no matter what some people will tell you – salt in indispensable to good food and good cooking
Jeffrey Steingarten in his essay ‘Salt’, taken from The Man Who Ate Everything
To salt or not to salt, that is the question
I never met a potato that didn’t respond warmly to the addition of a bit of salt. I suspect that there are few, if any, who would disagree. Salt is an essential addition to spuds, as well as to many other foods. However, there are those who would contend that you can have too much of this particular good thing.
The other day I received two separate communications about campaigns afoot both here and in the UK which aim to “raise awareness … that our diets are still too high in salt and that the majority of dietary salt is from processed foods such as processed meats, sauces and bread”. They have introduced salt calculator applications to help the consumer to identify high-salt products, and also provide advice on reducing our consumption of salt in the home. The impetus for such a reduction, of course, is the apparent correlation between high-salt diets and high blood pressure, which leads to an increased risk of, among other things, stroke and heart disease.
That much of our salt intake comes in the form of highly processed foods is true, and that these campaigns should encourage us to eat less of these foods is no bad thing. If it’s a case of arguing for more boiled spuds and less instant mash, then I am absolutely on the side of home-cooked taters.
However, I am less convinced about the need to make drastic reductions in the use of salt when it comes to home-cooked foods. That there is a correlation between high salt intake and high blood pressure would appear to be the subject of much debate. A 1998 article in Science magazine entitled “The (Political) Science of Salt” discussed in detail the state of the research on both sides at that time and observed that:
While the [U.S.] government has been denouncing salt as a health hazard for decades, no amount of scientific effort has been able to dispense with the suspicions that it is not.
That there was even any debate on the matter was something that I came upon by reading Jeffrey Steingarten’s essay ‘Salt’ and, more recently, through Nina Planck’s excellent book Real Food: What To Eat And Why. Both note that 20% or so of the population is salt-sensitive, meaning that blood pressure goes up when they eat salt and down when they don’t, but the rest of us are not. Meanwhile, there are other factors which appear to be more clearly linked to high blood pressure, such as lack of potassium, stress, smoking, lack of exercise and obesity.
I appreciate that the salt-reduction campaigns are well intentioned and if they succeed in moving people away from processed foods and towards home cooking, then that is to be applauded. However, their suggestions for salt avoidance in the home are not going to do anyone’s home cooking any favours. One campaign suggests using freshly ground pepper instead of salt. I would respectfully argue that these two are not the same thing and that your dishes will simply end up tasting peppery and under-salted. Another suggestion advocates choosing foods which have been flavoured with herbs and spices “so you shouldn’t need to add any salt”. Of course herbs and spices will impart flavour but, more often than not, they will need at least some salt to marry those flavours together.
The fact is that I feel distinctly uncomfortable where such campaigns portray salt as the ultimate villain of the piece, rather than the highly processed foods, from which most of our dietary salt emanates and which probably contain other ingredients that aren’t exactly poster children for a healthy diet. Just because a food label indicates that a food is low in sodium does not automatically mean that it is good for you. As far as I am aware, the campaigns do not attempt, for example, to direct us towards using unrefined salts, which, as Nina Planck points out, will contain many other vital trace elements and, as it happens, generally taste better too.
Now, anybody for some spuds cooked on a bed of salt?
Salt-baked Baby Potatoes
In my recent wanderings around cyberspace, I came across these little beauties – baby spuds covered with salt and baked. It’s a method of cooking often associated with fish, but can be applied to many things. The theory is that the salt layer seals in steam, flavour and nutrients and the potatoes (or fish) cook through what is effectively a combination of steaming and roasting, becoming infused with salt flavour but not overly salty. I ate these little guys straight out of the oven and I didn’t even feel the need to add any butter, that’s how good they were. Moister than roasties, but with some of the same flavours. I will certainly be making these again (and reusing the salt I used first time to do so).
You’ll need:
- around 400g to 500g coarse salt
- approx. 500g baby potatoes
You’ll also need:
- An ovenproof dish – I used an oval earthenware dish, about 28cm x 20cm x 5cm
The Steps:
- Preheat your oven to 200C
- Scrub the baby potatoes. If you like, you can cut some of them in half, so that you have roughly even-sized pieces. Dry the potatoes well.
- Scatter your ovenproof dish with a thin layer of salt. Lay the potatoes on the salt layer, cut side down for any that have been cut in half, and allowing a bit of room between each spud. Switch to a larger dish if your potatoes are squashed up against each other.
- Cover the potatoes with enough salt to cover them completely and bake for around 45 minutes to an hour or until the flesh is soft throughout. To test, just poke a small knife through the salt crust and into one of the spuds, it should slip through easily.
- Dig the little potatoes out from their salt bed, dust off any excess salt and enjoy.
The Variations:
- Heidi from 101 cookbooks discusses a variation where the salt is mixed with some egg white to get more of a crusting effect on the potatoes. She also suggests sticking a few cloves of peeled garlic into the salt, which is worth it for the aroma alone. You could also chop some rosemary or thyme into the salt, which should result in a gentle infusion of those flavours into the spuds.
The Results:
- This amount should give you side-dish servings for 2-3
I’ll take some of those spuds. I like my salt and no one better put their paws on it. It kind goes along the same myth about MSG. There’s no scientific proof that there’s anything harmful in them and is merely a flavor additive. It is a non-proven claim and has been debunk many times. But, of course, there are those who will not listen.
you don’t need to defend salt to me! tea smoked, mixed with truffles, lavender scented… i love all kinds of salt! and these sound delicious!
The spuds look great!! i love salt, but not too much! I prefer Maldon sea salt!!
I like its taste!
jenn: it’s hard to know what to believe sometimes
Heather: hooray for salty truffles and other such delights :) lavender-scented salt sounds positively intriguing…
Sophie: I am with you on the Maldon – love the stuff!
I cannot wait to try and serve this spuds in salty delight. What a treat! To me its hard to imagine potatoes without some salt in the picture.
Like you and Sophie, I love Maldron and picked up a few boxes of the smoked salt while visiting your home tuff. If folks want to cut back on salt, added at the end with some Maldron for that salty taste and fix.
As you quoted Jeffery Steingarten from one of my favorite books, have you read Salt by Mark Kurlansky yet?
I cannot wait to try this. I knew you could bake fish in salt, but I didn’t know you could do it with potatoes. I was always afraid to try it with fish too because I didn’t want to waste a beautiful, and expensive, whole fish if it didn’t work out. I’m going to try it this week, I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Thank you, God, for salt. It’s my favorite seasoning–and I agree w/you. It is indispensable. I put it in everything. EVERYTHING. I have ranted about Lack of Salt on my blog on several occasions, and I even wrote a lens about the importance of using salt in desserts.
I read an interesting perspective on salt and blood pressure a few months ago. Salt dehydrates–just ask jerky and bacon–and when it sucks water out of us, our arteries and veins constrict, causing blood pressure to go up. I say don’t reduce salt intake. Rather, we should increase our water intake. Paradoxically, people retain water because we’re dehydrated. If we’d drink enough plain old water, we’d be in much better shape, and salt wouldn’t be getting such a bad rap.
Those potatoes look wonderful, by the way! :D
Oh, I am eager to make these! I have a bunch of small potatoes from the farmer’s market, and this sounds like a perfect way to prepare them!
Salted spuds! Now, that’s a recipe for tastiness. 8-D
Your defense of salt hits the operative point – salt itself is not bad. It’s all in how we use (or abuse) it! Too often, the discourse surrounding eating healthfully is ‘don’t, don’t, don’t’, when it really should be ‘do, but in moderation’. Now, did I see some tweets about errant packages of chips in need of a home? I volunteer as foster eater, er, parent!
Oyster Culture: Yep, hard to imagine spuds without salt. Just today I did see a packet of crisps in a health food shop that had no added salt. I didn’t buy it because I reasoned that I would just end up adding salt anyway. On the book front, Mark Kurlansky’s book is on my list – in fact I have both ‘Salt’ and ‘Cod’ on order.
Allison Lemons: now that I’ve tried it with potatoes, I’d be really keen to try it with fish; will be interested to hear how you get on
Jenni: well I knew that you would be in my corner on this one :) interesting perspective on the salt/blood pressure/dehydration thing – I am of the opinion (independent of anything to do with salt) that a lot of people just don’t drink enough plain ol’ H20 and would be probably be in better shape if they did
Cinnamon Quill: welcome, thanks for dropping by! it’s definitely a method of cooking baby potatoes that I’ll be trying again
Tangled Noodle: absolutely – a more balanced, holistic approach to educating the public on matters of diet would be refreshing; meanwhile, your offer to foster any stray chips is most kind – if there should be any left by the time I’m done, I’ll send then your way :D
Shouldn’t the temperature be 400F, rather than 400C?
Salt-crust roasting also produces fabulous chicken and turkey. Wonderfully tender, super moist and very delicious.
Mr. Cheese — I hope it is 400 F — my oven won’t go up to 750F (what 400C converted to Farenheit).
Mr Cheese, DaveInChicago: yikes, you mean you guys don’t have furnaces in your kitchens? :D
I have updated the text to a more, er, modest 200C (which is, I’m pretty sure, what I meant to type in the first place…). Thanks so much for pointing out the slip – what a difference a single letter can make, eh?
What do ou do with the salt after cooking the spuds? Throw it away seems like such a waste. Can you still use it for something? If anyone knows, Please let me know?
Hi Sharyn! You can certainly reuse the salt to bake more potatoes (or, I would expect, other salt-baked items). I’ve read that you can reuse it up to 10 times (though I haven’t (re)used it that many times myself yet) – just store it in an airtight container between uses. I’ve also used some of the salt that I had saved just as you’d use regular salt. Hope that helps.
I will concentrate on the recipe. Loved it. The first time I had something prepared using this technique it was in Spain and it was meat. I remember my friend’s mum preparing it and inside my soul twisting in pain. I did not even want to try it. When the meat was ready and we ate it..oh my God, heaven. Absolutely delicious. Then fish was my next stop. Now it will be time for potatoes. Good to know that we can reutilise the salt a few times.
Hey Valentina, I know exactly what you mean – until you’ve actually eaten the results, you keep wondering how it can possibly turn out well! Having seen the results with potatoes, though, I really must try salt-baking other things like fish…
Oh, baby potatoes. I remember eating them at least once a week when I was a kid. Can’t remember when was the last time when I had them.