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HomeRecipesThe concept
← All the basics
Good to knowSeasoning2 min read

How to salt a dish: when and how much

✅ The essentials

Salt does not go in once at the end, it goes in a little at each stage, and you taste in between. The water you cook pasta or vegetables in must be frankly salty, because almost all of that salt stays in the water and not on the plate. Meat gets salted just before it goes in the pan. A sauce gets salted at the end, because as it reduces it concentrates its flavour, and its salt with it.

💡 The one thing to know

Taste before you salt, salt a little, taste again. It takes three seconds. Salt is there to wake up the taste of the other ingredients: if you can taste it, there is too much.

📏 The landmarks

  • For cooking water, count 10 g of salt per litre, that is a level tablespoon of coarse salt. It looks like a lot, and it is normal.
  • For meat or fish, a pinch on each side, just before cooking.
  • For a dish for four people, start with a teaspoon, taste, and adjust.
  • Think about what is already salty: the stock cube, the cheese, the bacon, the soy sauce. In that case, salt less and taste more often.

⏱️ How long it takes

Nothing at all. It is not one more step, it is a reflex you pick up in a few meals.

🩹 If it goes wrong

If it is too salty, stretch the dish with a little water, cream or starch. In a soup, a raw potato left in for ten minutes absorbs part of the salt. A squeeze of lemon or a pinch of sugar also rebalances the taste. If it is not salty enough, that is the easiest case: you add some.

🍽️ Make it tonight

Homemade tomato sauce, in thirty minutes. You only salt at the end, after twenty minutes of reduction, and you will feel the difference right away with a sauce salted at the start.

🩺 Health

If someone in the household has to eat less salt, or if you have set a "less salt" goal, the landmarks drop by about a third, and herbs, acidity and spices take over. The app already knows when it is set in the household.

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