are things that you can do in the kitchen if you're cutting back on salt to still maintain taste and that's flavorful. So let's talk about ways that you can enhance taste. So the first two items that I go to for enhancing taste and bursting up flavor or putting a burst of flavor into food is garlic and ginger. Okay, you can buy both of these items already pulverized and dried and concentrated in flavor. I tend to find those to be a little bit more difficult to control than raw garlic or raw ginger. Raw ginger, I like to just use a grater and grate it into a little pile on my cutting board and then add it into food. Garlic, sometimes I will just roughly chop garlic into slices and then take them out but I have a lot of reliance on these two products as far as flavor builders. Also using citrus to bring out flavor, lemons, limes, even tangerines and grape fruit can be juiced and then added to chicken dishes, meat dishes, salads, vegetables just for brightness, just for pop, just for fun, more flavor. Also a little investment of a zester if you just don't want it to be overwhelmingly citrus, a little bit of zested lemon peel or orange peel really is a nice way to add a different flavor profile to food. Usually that is done, the zesting is done at the end of the products, at the end of cooking so that it's fresh and lively. Also one thing to use is nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast has, listen to this, zero, zero calories, zero calories. It's a protein, it has lots of B vitamins for those people that are not getting enough B vitamins because maybe they're not doing as much dairy or meat product in their diet but nutritional yeast has a nice kind of cheesy flavor to it. It's very easy to find, it is a little expensive but if you're cooking for health you want to remember to kind of validate those expenses by not having to pay later on in life for some health ailment that might have been brought about by too much salt. So make those purchases, take advantage of those purchases, don't just leave them on the shelf in your pantry, actually use them. So nutritional yeast is fun for a cheesy kind of flavor that doesn't bring that added salt in the dairy products do. Other seasonings that are out there that you can use are braggs, this has no salt in it whatsoever, it's a nice mixture of herbs and spices that are dried for seasoning, soups, stews, meats. This is also Mrs. Dash, lots of people are familiar with the Dash diet. This also has no sodium or no salt in it, it's just another combination of dried herbs and spices that's very flavorful and a go-to in the kitchen. You may be familiar with Old Bay, Old Bay is great for seafood, Old Bay does have salt so you may want to be aware if you're salting, don't over salt with Old Bay as well. And then combinations of spices are out there in the market too. You can buy mixes that are already put together, this is a West African curry mix, this is a Jamaican jerk mix from Timmy Tiny Spice, there are all kinds of these varieties on the shelf, they have no salt, they are just spices and herbs and these are a little pricey as well, but this container goes a long, long way. So just for added flavor, if you are finding that your food is just too bland without salt, really take advantage of some of those things that are out there on the grocery store now to kind of like revitalize your food, it's so important to eat. So it's really to your advantage even though it may see pricey at the grocery store to pay seven, eight, nine dollars for this container, if it's going to last you a long time, if you're going to put it to use, if you're going to actually eat food because it tastes more vital and fun and flavorful to you, it's worth every penny. So and there is quite the different array of spice mixes to choose from, you just want to make sure that you're buying something that doesn't start off with salt. So be that label detective, have your micro magnifying glass with you and actually read that label. Also you can make simple sauces, you can make vinaigrettes. Vinegar is another item that really bumps up flavor and is fun to use. So in addition to using dried spices, fresh herbs now especially in the summertime are available everywhere and it could be a very worthwhile investment. For about 20 bucks you can get probably five to six different varieties of herbs to put in your kitchen window. The plus side to having fresh herbs that are growing, that you're in control of, is you only need to use the amount that you need. So you can pinch and pluck and have fun with your own herbs as opposed to when you buy fresh herbs at the grocery store and they're packaged and cut and washed, oftentimes you can't use them up for just one single person or even two people eating before they go bad. So it really is a fun investment to have fresh herbs and keep them on your kitchen window sill or somewhere sunny and have them available to use. Let's talk about satisfying those salt cravings because we all get them, we may be watching television and think that Doritos are the way to go, but actually not. So in a more healthy way and a more healthy diet, let's figure out what we could do to kind of ameliorate those cravings for salt. What I go to oftentimes is popcorn and nutritional yeast, which we talked about before, nutritional yeast has a cheesy fun flavor to it, no salt, no calories. So if you make popcorn in your microwave, just takes you a couple minutes, shakes some nutritional yeast on there, you really cannot serve yourself too much nutritional yeast. So you could go heavy or go light, but it's really fun and it makes your popcorn really tasty. It won't necessarily taste like the heavily buttered and heavily salted movie theater popcorn, but it's going to be great for watching whatever it is you're enjoying television. So just try it. I think you would enjoy it. Edamame is a great snack that takes care of some salty cravings. You can buy Edamame in bags, you can buy Edamame frozen, and it's just a raw soybean that's fun. It doesn't have to be cooked, doesn't have to be nothing. You just eat it just like jelly beans, except it's much better for you. So a small amount of olives will take care of that salty craving, because olives are usually kept in a brine that's very heavily salted. So you would not want to eat more than three, but if you are just absolutely cannot get through the rest of your day without any salt, dice up three olives, put it on top of a great Caesar salad, enjoy it, have fun. Hummus, low sodium hummus or no salt hummus with carrots, cucumbers, and celery are a good snack to have that will take care of some cravings for salt. Hummus is very rich. It feels nice on your tongue. Then you have a little crunch of a cucumber, very refreshing, very filling, and also no salt. So apples, slices with unsalted peanut butter, I don't know, I think everybody's been eating apples and peanut butter since they were little. I just think it's a go-to thing. It's really tasty and sweet, and you have that peanut butter, even peanut butter without salt tastes salty to me. So they just go together very fun, very easy, also not too expensive. There are unsalted seeds and nuts on the market now that you can buy that are truly easy to eat. You just want to watch the quantity of how many peanuts you might be eating, or there are low sodium pickles as well that can be bought in this one. So it is entirely realistic for you to think that you can cut back on your salt consumption. If you are buying a lot of processed food, like I said, and processed food are crackers, frozen pies, pizzas, you just want to see where salt is on that label. And if it's up in the top five ingredients, it's probably too much salt. So be a label reader. Be a person that tastes control of their own salt intake by using other fun products that are out there. Experiment a little bit with your taste buds, what you like, what you enjoy. Experiment with the types of salt that you use. If iodized salt, you continually use that salt, you may be over salting without knowing it, because it's just so concentrated of flavor. So just start pulling back a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time, things that you usually make with a certain amount of salt, start making them with a little bit less, and maybe adding some Mrs. Datch, or maybe adding some of a spice blend that you might enjoy. So anyway, I think I've covered a lot of salt stuff. Hopefully you've learned a little bit of new information and how to maybe enjoy food without so much salt. And I'll see you next time in the kitchen. Thanks.