Salt

[SaligoBay]

Has anyone else found that their salt intake has increased since moving to France?

At first, I found many French dishes over-salted.   Quiches, sausages, all I could taste was the salt.  I've obviously adapted to it, because I have to salt everything now!

I watch people cooking, and even the simplest tomato salad gets "un peu de sel" (i.e. a generous sprinkling!).   Loads in home-made mayonnaise, loads in everything, in fact.

One day soon I'll do that awful thing of salting food before I even taste it, how crass will that be!!

[opas]

Got to agree , we use sea salt, probably `cos it is so much cheaper than I remember in the uk, but not on the table though, to season steak, fish etc.during cooking.  Watch out, you`ll be joining the hoards at your Medecin Traitant for the blood pressure pills......and thats before you have queued at Ikea for 3 days to get through the door

Mrs O

[Iceni]

I season food far more heavily than when I cooked in the UK - my blood pressure has gone from very iffy and about to go onto tablets to low and trust me the activity level has not increased - salt and good food have though.

It is more than just 'being worth your salt' it is all about what you eat and how you eat it combined with your lifestyle.

Cut out all salt and you die. Many children in the EU are overweight but do not eat the correct levels of 'good fat' to help them grow correctly.

Perhaps we should all just live on the chemical additives in certain cholesterol lowering foods that cost the earth - as Bart would say - Hi Curumba - eat, drink and be merry - but do it in moderation.

[Teamedup]

I love salt I have always taken a lot of it. Husband however needed to cut down and sadly, very sadly I have had to cut down on the amount in my cooking.

I personally don't think that for all it is said that you can always salt afterwards, it is never the same. I have on the odd occassion forgotten to salt potatoes and then salted the mash, not one little bit the same.

So no, if anything, due to husband I have cut down. And I have obviously done enough as his last blood test showed that his levels affected by salt are right down. I miss it. My meals always feel like they are lacking some.

You have me thinking about a good pot au feu, properly salted, with a lovely sprinkling of sel de guerande when served, so that you get that crunch and sharp salty flavour exploding in your mouth as you are eating........  

[Mistral]

There was a report on the news a while back about a group of bakers who have decided to reduce the amout of salt in their bread. they have had to put warning notes in the windows of the shops and cut it back gramme by gramme so that their regulars get gradually used to it. I can't remember how much salt goes into a baguette, but it's a frightening percentage (something like 500g to every 2kg, but don't quote me on it.)

Child #1 had to have a complete salt free diet for around 6 months last year. I learnt to cut out all salt in my cooking. I really began to notice how salty other people's food was. I've gone back to using it now, but not as much as before

[Teamedup]

When I bake bread I used about a teapsoon and a half of salt to every 1lb of flour. Yeast and salt don't marry up very well and I've been told that the salt goes into the boulangeres mix after the first rising. I would imagine that the baker would put in around 50grams per 2kgs, but you get one heck of a lot of bread with that. And the thing about salt in bread, with little in, it really has next to no taste as there is little enough in bread to start with.

I used to have a friend in the UK who never salted her food as she was cooking. She always said that people could do it afterwards. I've tried that and I think that the taste just isn't there. I taught her how to make bread and one day when I went round she said she had forgotten to put the salt in and that it was awful, I tried it, it was. I think it had gone against the grain for her to salt the dough and she thought that she would try it without.

[Gyn_Paul]

TU - you're absolutely right; there's a GREAT difference between adding the salt at the table, and adding it during the cooking. (no matter what Paul Merritt (BBC1 monday nights) says) We, too have friends who don't salt their cooking and can vouch for the difference.

I suspect that those of us used to (moderately) salted vegetables run the risk of ending up talking in MORE salt as their guests.

Consider this: how much would you shake over - say - a plate of potatoes and carrots you knew to be unsalted? 1/4 tsp? 1/3 tsp?

Spool back to the kitchen and add the salt to the pans of water. How much would you put in the pot? About the same? Twice as much? So you've cooked vegs for a family of 4 in pots that you added perhaps 3/4tsp of salt. Now you've finished cooking and drained the veg, is the water salt-free? of course not; most of it is still in solution in the water.

I cannot, of course, speak for anyone but ourselves but I know we eat far less processed food here in France than we did in the UK, thus we are taking in less 'hidden' salt inadvertently, and would guess our lowered BP and cholesterol are due to (slightly) more exercise and a better standard of nutrition.

p

[Tourangelle]

I personally don't add salt to anything at all, except meat and bread, precisely because I think there is so much added to other things here, as has been mentioned above. I have never had any complaints, my parents, when they have been, have said things like, aren't you putting any salt in that, looking askance at my vegetables, so I will put some in, no point in spoiling the meal for them. But if they they think I have put some in, they never seem to notice when it has not been there, and believe me, they'd mention it! No desire do have high blood pressure, and with a history of it in both my family and my husband's, it seemed more sensible to cut down on salt and I can honestly say that we don't miss it at all. It is, as Paul suggests, just a question of what you are used to. But I do think the real problem is the hidden salt, there was a discussion last summer in Britain, I think, about how much extra salt there was in cornflakes, and I noticed when I went back this year that the boxes now say "with 25% less salt".

[Mistral]

But I do think the real problem is the hidden salt, there was a discussion last summer in Britain, I think, about how much extra salt there was in cornflakes, and I noticed when I went back this year that the boxes now say "with 25% less salt".

For info; the only breakfast cereal without added salt seems to be Kellogs Smaks.

(I was the strange woman in Géant reading all the labels and muttering to herself )

[Tourangelle]

That's interesting. I did in fact change from cornflakes to a type of muesli which has about half the salt, and I actually prefer it, but it is good to have a couple of options.

[Teamedup]

We'll have to disagree completely about the salting during cooking or not. I just cannot abide it not being in the cooking.

I can even tell now I'm putting less in my cooking too. And so can friends who taste and automatically reach for the salt. Husband says he can't tell the difference, but I can, there is no doubt about that.

[Tourangelle]

Well salt is a really personal thing, I think, and it does depend what you are cooking. I do a lot of cooking with cheese, especially parmesan, so I think that does give the salty taste. Salt also makes you retain water (lovely!) and so having less is slimming, another plus!

[Russethouse]

I remember one day years ago watching Selina Scott (see, I told you it was a long time ago) interview some health expert who said that we should all stop salting our food, and that we would be healthier for it.

Ms Scott said 'You can't expect people just to suddenly give up salt ?' to which the expert answered 'Why not, they are grown ups aren't they' (An expression I have often borrowed since )

I stopped salting my vegetables and never started again - we have sel de guerande for the table if we want it, a small tub probably lasts 6 months.

I like salt on tomatoes or sometimes with an egg, or if I cook an omelette. Possibly I might season a soup with it but we enjoy the actual taste of the food and sometimes just use other seasonings.

TU - have you been to the Guerande ?

[Teamedup]

Been to Guerande? not sure. I am hopeless with names.  We have visited two places where they 'do' salt. One a wet lot, one to be dried. Good job my life doesn't count on it as I cannot remember what the places we visited are called.

[Russethouse]

I think its in Loire Atlantique although it is often marketed as Breton sea salt.

The salt marshes nearly died out a few years ago but now they are thriving again, although the production is less than it was at its peak.

It seems that the less salt we eat the better quality we demand so they have done well through this change in habit.

[IAN_S]

Anybody watching Rick Stein in the past will have seen him just grab a handful of salt out of a bowl and I think a lot of professional chefs do that.

In his new program travelling through France on a boat he refers to the "salt police" so I think he has been got at by someone, not sure who!

[Russethouse]

A heart surgeon ?

[Hoddy]

I'm one of Rick Stein's greatest fans and find myself astonished at the amount of salt he adds to food. I've been steaming vegetables for ages now and so not using salt, but my other half always has to put a liberal sprinkling on after cooking.

Although I did find the taste a little strange at first I now find many foods over- salty. I think it's case of training your taste buds.

Hoddy

[Clarkkent]

Unless it is a dish in which salt is an essential ingredient (salt cod?) there is no reason why any salt should be added to anything while cooking. In cullinary terms it is totally unnecessary. (I used to be told that a small amount of salt should be added to boiling vegetables because it lowered the boiling temperature but the amount of salt required to make a noticeable difference in temperature would render the vegetables inedible!) Salt masks the - often subtle - flavours contained in food substances. My visitors are told that my kitchen is a salt free zone and if they want salt on food that I give them they add it themselves.

One beacon of light in salty French hypermarkets is butter where the vernacular variety is doux.

Tesco own-brand muesli is available without added salt and sugar.

[Mpprh]

[quote]Anybody watching Rick Stein in the past will have seen him just grab a handful of salt out of a bowl and I think a lot of professional chefs do that. In his new program travelling through France on ...[/quote]

Hi

could be worse. It could be "gourmet powder", aka monosodium glutamate ?

Peter