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How much salt?

How much salt?

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Old 09-28-2021, 12:23 PM
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Default How much salt?

I have been looking through a 1938 Watkins Cook Book - and these are the amounts of salt to add to various recipes:

Most of the time an actual measurement is given,
but there are exceptions:

Salt
Little salt
Few grains salt
Pinch salt

From other books:

Season to taste

With new/unfamiliar recipes - it is helpful to me to have suggested measurements for seasonings. Next time I make the recipe, I may - or may not - adjust the seasonings.
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Old 09-28-2021, 12:24 PM
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I just go by my own taste.
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Old 09-28-2021, 12:34 PM
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Skip the salt and only add it after you taste it on your plate. Most of us eat too much salt. Biscuits and yeast dough are the only recipes where I use the recommended amount.
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Old 09-28-2021, 03:42 PM
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my favorite is "cook until done" Most of my mom's hand written recipes have these directions on them But she was a good cook....cook fish until Firm to the touch and flakes easily with a fork, lick your finger and quickly touch the bottom of the bread pan, if sizzles, done...or just thump it and listen to how it sounds....etc, etc, etc. Some how she always managed to get everything done at the same time....a skill I have yet to master. oh...and my great aunt made wonderful bread, cake, cookies in a wood stove...never a burnt or under baked anything.
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Old 09-28-2021, 05:50 PM
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I decided to can salsa this year. Canning is a little intimidating to me bc of the fear of food poisoning. So when a recipe says something like, 4 peppers, etc., it really bugs me! There's a required level of acidity and I'd like at least a volume measurement - if not a weight. Any produce can vary so much in size that saying a number of anything is useless.

Salt... I usually go with half and increase as needed. We never cook things like pasta or potatoes with salt BUT I recently read something that said we should be using it (unless medically prohibited) bc we'd actually enjoy the food more and thus eat less bc of the flavor. Hmmm.. Wouldn't I want to eat more bc it was so good?
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Old 09-29-2021, 03:49 AM
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I omit salt in most recipes except bread and pie crust. Those two items are "nasty" without the small amount of salt that takes it from bland to yummy. It is surprising how a small amount of salt make a bread or pie crust shine with flavor.
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Old 09-29-2021, 04:54 AM
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Couldn’t you just taste it?
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Old 09-29-2021, 05:18 AM
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I don't use salt in anything when I am cooking unless it's baked items like bread/cookies & even then I generally use half of what the recipe calls for. I've been doing this for years & years & we don't even miss the taste. I figure if you eat a bowl of soup with crackers, you get enough salt in the crackers....if you eat some BBQ, you get salt in the store bought sauce & store bought bread you eat on the side, etc.
My DH uses LOTS of pepper in all his food. If you were to see a serving of mashed potatoes on his plate you would think it was an ant hill!
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Old 09-29-2021, 07:19 AM
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Originally Posted by peaceandjoy View Post
I decided to can salsa this year. Canning is a little intimidating to me bc of the fear of food poisoning. So when a recipe says something like, 4 peppers, etc., it really bugs me! There's a required level of acidity and I'd like at least a volume measurement - if not a weight. Any produce can vary so much in size that saying a number of anything is useless.
Your acidity level comes from the tomatoes. Peppers are very close to neutral.
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Old 09-29-2021, 09:54 AM
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OH that sounds like my Mother telling me how to cook. What? i kept saying....
I thought maybe you had trouble with Sea salt or table salt being used by cooks on youtube or t.v. Most good cooks will let you know when they are using Sea salt because it takes more of that than table salt.
so most likely salting to taste will work well for you.
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