Salt, the only rock we eat, is more than just a seasoning—it’s an essential flavor in our food. It can intensify aromas, balance other flavors, make meat taste juicier, and preserve food for months or even years. Yet a heavy hand with salt can easily ruin a dish. Here’s how to cook wisely with the world’s most vital mineral.

盐如何影响食物的味道？

通过多种方式。盐是我们难以检测的五种基本口味之一（以及苦，甜，酸，鲜味或咸味）。它通过基本上调高其咸味的量来增强食物。盐还可以通过抑制我们对苦味的感知来调低苦味的味道，并平衡其他味道（例如，添加到甜点或香醋中的盐）。盐还散发出蛋白质的紧密螺旋结构，使其风味更美味，更芳香。

Even the texture of salt enhances the taste of food. Flake salts like Maldon or Halen Môn Gold sprinkled over a green salad transmit crunchy bursts of saltiness that enhance the soft texture and mild flavors of lettuce leaves and other vegetables. And surprisingly, salt brings out aromas, too, because it helps release aroma molecules from food into the air. These stimulate our olfactory receptors, helping us to smell things.

How does salt preserve food?

图片会发生什么当你上撒点盐liced cucumber; within a few minutes, the salt is dissolved in a pool of cucumber juice. That’s because water flows through food cell walls towards greater concentrations of dissolved particles, proteins, and pigments. When you rub salt on a vegetable or meat, it dissolves in the food’s exterior moisture, creating a concentrated solution that draws more water from the interior to the surface.

This process illustrates salt’s role in preserving meat for jerky, ham, or hard-cured salami. The salted meat is placed in circulating air, which evaporates emerging water so the meat dries out. Because microorganisms need moisture to survive, drying meat makes it inhospitable to molds and bacteria, thereby lengthening the storage life of some sausages and hams for months.

How does brining—soaking meat in a salt solution—make it juicier?

在Brining中，上述的水分流相反。盐水中盐的浓度比肉类细胞内蛋白质富含蛋白质的液体更稀释，因此盐水进入肉体。在那里，从盐水键到蛋白质的水，导致肉类含量更高。当盐进入肉类细胞时，它会改变肌肉纤维和蛋白质的结构，从而使它们的水持续能力膨胀约10％。由于大多数肉在烹饪过程中损失了约20％的水分，因此泡肉肉可以减少近一半的水分损失。

How and when should I salt my food?

Not only does salt add flavor, but it can also alter the structure of proteins, speed the cooking of vegetables, and make sauces thicken more quickly. Therefore, the answer to this question depends on what you’re cooking.

Before cooking

生的蔬菜Salting crisp, juicy vegetables, like cucumbers or cabbage, before tossing in a salad rids them of moisture that would otherwise water down the dressing. (Myth buster: It’s said that salting eggplant reduces its bitterness by releasing bitter alkaloids with the drained water. This isn’t the case. The reduction in bitterness is due to salt’s ability to reduce our perception of bitterness on the palate.)

Grilled meatsSeasoning meats with salt or a salty spice rub draws out protein-rich juice that dries on the surface during cooking, creating a crisp, deeply seasoned crust.

Dried beans烹饪前浸泡干豆时，加2茶匙。每夸脱的水盐通过用钠代替细胞壁中的镁，从而大大减少烹饪时间，从而使细胞在加热时更容易溶解。（另一个神话混蛋：据说在烹饪之前腌制豆子会减慢烹饪的速度，但实际上是在添加酸或糖会减慢它，而不是盐。）

During cooking

Cooked vegetablesSalting the water for boiling or blanching vegetables speeds up cooking by hastening the breakdown of hemicelluloses, substances that help hold vegetable fibers together. Because pure water draws salts and other soluble nutrients from the interior of vegetables, salting vegetable cooking water also minimizes nutrient loss.

意大利面，米饭和土豆Salting the water for boiling these starchy ingredients improves their flavor by allowing the salt to permeate the ingredients more deeply. Also, when dried pasta hits boiling water, starches on the surface of the noodles gelatinize and become sticky. Salt limits this starch gelation, so liberally salting pasta water reduces stickiness as it flavors the pasta.

Starch-thickened saucesThickening a sauce with flour or cornstarch reduces its flavor. This is because the long-chain carbohydrates present in starches and flours bond sodium ions to themselves, thereby reducing our perception of sodium and aromas in the sauce. The remedy is to add a little more salt.

After cooking

只加加调味如果您仅出于调味料而添加盐，而不是出于上述任何原因，那么最好的时间是在烹饪结束时。这样，盐晶体直接击中了您的口感，您会获得最大的盐味。另外，通过在烹饪结束时腌制，盐的味道和避免过度的盐就更容易了。

When using unrefined, unground salts诸如Fleur de Sel，Sel Gris（灰盐）和Maldon等薄盐等盐含有各种尺寸的晶体，因此随着时间的流逝，它们会溶解在食物上并穿过您的口感。在烹饪后添加它们会导致长时间和饱满的风味影响。

A Cook’s Guide to Salt

盐有两种主要类型。岩盐is mined from the earth by digging or by pumping water into salt deposits to dissolve the salt, and then evaporating the resulting brine in vacuum chambers to recrystallize it.Sea salt是从露天锅中，真空室或大火中蒸发的海水收获的。在这些主要类别中，有几个烹饪盐的子类别。这是最常见的类型：

Unrefined salt通常，海盐（但有时是岩盐），在露天锅中蒸发并剩下，因此保留了微量矿物质和其他提供独特口味，香气，颜色和晶体结构的成分。此类别包括fleur de sel，灰盐，薄盐和一些调味盐。在烹饪结束时，通常用作装饰盐。

食盐Tiny, uniform, granulated crystals of refined salt containing 95 to 99 percent sodium chloride and usually 2 percent anticlumping agents like sodium silicoaluminate (an aluminum and silicone compound). often used in baking recipes.

碘盐食盐supplemented with potassium iodide or iodate to prevent iodine-deficiency conditions like mental impairment and goiter. in areas where fish and sea vegetables (primary sources of iodine) are scarce, iodized salt remains the most effective method of preventing iodine-deficiency diseases. often used like table salt.

犹太盐粗糙的精制盐（有时包括抗肿块剂）用于犹太屠宰场，其大晶体从肉的表面吸取了血液和水分。通常用于烹饪，因为它很容易捏和撒上。腌制盐精制盐，含有亚硝酸盐或硝酸盐；用于治愈肉。

Pickling salt抗抗药剂和碘等添加剂可以为泡菜提供味道，因此一些盐制造商将无添加剂盐作为腌制盐出售。

椒盐脆饼盐A coarse refined salt with dry, solid grains that limit the absorption of fat from the pretzel, which can make exposed crystals blacken during baking.