I haven't done one of these in a while, what with the several trips I've had to both plan and participate.

• Tea Bags often contain stale tea. Loose leaf tea is often fresher and is the better choice.
• Store tea in a dry, dark place in a sealed container. The tea can be stored that way up to one year.
• Use only a ceramic or glass teapot. Metal teapots can affect flavor.
• Water matters. If you're city's water is highly mineralized, used bottled or filtered water.
• For the amount of tea used, 1 heaping teaspoon for every 6 oz. cup of tea, plus one teaspoon of tea for the pot.
• If you do not know what kind of tea being used, steep in hot water for at least 3 minutes, no more than 5.
• To remove tea stains, scrubs with a paste of baking soda and water.
• To flavor loose tea, store it with citrus peels, cloves, vanilla beans, or other whole spices.
• Tea bags are the better choice for a healthier cup of tea (if you're looking to take advantage of the antioxidants). The tea in the bags are smaller and thus has more surface area exposed, ensuring the compounds can be released.
• Adding milk to tea will reduce the amount of antioxidants available.
• To make iced tea, used about twice as much tea as is needed for hot tea.
• To prevent cloudy iced tea, allow the tea to cool before putting in the refrigerator.
• If you make cloudy iced tea, add some boiling water, and allow to cool.

As always, add your own tips in the comments.

Last night was "Salt taste test" night in our household, which speaks more to our lack of social life than anything else...but I digress.

We had arranged to have several different types of salt, including Sel Gris, Korean Salt, Palm Island Red Gold, and my own personal favorite, Black Lava salt (It's puuuuuurrty).

Slices of cucumbers were cut up and sprinkled with it with a type of salt. From there, results were tabulated, notes were compared, and conclusions were made. The two primary conclusions that I arrived at were:

1) Some of the salts did differ in taste...slightly. So slight, in fact, that a person would have to be looking for the difference to even notice it upon a slice of cucumber. If placed in a dish with stronger flavors, it's unlikley that the difference would be noted at all.

2) Texture made a great deal of difference. Some had an enjoyable crunch, others felt light upon the tongue. Texture would also change via the method of its application, whether used for roasting, baking, sauce making or simply finishing a dish.

So, the conclusion I reached is as follows (and probably would not be a surprise too many professional chefs out there): The type of salt one purchases should primarily be determined by the "mouthfeel" one wishes to acheive with a dish. Of course this only works if you're purchasing some variation of sodium chloride. Purchase potassium chloride, and you're on your own.

Technorati Tags: Salt, food, Taste+Test

Pickling (or Canning) Salt: A fine-grained salt used to make brines for pickles, sauerkraut. It it contains no additives, which would cloud the brine.

Kosher Salt: A coarse-grained salt that is usualy additive free (Morton brand has "yellow prussiate of soda" added as an anti-caking agent). Often found in the kitchen of commerical restaurants. The salt looks like flattened cubes. It's quite dry and hard, and dissolves slowly.

Table salt: A fine-grained refined salt with additives that make it free-flowing, it is mainly used in cooking and as a table condiment. It will also often contain additives, including iodine (aka iodized salt). It dissolves quickly when exposed to low heat.

Sea Salt: Salt that comes from the sea. Used down through the ages and is the result of the evaporation of sea water — the more costly of the two processes. It comes in fine-grained or coarse-grained. The Majority of Sea salt found in the United States is imported. Presumably, sea salt will vary in flavor, depending on the sea from whence it came, and the other minerals found in aforementioned sea.

Rock Salt: Comes in large chunky crystals and is intended primarily for use in home ice cream churns. It's typically gray in it's coloring as it's often unrefined. Because of it's size, it must be put in a grinder if it is to be used in cooking.

Sel gris: Solar-evaporated salt from the northern Atlantic coast of France. It's hard, moist and the salt crystals appear gray. It's taste is reputed to be briny, sweet and delicate. It dissolves slowly when exposed to low heat.

Fleur de sel: Solar-evaporated salt also from the northern Atlantic coast of France This salt is a hard, slightly moist with white crystals. It's also reputed to be briny, sweet and delicate in its taste. It dissolves slowly when exposed to low heat.

Hawaiian Alae: A pale-orange salt that tastes of iron.

Black Salt: Black salt is not always black, but rather can run between a pale violet to a dark purple-black in its coloring. It can be either a large, coarse grain or a fine powder, and it has a strong sulfuric aroma.

Some basic Salt hints and tips.

• To control the amount of salt better, use a salt cellar (or salt pig) rather than a salt shaker.
• Do not salt sauces until after they've been reduced. Salting before reduction will ensure a sauce with concentrated salt tastes.
• A raw or chilled food product will require more salt than if the same product has been warmed or cooked. Temperature affects the "savoriness" of food, and lower temperatures mute those flavors.
• For an oversalted dish, add 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Cook for a minute or two and then taste.
• To deal with an oversalted soup or stew is to add a whole, peeled raw potato and allow to cook for 10-15 minutes. The potato will leech a fair amount of the salt from the dish. (Under review)
• Another way to deal with an overly salt soup is to add either cream or pureed vegetables.
• If you soak whole fish in salt water before descaling, the scales should come off easier.
• By adding a pinch of salt, cream will whip better and egg whites will beat faster and higher(Under review).
• Apples, pears and potatoes dropped in cold, lightly salted water as they are peeled will retain their color.
• To set gelatin salads and desserts quickly, place over ice that has been sprinkled with salt.
• Salting salads just before serving will keep them crisp.
• Poaching eggs in salted water helps set the egg whites.
• Salt added to water makes the water boil at a higher temperature, thus reducing cooking time (Under review).

I love discovering the etymology of words. For me, it gives insight into a bit of history and how ideas were formed and evolved into things we take for granted today.

When we look at several words, we see that many of them "devolve" into having been influenced by salt.
Things

• Halcyon - From the Latin halcyon, From the Greek halkyon, variant of alkyon "kingfisher," from hals "sea, salt" + kyon "conceiving,"
• Pastrami - This is possibly is Modern Greek pastono meaning "I salt," from classical Greek pastos "sprinkled with salt, salted." The spelling in English with the suffix -mi probably from influence of salami.
• Salary - From the old French salarie, from the Latin salarium "salary, stipend," originally "soldier's allowance for the purchase of salt," from neutral of the adjective salarius "pertaining to salt,".
• Salami - from the Italian word salami, plural of salame "spiced pork sausage," from the Roman Latin salamen, taken from salare "to salt," which comes from the Latin word sal "salt"
• Salad - From the Old French salade from the Roman Latin salata, translated "salted," short for herba salata "salted vegetables" from feminie Past participle of salare "to salt," from the Latin sal "salt".
• Sauce - From the Old French sauce or sausse from noun use of the Latin salsa, plural of salsus "salted," from pp. of Old Latin sallere "to salt," from sal "salt".
• Sausage - From Old North French saussiche from Roman Latin salsica "sausage," from salsicus "seasoned with salt," from the Latin salsus "salted".

Places

• Halle, Germany
• Hallein, Austria
• Schwäbisch Hall, Germany
• Hallstatt, Austria
• Galicia, Spain
• Galicia, Poland
• Galicia, Ukraine
• Halych, Poland
• Salzburg, Austria

People

• Gauls - Part of the Celtic tribes. The name Gauls comes from Latin Gallis, coming from the Greek hal. All of those places listed above? All had (or still have) saltworks that were initially run by the Gauls and other Celtic tribes.

This is far from comprehensive, but it certainly shows how much salt has influenced our world.

Technorati Tags: Food, Salt, Words, Etymology

Y'see, this is the kind of web site that gets me in trouble at home. Coming home with $100 worth of salt is a risky proposition, because it's a safe bet that I won't use a fair amount of anything I buy.

Here's the thing - part of me believes that some gourmet salts are simply a con perpetuated on an unknowing public. It's like bottled water in that some of the stuff is undoubtedly no better than the Morton Products you can find at the grocery store.

Part yet of me believes that there are some salts that are worth their weight in...uh...salt. To stretch the bottled water simile further, I believe there are salt versions of San Pelligrino out there -- flavors and textures distinct enough that an educated palate can tell them apart from the rest.

Besides, it's difficult to resist such names such as:

• alaea hawaiian sea salt
• Sal Del Mar
• Fleur de Sel
• Himilayan Pink Salt

The only way I can find which of those types of salt are worth having is to put them up in a taste testing. This means buying several versions of salt.

I am so in trouble. Not just because I'm about to purchase an excessive amount of salt. But also because I just realized that I'm obsessing about salt.

Technorati Tags: Food,Salt , Gourmet Salt

In the 2 + years of doing this blog, I have never featured a spice or herb. This is an oversight on my part, as I've been focusing so much on food products, that the items we use to flavor our food have been left unresearched. I'm about to change that by focusing on Salt for the next few weeks or so.

First things first...humans never really discovered salt in the way that we've discovered bread making, or how to domesticate sheep. Our bodies need salt in ordert to survive, much in the same way that our bodies need water. Without salt, a person will experience headaches, weakness, then light-headedness, then nausea, and eventually death. So we, as a species had found ways to integrate salt into our diet, whether we new it or not. Whether it was flavoring items with sea water, or adding blood and meat to our dishes and diet, we unknowingly imbibed salt.

But at some point, we understood that salt was a necessity, for not only do humans require salt, but so do all animals, including domesticated ones. If you have a herd of cattle, or a flock of sheep, you would have had to find a way to get salt into their diet as well. It was through this need that it was likely that salt became one of the world's first commodities.

It's also important to note that salt is neither an herb or a spice, but rather a mineral. Actually, it's several differing minerals, depending upon what kind of salt you use. Sodium chloride is the most widely known today.

At any rate, we're doing salt for a time or so, and expect some more history, a few recipes, and my blood pressure getting higher.

Technorati Tags: Food, Salt, spices