But for those of us who chew?

I also think that there's a reason why we marinate, and don't just coat food with sauce.

But I do agree to an extent. Pretzels, as an example, taste very salty but are often relatively low sodium as far as snacks go.

I also think there's a tendency to over salt at the table if the dish is under salted. Similar to tossing a salad with dressing vs serving the dressing at the table.

I tend to notice over-salted dishes more than the average person - I'll take one bite and not be able to stand it, whereas DH will say, yeah, it's a bit salty, but edible. Yet, I also tend to notice the "flat" taste more than others when dishes are under-seasoned during the cooking process. Go figure. But it seems like if something isn't seasoned property during cooking, no amount of added salt will make it right. I have no idea if there's a "perfect" time to add sugar/salt while cooking. I wonder if adding it later would mean you could get away with using less, as you seem to suggest, or if that would someone lessen the melding of the flavors, so the final product would taste harsher?

I've recently started paying more attention to sodium because of some posts here. Of course, I knew that fast food and processed foods are chock full of it, but I didn't realize just how much until I started regularly reading that part of the label. I've never been one to add salt at the table, but it amazes me how people in restaurants will heavily salt their food before they even taste it!

I am a saltaholic so had to stop cooking with it. Except in soups I use OXO very bad for me. I just switched to pink salt as it has less sodium than table salt.

FOAS, Not many people are practitioners of Fletcherism [ Look it up yourself :-) ]. Food gets swallowed when they are less than thoroughly masticated.

Unless you have the ability to pulverize food like a high powered blender, or have the facility to regurgitate (LOL!), there will be a good quantity of salt/sugar which will never make contact with you papillae taste receptors.

dcarch

Sodium is an essential nutrient in our diets and naturally found in any number of foods without adding salt to them. So by eating a variety of whole foods, we get plenty of sodium.

I think the less we consume highly-processed foods the more our taste for salt diminishes. I'm more inclined to use a sprinkle of kelp granules as a low-sodium salt alternative these days, which is also a good source of iodine.

I make microwave homemade vegetable chips and baked kale chips without the addition of salt, and it's amazing how different they are from the fried, highly-salted version. You are satisfied with 4 or 5 chips rather than half a bag, and you enjoy the flavor of the vegetables. However, I am fond of adding a dash of cider vinegar powder to them occasionally.

It's also curious how adding a little salt to something can make it taste sweeter. That "pinch of salt" doesn't really seem all that necessary in the big scheme of things, but "... salt suppresses bitter tastes, bringing sweet and sour flavors to the fore." Hence that sprinkle of coarse salt on dark chocolate goodies probably has a purpose.

My father had Addison's Disease and he required high amounts of salt in his diet, so there are exceptions to the rule.

-Grainlady

I think I get most of my salt from soy sauce, but I do have a hard time with any food that is overly salty. I especially do not salt in sweet foods, but then I do not like sugar in salty foods! For some reason, I like to keep those flavors separate and minimized. I can easily get addicted to sweet foods, but if I avoid them, I do not crave them.

Lars

CL, Himalayan Pink Salt is 98.35% sodium chloride. If you're using it to cut down on sodium, that's a pretty negligible amount of savings.

I assume you're talking about that type of pink salt, and not the salt used to cure meat (6% sodium nitrite, 94% NaCl)--which is colored pink so the sausage maker doesn't confuse it with regular salt.

Some people find that if you use soy sauce to salt your food, the strong flavor of soy sauce makes it a little harder to oversalt stuff. I find that most restaurants are too heavy handed with salt, and I find Chris Kimball on America's Test Kitchen to use too much salt as well. Just my opinion.

Salt, sugar and fat are the big three in the western diet cravings. Which is why fast food fries are so popular.

LOL, I somewhat seem to agree with all of you. I too am very sensitive to taste.

I do salt lightly during cooking to bring out some of its flavor. When food is still cooking, my tongue wouldn't do well with the tasting. The steaming heat obsecures my taste. So, I wait until the end and after the dish had cooled down somewhat before do the final adding "salt & pepper" to taste. In my case, most of the time it would be adding fish sauce.

Anyway, my common sense is that it's easier to add salt than taking it away from food. Therefore, under salting a dish wouldn't hurt the dish as much as over salting it.

Regular table salt label lists the RDA at 32%per 1/4 tsp and the pink salt is only 14% according to the labels on my salt pkgs. I know it is not much but at least I don't eat it straight anymore.

Sodium that is.

This post was edited by CLBlakey on Thu, Apr 18, 13 at 22:49