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How does that work? Salt is literally just NaCl, how does that "lose taste" under heat? I'm curious about the mechanism if that's true, some chemical reaction w
by anyfoo 5y ago
How does that work? Salt is literally just NaCl, how does that "lose taste" under heat? I'm curious about the mechanism if that's true, some chemical reaction where the ions bind to something else?
EDIT: Asked my wife who is a biologist, and her hypothesis, if that’s true, is just that salt added later (independently of heat) just tends to still float and cluster together. So you might get more from an individual bite, especially the first few? Very different from actual spices which do break down under heat of course.
- hutzlibu 5y agoI was told, that salt added early enough, can extract the flavor of other ingredients. So the salt still taste like salt, but it makes other tastes avaiable, which can be good or bad, depending on the dish.
- baby 5y agoI've experimented a lot with that and honestly I always prefer adding salt at the end. Italians will tell you that it's blasphemous not to put salt to cook your pasta, but there's honestly 0 differences (I suggest trying both ways and seeing that for yourself). What makes a real difference when you cook pasta is cooking it in stock though. I've also noticed that a lot of salty/garlic-y concentrated products (that are probably already cooked, think Asian pastes) will conserve their taste well when cooked with. I'm still wondering why.
- zoomablemind 5y ago> ...how does that "lose taste" under heat? My experience (limited as is), if salt is added in the boiling water prior to putting veggies or meat, it would be eventually absorbed and also diluted with the moisture and the flavor of the veggies and meat. This also reduces the "contrast" between the flavors, thus prompting more salt added at serving.