Cooking salt in cooking

Table salt today for use in cooking takes first place, because it is not only able to change the taste of food, but it is of great importance for the human body, as it is part of cells, blood, bile and lymph. It also regulates the pressure in cells and tissues, water and salt metabolism, acid-base balance, promotes the formation of hydrochloric acid in the process of digestion. Food salt is used as a seasoning and for drying fish or meat, salting, vegetables, canning.

In its composition, table salt is a natural sodium chloride almost in its pure form (not including a small fraction of impurities), which includes 39.5% sodium and 60% chlorine.

In cooking, it is common to distinguish several types of salt , depending on those impurities that are included in their composition.

1. Spanish salt - is widely used for salting marine fish, because it has clear crystals of large size, slowly soluble in water. Due to this salt property, the marinade has a gentle, even and steady taste, and the salted fish is stored for a sufficiently long period of time, since it can not be spoiled and dried for a long time.

2. Stone table salt - used for pickling sausages, ham, smoked products, meat and other. It has a low content of impurities and low humidity.

3. California salt - used for salting, leaven, canning, because it is clean and soft.

By the way of processing, the food salt is also divided into several types:

1) large - has the most pleasant taste, so it is suitable for cooking any dishes;

2) melkokristallicheskaya salt - most often used in cooking;

3) ground - not recommended for salting fish, as its quality and taste deteriorates;

4) iodized - it is not recommended to use in hot dishes (soups and quenching), sour cherries and pickles, because it gives them sharpness and worsens their safety.

The table salt dissolves equally in hot and cold water, and a certain amount of salt is taken for a certain volume of water. Here you can conclude that when pickling, for example, vegetables, you do not need to dilute the salt strictly in hot water, often adding extra grams, because you can simply over-salve these vegetables, which can lead to negative consequences.

In addition, with a decrease in the amount of water in any dish (taking into account its evaporation), the products will become somewhat more salty, since all the salt will pass into them. That is why the first dishes, cereals, sauces are salted at the end of cooking, and not at the beginning.

Quite differently behaves salt in the oils. In them, it dissolves in a minimal amount, so when the fish, vegetables or meat are fried in oil, it can be salted as much as desired, since excess salt in this case will not enter the food.

Thus, we can conclude that in cooking there is a rule: liquid dishes must be salted at the end of their cooking, and fried - at the beginning of cooking.

It should also be remembered that when salt gets into the water, the salt releases heat. This is its property in cooking used for rapid defrosting of foods, as well as for rapid boiling of water.

Without salt, the human body can not function, as it participates in the regulation of the water balance and, with its constant shortage, a fatal outcome can occur. Excessive use of it leads to the development of diseases of the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, joints, as well as increased pressure and disruption of metabolic processes.

Thus, a moderate intake of salt helps maintain all the processes occurring in the human body, and, consequently, leads to the formation of good health.