Salt is one of those things that works even on raw stuff, go wild
Pro tip: if you want your food to taste saltier but you've already salted it, throw a bit of lemon juice in there. Oftentimes when your mouth tells you it's not salty enough, what it actually needs is a bit of acid
Same thing if the food tastes too greasy or fatty. Lemon juice isn't a bad go-to for whenever you go "this dish is missing something, but what?"
Srsly?
This reminds me of a roommate my sister had, who asked her what went into a grilled cheese sandwich. She said just two pieces of bread with a slice of cheese between them. She went into the kitchen a few minutes later to find the roommate staring at the uncooked sandwich on a plate. "Something wrong?" she asked. Roommate answered, "Is this supposed to melt the cheese?"
me
Sounds like she's qualified to be Trump's next director of the FDA.
It won't be quite the same as having salted the pasta and the sauce, while cooking it, but "salvageable", absolutely.
How is it different from salting after?
When it comes to something like meat, the biggest thing is that the salt can penetrate into the meat itself, rather than just sit on the surface. Same goes for things like potatoes or pasta.
Other than that, I couldn't really tell you, on a technical level, but you can be sure it boils down to "chemical reactions."
If you're curious or skeptical, you can experiment pretty easily. Make a batch of tomato sauce, and seprate it into two portions. Salt one before simmering it for a few hours, and the other one after. Most people will be able to taste the difference.
Salt does not penetrate as much and just does not add as much flavour
It matters more in solids.
If you add some salt to sauces, you can just give it a few stirs to incorporate it.
Salt often tastes different when added during cooking vs after
Yes, but if you stir it into a warm sauce it will mostly dissolve and it will still substantially improve it compared to no salt at all.
Sauce is a different matter.
But yeah, if you didn't salt that yeast dough, you aren't going to be making it better right before it goes into the oven.
Not all foods get the you can salt me whenever pass.
Once i completely forgot the salt in my bread. It was disgustingly bland; like, I couldn't believe a teaspoon of salt would have such a massive effect.
But I actually salvaged it by putting salt on every slice of toast I made with that loaf.
It worked out okay!
Alternatively, instead of overloading on salt: for non-bland food:
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Get local in-season produce. E.G. Fresh tomatoes vs canned or long distance imports is a night and day difference. Also can be cheaper and you also know that the money is staying local, not feeding some rich fuck's investments.
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Mother. Fucking. GARLIC.
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Optionally, find a good chili oil.
Fwiw good quality canned tomatoes can be miles better than buying "fresh" tomatoes for the 8+ months of the year that they aren't actually in season (depending where you live in the world). Growers still grow them, but they're less sweet and less juicy. Canned tomatoes also break down way better for sauces. I agree with your overall point, and almost all of my fruit and veg come from farmers markets, but tomatoes generally don't for both cost and quality purposes.
Great tips, but starting with the word 'alternatively' sorta suggests that these will work instead of salt...
Get local in-season produce.
Ehhhhhh, I'm with you on the economic benefits, but when it comes to sodium intake, good quality canned/frozen veggies are just fine, and there's a lot out there that don't have any added sodium. On top of that, in a lot of culinary cases canned/frozen is better than fresh - I'd never dream of making pizza sauce out of anything other than good quality canned tomatoes, and frozen peas are usually better than fresh.
Optionally, find a good chili oil.
Most store bought chili oils are loaded with sodium lol.
The water you boiled the pasta in is not the "pasta sauce".
I usually cook without much salt because you can always add more, but you can never remove it. This way everyone can eat each meal to their liking.
You could also cut the food with more unsalted food, to fix the balance. Not uncommon in restaurant kitchens.
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