I had to chuckle when you suggested a pinch of salt in coffee. 55 yrs ago I was on KP during Army basic training at FT Dix NJ and watched the army cook add salt to the giant army coffee drip brewers. I was amazed and questioned him and he said it was an old trick that mess sergeants have used for years. I thought he was crazy and since army mess coffee wasn’t what you’d call fine dining (not to mention few of us soldiers wanted nothing. to do with Vietnam era Army ideas) , I never used it after I got out of service. Now that I listened to your video, I tried it in both my hot and iced coffee. Cannot believe I missed 55 yrs of better coffee😎
I totally agree but 80 grams of water sounds ridiculous lol, but then here we go again 80 grams of water is 2/3 of a cup, this is not a win-win situation. Thank goodness for Google.
Salt in sausage making is really interesting. Salt frays the micro-fibrils of the meat, causing the proteins to essentially become meat velcro. This allows it to bind together and become a cohesive mass known as a farce. When cooked, it contributes to that snappy mouth feel.
This is interesting. I made chicken Cordon Bleu last week and was wondering how to make the chicken adhere to itself so it would hold its shape and seal in the cheese. I wonder if salt would work?
The salt-water bath trick is familiar to any of us who made homemade ice cream back in the days that I grew up in. The metal ice cream canister was placed in a bucket of ice and rock salt then churned either by hand or by a motor. For those who did this, there is a definite nostalgia about it.
i don’t understand the physics. like if you froze salt water, the ice would be colder, but starting with ice and adding salt just melts the ice, right? i guess the phase transition would absorb some heat from the surroundings… maybe that’s the answer
@@doctaflo The salt lowers the freezing point and then melts the ice since the outside temperature is no longer cold enough to maintain the frozen structure. The ice becomes colder due to thermodynamic principles. Melting ice is an endothermic process, meaning it needs energy to transform the solid into a liquid. Therefore, the ice will lose energy while breaking those internal bonds, and then, also cool.
Blanching 1 qt water 2 tbsp table salt Herbs 1 cup dill 1/2 cup flake or kosher salt 36 40 hrs stir every 12 Wine 1lb ice 1/2 cup kosher salt 1/3 cup water Bean Brine 1lb beans 2qt water 1 1/2 tbsp table salt Coffee 1/8 tsp to coffee grounds
For those like me who prefer gravimetric measurements under the metric system: Blanching 1 quart water: 946 grams 2 tablespoons table salt: 34 grams Herbs 1 cup dill: Approximately 8 grams (this can vary slightly depending on the dill's density) 1/2 cup flake or kosher salt: 73 grams 36-40 hrs stir every 12 Wine 1 pound ice: 454 grams 1/2 cup kosher salt: 146 grams 1/3 cup water: 79 grams Bean Brine 1 pound beans: 454 grams 2 quarts water: 1892 grams 1 1/2 tablespoons table salt: 26 grams Coffee 1/8 teaspoon to coffee grounds: Approximately 0.6 grams (depending on the type of salt)
Thank you both for taking the time to write this out in metric and imperial measurements!! You are both a very special breed of niceness in our community ❤ . I wrote it down and I will share it with my family . Have a blessed day ! 🙏🏻
I use a rubber spatula when I’m dissolving salt, for brining. As a dyer for stage and screen, over the past 45 years, I’ve dissolved hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds!)of pounds of salt, and the spatula moves the water in the container efficiently, and quietly… You can hear when the grains of salt have stopped scraping at the bottom of the container!!!
I've added salt to coffee and it really is wonderful. It doesn't taste salty at all, but instead brings out depth and flavor in the coffee that the bitterness covers up
"Salt coffee" in Hanoi, Vietnam, is the best drink ever in hot weather. Whipped sugar with egg white and sweetened condensed milk (kinda like an uncooked meringue), mixed with strong coffee and a generous amount of salt and served over ice. I dont usually have a sweet tooth, but these are excellent. At home I regularly have a long black with a tiny pinch of salt when I'm not feeling like bitterness.
I'm 67, and my grandfather was a chef and always put salt in the coffee grounds when brewing coffee, as a result I've done that my entire life. It really does make a difference and it does not take much salt at all. Just like adding a pinch of baking soda to a large pot of spaghetti sauce, or marinara sauce, takes the bitterness out instead of adding sugar to it.
@@drcurlyfries It's worth a try. You may not really notice much or any difference, but considering how cheap salt is, it costs close to nothing to try. I would try with a very small amount and if you notice no difference, increase until you do or until you notice the salt. I also use kosher salt as there is no iodine which can be tasted sometimes.
Dan, your trick that I saw in the Harvard cooking and science class about adding salt as well as a liquid and also an acid to eggs before scrambling remains one of my favorite salt tricks. I’d like to see you publicly reprise and post that vid.
Can you elaborate on that a bit more. For my scrambled eggs, I generally add light soy sauce, a bare pinch of salt, and some sesame oil. Also heard about adding potato or corn starch slurry for tenderness but didn’t find it made a noticeable difference. Never heard about adding vinegar though
@@masstwitter4748 salt impedes cross-linking and acid does that as well. Liquid puffs up the eggs as it turns to steam. Result-fluffy, soft eggs. Swapping out what you use for salt, acid, liquid can significantly change the flavor profile so for me I’ll randomly add different versions of each of those depending upon mood. Dan did make a video on the subject for the Harvard class, but it’s a private video, open to students, and is a bit more technical than his usual fare. It was fine for me though which is why I’d love to see him reprise it.
6:03 re: chilling wine in an ice bath with an aquarium pump: If you have a sous vide machine, you can use that, and set the temperature to 0 or turn off the heating element, and the circulator can circulate the ice water for the chilling the wine. However, first you need to make sure the sous vide machine can actually operate without heating. I don't know if all brands and models can do that.
2:42 Literally have a bag of green beans I harvested from the garden a week ago, a tomato plant with about 10,000 cherry tomatoes on it, and a half block of feta in my fridge. Thanks Dan.
@@hottuna2006 People have been cooking food based on VOLUME for thousands of years and have had little problem with it - THere were virtually no home food scales before the 1980's.
When berries are super fresh I like to make a simple strawberry and cucumber salad, with just sliced strawberries and cucumber sprinkled with equal parts sugar and salt and a little chopped mint
Note on blitz-chilling the wine: make sure the bottle is in the ice bath when you add the salt, the melting ice molecules have a secondary effect of taking on energy to transition from a solid to liquid phase, and this energy is taken from the bottle, i.e. making it colder
PeterMontoya: we've been soaking our lentils (pintos and black eyed peas) in salted water, after looking and washing, overnight for almost 40 years at our restaurant; they swell beautifully. Definitely a helpful step in creating old fashioned country oriented beans; we add sugar and ham fat & seasonings, too. We call our cooking Virginia Southern.
I like to use salt to cure egg yolks: Simply take a 1 cup (250 ml) deli container, and fill it 1/3 way with Kosher salt. Then gently place 4 or 5 fresh egg yolks of top of the salt, then, you gently cover them with more Kosher salt, and refrigerate for a week or two. Once cured they become quite firm, and delightful when grated (like cheese) on salads, crostini/sippets, asparagus, green beans, etc.
@@supergeek1418 don't the salt get wet or something from the moisture drawn from the yolks? I wonder if it's fine to heat the salt up to dry it again. But this meant I can't add herbs and stuff to the salt right? Those would burn when I heat the salt.
The salt does get kind of caked up and wet, and I've always just tossed it, but baking it in a low oven should dry it out. Then, a minute or two in a mortar and pestle should loosen it back up. But, really --- salt is pretty cheap. Is it actually worth it?
The same salting trick works for black teas. Just don't do it in England unless you want to be evicted from the country. From experience, it doesn't work as well for green teas. Or rather, the salt unbalances the flavors somehow. But for black teas, especially ones with milk and sugar, a pinch of salt brings out so much more flavor.
@@lonnagardiner1728 Oh, you're far too late. Both Elizabeth and Charles have declared me PNG on pain of death, which received a "Jolly Good" rating from Parliament. That said, if you have milk and sugar with your black tea, try adding a small pinch of salt. *** Sorry, you'll have to excuse me now, I think I just spotted RAF paratroopers outside.
I grew up in a house where we always salted our grapefruit. People would look at me weird and asked why we didn't use sugar like everyone else. I always said it reduced the bitterness. Now I understand it better. Thanks Dan!
The amount of salt in blanching and the results blew me away. Can’t wait to try it. I appreciate the detailed instructions that were fun and easy to remember. 🥰
Hey, super dry white wine goes with almost everything. The herby popcorn with a grassy vinho verde or alvarinho. So many thoughts on dry white wine and beans. That segue is also valid. If something doesn't go with white wine, it goes with black coffee. 😊 I've been adding a tiny pinch of salt to coffee for years. I think my dad got the trick from my grandmother.
Study abroad, in Bourges, France (2000 & 2002) taught me about salt.🤗 You taught me something new! Thanks! The bean brining and the highly saline blanching. No one ever said anything about making the water like the ocean. Thank you.🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻💋
Favorite lesser known use is how important iodized salt is medically. Tons of inland/poorer people weren't getting enough iodine in their diet and it being vital, adding it to salt vastly decreased thyroid/etc. issues (at least, in developed nations.)
@@DamKaKaDaNi thank you so much, I was busy when I wrote that and Idk if that was from someone talking to me or autocorrect but that's a big ol' bad typo!!!! Thanks!!!!!!
Campari is a favorite. Never in aillion years would I think of adding salt to it. I am aware of the many things salt can do, and all of the other tips were spot on. I wonder how many realized that what you did to chill the wine is also how cream is frozen in ice cream churns. One thing I would love to learn about is cooking things entirely in salt. I was 6 years old when were visiting someone who made what she called a pot roast, but was done in a pot filled with salt entirely surrounding the beef cut. When she pulled the beef out, the salt was like a block that had a cavity in the shape of the beef. She did explain it to me, but it's been so many decades that I can't quite remember the details of what she told me. It was the best beef ever.
300 grams of fine salt, 300 grams of flour, 2 deciliters of water, 2 tablespoonfuls of oil. Mix, roll out, place browned meat with earbs like rosemary or whatever you prefer. Pack the salty doe around the meat. A touch of water will help if the the doe wont stick together. Bake in oven according to type and size/ weight of meat. You can also try a mix of salt and egg, internetserch might come up with something.
When doing that you need to spin the bottles along their long axis. Doing that sets up flows that thin the boundary layer both inside and outside, and MASSIVELY increases the thermal flows and cool the wine down super quickly.
The bean tip was new for me. I’ve been salting my coffee for so long I’d forgotten why😂 Thanks for the refresher. Another way to use salt: seasoning fresh salad. Several years back I saw a friend sprinkle flaky sea salt directly on her leafy green salad. I’ve done the same ever since. It really brightens the flavor.
Hello this was an eye opener. Thanks. I’m now going to blanch veggies in a more salty environment! That’s a great tip. And they did look greener than the control batch! You also can’t beat using the cheap salt as a cleaner in your home! Thanks for sharing this with us!
I work in a restaurant and that’s how the carbon steel pans are cleaned. And it’s done by the chefs, so the skillets don’t even come close to the commercial dishwasher which would destroy the seasoning.
I have around 12 kinds of salt in my pantry. I so appreciate this video! I will definitely make that salt solution and decant it into a clean dropper bottle for that Negroni. I will also try that bean brining solution on my Lima beans. You are the best! Be well!
I think many of us in our 30's and 40's right now grew up being told salt=bad. Once we get past the bad information we were told, it does open up a lot more possibilities.
Yea, there's a study of salt intake and mortality and it forms a V shaped graph. Having too little salt is actually quite bad for you as it's so important to cellular function. The bottom of the V (lowest mortality) was around 5g per day, compared to the RDA of 2g. Urinary Sodium and Potassium Excretion, Mortality, and Cardiovascular Events (2014) 102,000 participants.
well salt still does increase blood pressure among other issues, like killing your taste buds. This isn't to say it shouldn't be used in cooking. Just know it still has to be used in moderation
100% agree. Salt aids in hydration & can help thyroid function. I drink a glass of sole water using sea salt for this. Plus the minerals in sea salt our bodies need. All in moderation
I was excited to see "how to eat green beans" snuck into this episode because tis the season! Give me more tips for eating green beans and zucchini please!
Hi, we need an extra chapter on osmosis, you brought it to my mind because of ZUCCHINI ! I'm ever so sorry for those who grow a few feet in their garden, and end up with monster-harvests of it, AND don't know how to get around with the stuff ! Whether for ratatouille or other mediterranean recipes, or a mere omelet, or pasta sauce, etc... you need to OVER-SALT them, and let them stand and drip for 15 minutes, and then strain and RINCE them, and squeeze them dry. Chef John's Farmer's Frittata recipe is a good guide for this procedure, and the vegetable is unrecognizable, firm, tasty, not bitter, the lot ! And this stands for cucumber as well, especially for summer cold soups or tzatziki (Chef John also shows the way for the latter...) Hope this helps 😊!
Dammit, Dan! I shouted “HA!” when you said “if for some strange reason you don’t have the tools for that setup…” and then kept quietly cackling. GOLD 😂
Cannot believe we haven’t thought of the salty ice bath for wine before! The homemade ice cream that we used growing up used rock salt and ice to freeze the mixture. Love your segments!
That's a great chapter of culinary chemistry added to your resume, but a great part on osmosis is still missing-more to follow, we should hope ?! What about saurkraut and lacto -fermentation, what about draining water out of cucumbers or zucchini, to firm them up and prepare for further cooking or seasoning, what about curing and preserving fish and meat, and surviving through winter when harvests are over? So, let's hope Dan's ressource is still on the way, and thanks for the starter! ❤ from Paris!
I spent a few years working with wastewater treatment. A lot of the salt passes through these systems. The salty water that gets dumped down the drain either ends up in the nearby river (an issue for wildlife and the next user of that water) or in the groundwater (an eventual issue for those with wells). I try to reduce the amount of salt that goes into the drain by re-using the salty water from brining or cooking pasta as much as possible. I tend not to salt cooking water as much as often recommended.
Hi Dan, Awesome topic! Any advice on how to prevent blanched green beans from turning brown once they are dressed with acidity. I try to dress them at the very last minute. In a restaurant setting that works, but every time I put out a big platter of green bean salad for a party where people help themselves and might come back for seconds, the longer that big bowl of salad sits, the yuckier the green beans look. Any solution to that? Love your work! -Helen
Nice tips! For blanching I use sodium bicarbonate instead of salt. One tablespoon per pot of water. Vegetables cook VERY quickly (for Broccoli, 1 minute in this boiling water is enough), maintain their color, and won't come out salty. Fun fact: if you blanch purple cabbage in this solution, the water will become dark blue. Kids love this. 😅
I'm from Texas and my Depression-era raised mom (whose family was from the Carolinas and Oklahoma) raised me on bean soup and cornbread -- but the saline soak is going to be my next experiment! As a young bride my father-in-law told me that adding salt to the water too early would make the beans "bullets". But I'm sooooo tired of my dried beans blowing out. I'd love to be able to cook some for soup and some for other uses where I can remove them from the broth earlier and reserve them for sturdier uses like salads.
Whenever I crush garlic with a knife (that is finely chop it, then rub it with the side of the knife to create a paste), I add some course sea salt. It makes for better crushing, with the rugged texture of salt tearing through the garlic and some osmosis releasing some garlic juices to make it pastier faster.
Love the herb/salt trick and can’t wait to try it on the bounty of summer herbs I’ve got. Question, though, about the drying….. summer’s really humid here, so drying something is challenging-especially as Dan said, you need to leave the salt/herb mixture out for 36-48 hours. Does anyone have any thoughts on this, how to make it work when the humidity is high?
The salt, itself is what draws the moisture out of the herbs. Any moisture in the salt itself will eventually evaporate, as long as the temperature of the salt/herb mixture is above the dew point (I. E. if the dew isn't actually condensing in the immediate area). It may take a little longer, but the herbs have already been dehydrated from the salt, so they shouldn't spoil.
on the old prawn trawlers who only used ice to keep the prawns they use to add a lot of salt , in layers first the prawns then the ice then salt shoveled on top ,the salt would cause the ice to freeze on top and helped insulate as well
Herb salt is a great idea. Quick question-can I still leave it out on the counter if the humidity is high ? Here in Hawaii humility is usually around 70-80 % +. And salt clumps and gets watery if left out. Should I put the herb salt in a slow oven to dry ?
Make an episode on KCl substitute for NaCl salt! If it’s healthier for folks with high blood pressure, how to use it properly from a culinary point of view?
I kept an article from, I believe the 1990s Detroit Free Press written by chef Jimmy Schmidt where he described a technique for dry poaching peaches in very hot salt. It’s interesting but I haven’t attempted it yet since the salt gets up to 500F and it’s a little dangerous! Maybe this year I’ll do it; he says it lightly sears the peaches without actually making them salty, enhancing their flavor.
Thank you! I noticed that some of these salty experiments" used different types of salts. If one only keeps kosher salt stocked in the kitchen, would the salinity ratios change drastically for those salty suggestions that were made with table salt? Perhaps adding salt to my morning coffee with help me solve future cooking questions more easily. 😉
A lot of people do not realize or just do not want to believe. That Salting before or Salting during cooking is much better than "Wanting their guest to salt to taste" What happens is there is never enough salt for a good flavor UNTIL they put 1 grain too many and I do mean 1 Grain. LOL Then it's TOO Salty !
"On Food and Cooking" is such an amazing book. If I could only have one cooking book for the rest of my life, I'm pretty sure it would be that one by a landslide.
I had to chuckle when you suggested a pinch of salt in coffee. 55 yrs ago I was on KP during Army basic training at FT Dix NJ and watched the army cook add salt to the giant army coffee drip brewers. I was amazed and questioned him and he said it was an old trick that mess sergeants have used for years. I thought he was crazy and since army mess coffee wasn’t what you’d call fine dining (not to mention few of us soldiers wanted nothing. to do with Vietnam era Army ideas) , I never used it after I got out of service. Now that I listened to your video, I tried it in both my hot and iced coffee. Cannot believe I missed 55 yrs of better coffee😎
Now I know why eating salted almonds with coffee pops the flavor so much. Very interesting video.
I've always added a pinch of salt to the coffee grounds when brewing coffee. 👍
great story!
@@lisab.3091my father did the same thing
I'm so glad you gave the metric measurements. It makes life so much easier.
I totally agree but 80 grams of water sounds ridiculous lol, but then here we go again 80 grams of water is 2/3 of a cup, this is not a win-win situation. Thank goodness for Google.
@@NC-qc7wd 80g water = 1/3 cup *
But what on earth is a quart of water? I’ve learned it’s 960g or almost 1l. But in the last 40 years I’ve never heard it
Not for Americans.
The metric is appreciated, but these measurements are nuts. 960g water to 46g salt? Why not just say 1 litre to 50g salt?
What I find most impressive is that Dan actually reads and replies to comments. Way to go Dan and thanks for being committed to your followers.
Salt in sausage making is really interesting. Salt frays the micro-fibrils of the meat, causing the proteins to essentially become meat velcro. This allows it to bind together and become a cohesive mass known as a farce. When cooked, it contributes to that snappy mouth feel.
This is interesting. I made chicken Cordon Bleu last week and was wondering how to make the chicken adhere to itself so it would hold its shape and seal in the cheese. I wonder if salt would work?
@@kenmore01 You actually want to use transglutaminase, the real "meat glue." How do you think chicken nuggets are made? Look for "Moo Gloo."
@@kenmore01 yes
@@drspudbear3828 Thanks!
Meat velcro! Thanks for sharing.
The salt-water bath trick is familiar to any of us who made homemade ice cream back in the days that I grew up in. The metal ice cream canister was placed in a bucket of ice and rock salt then churned either by hand or by a motor. For those who did this, there is a definite nostalgia about it.
That was so fun to do
@@DanielJSouza I love the sound of those churning away. And when it got slower you would know it was close to ice cream time!
For ice cream, replace with slushie and that has been me making them for my kids this year 😂
i don’t understand the physics. like if you froze salt water, the ice would be colder, but starting with ice and adding salt just melts the ice, right?
i guess the phase transition would absorb some heat from the surroundings… maybe that’s the answer
@@doctaflo The salt lowers the freezing point and then melts the ice since the outside temperature is no longer cold enough to maintain the frozen structure.
The ice becomes colder due to thermodynamic principles. Melting ice is an endothermic process, meaning it needs energy to transform the solid into a liquid. Therefore, the ice will lose energy while breaking those internal bonds, and then, also cool.
Blanching
1 qt water
2 tbsp table salt
Herbs
1 cup dill
1/2 cup flake or kosher salt
36 40 hrs stir every 12
Wine
1lb ice
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup water
Bean Brine
1lb beans
2qt water
1 1/2 tbsp table salt
Coffee
1/8 tsp to coffee grounds
For those like me who prefer gravimetric measurements under the metric system:
Blanching
1 quart water: 946 grams
2 tablespoons table salt: 34 grams
Herbs
1 cup dill: Approximately 8 grams (this can vary slightly depending on the dill's density)
1/2 cup flake or kosher salt: 73 grams
36-40 hrs stir every 12
Wine
1 pound ice: 454 grams
1/2 cup kosher salt: 146 grams
1/3 cup water: 79 grams
Bean Brine
1 pound beans: 454 grams
2 quarts water: 1892 grams
1 1/2 tablespoons table salt: 26 grams
Coffee
1/8 teaspoon to coffee grounds: Approximately 0.6 grams (depending on the type of salt)
@@jamtheman3017Much better - thanks
Thank you both for taking the time to write this out in metric and imperial measurements!! You are both a very special breed of niceness in our community ❤ .
I wrote it down and I will share it with my family .
Have a blessed day ! 🙏🏻
Ty ty for this
I use a rubber spatula when I’m dissolving salt, for brining. As a dyer for stage and screen, over the past 45 years, I’ve dissolved hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds!)of pounds of salt, and the spatula moves the water in the container efficiently, and quietly… You can hear when the grains of salt have stopped scraping at the bottom of the container!!!
Great tip!
I've added salt to coffee and it really is wonderful. It doesn't taste salty at all, but instead brings out depth and flavor in the coffee that the bitterness covers up
"Salt coffee" in Hanoi, Vietnam, is the best drink ever in hot weather. Whipped sugar with egg white and sweetened condensed milk (kinda like an uncooked meringue), mixed with strong coffee and a generous amount of salt and served over ice.
I dont usually have a sweet tooth, but these are excellent. At home I regularly have a long black with a tiny pinch of salt when I'm not feeling like bitterness.
Nice!
I'm 67, and my grandfather was a chef and always put salt in the coffee grounds when brewing coffee, as a result I've done that my entire life. It really does make a difference and it does not take much salt at all. Just like adding a pinch of baking soda to a large pot of spaghetti sauce, or marinara sauce, takes the bitterness out instead of adding sugar to it.
@@barcham I never heard of this. I will try it.
@@drcurlyfries It's worth a try. You may not really notice much or any difference, but considering how cheap salt is, it costs close to nothing to try. I would try with a very small amount and if you notice no difference, increase until you do or until you notice the salt. I also use kosher salt as there is no iodine which can be tasted sometimes.
My grandmother always sprinkled salt on fruit especially melons. She said it made them sweeter, brought out more flavor & of course she was right
Learned this from my Grandfather❤
My mom. ❤
Aren't the fruits sweet enough?
These Boomers are all sick now due to their food choices
My dad taught me this, and then I learned about Tajin and now I'm hooked on THAT
Especially good on melons.
Dan, your trick that I saw in the Harvard cooking and science class about adding salt as well as a liquid and also an acid to eggs before scrambling remains one of my favorite salt tricks. I’d like to see you publicly reprise and post that vid.
Wow that's a good call back. Loved doing that class.
Can you elaborate on that a bit more. For my scrambled eggs, I generally add light soy sauce, a bare pinch of salt, and some sesame oil. Also heard about adding potato or corn starch slurry for tenderness but didn’t find it made a noticeable difference. Never heard about adding vinegar though
@@masstwitter4748 salt impedes cross-linking and acid does that as well. Liquid puffs up the eggs as it turns to steam. Result-fluffy, soft eggs. Swapping out what you use for salt, acid, liquid can significantly change the flavor profile so for me I’ll randomly add different versions of each of those depending upon mood. Dan did make a video on the subject for the Harvard class, but it’s a private video, open to students, and is a bit more technical than his usual fare. It was fine for me though which is why I’d love to see him reprise it.
6:03 re: chilling wine in an ice bath with an aquarium pump: If you have a sous vide machine, you can use that, and set the temperature to 0 or turn off the heating element, and the circulator can circulate the ice water for the chilling the wine. However, first you need to make sure the sous vide machine can actually operate without heating. I don't know if all brands and models can do that.
My thought exactly!
I'll try the coffee in the morning and the bean trick next week. Thanks.
I love salt and I love Dan!!
Just imagine a salty Dan...
2:42 Literally have a bag of green beans I harvested from the garden a week ago, a tomato plant with about 10,000 cherry tomatoes on it, and a half block of feta in my fridge. Thanks Dan.
You have it all!
Thanks so much for including grams. It helps make sense of the proportions.
All recipes should be based on weight and not volume.
@@hottuna2006 Yes yes yes!
@@hottuna2006 People have been cooking food based on VOLUME for thousands of years and have had little problem with it - THere were virtually no home food scales before the 1980's.
If your wine is not chilled enough, frozen berries or frozen grapes work well as ice cubes, especially on a hot day.
When berries are super fresh I like to make a simple strawberry and cucumber salad, with just sliced strawberries and cucumber sprinkled with equal parts sugar and salt and a little chopped mint
Note on blitz-chilling the wine: make sure the bottle is in the ice bath when you add the salt, the melting ice molecules have a secondary effect of taking on energy to transition from a solid to liquid phase, and this energy is taken from the bottle, i.e. making it colder
I'm not a big bean eater, but the blanching of vegetables in salty water was a great tip.
PeterMontoya: we've been soaking our lentils (pintos and black eyed peas) in salted water, after looking and washing, overnight for almost 40 years at our restaurant; they swell beautifully. Definitely a helpful step in creating old fashioned country oriented beans; we add sugar and ham fat & seasonings, too. We call our cooking Virginia Southern.
Blanching veggies & brining beans. Awesome info!
I like to use salt to cure egg yolks:
Simply take a 1 cup (250 ml) deli container, and fill it 1/3 way with Kosher salt. Then gently place 4 or 5 fresh egg yolks of top of the salt, then, you gently cover them with more Kosher salt, and refrigerate for a week or two.
Once cured they become quite firm, and delightful when grated (like cheese) on salads, crostini/sippets, asparagus, green beans, etc.
Such a great use
Is it possible to reuse the salt? I don't want to waste all that salt.
@@TaLeng2023
I'm sure that it would be fine.
I'll have to remember that the next time.
@@supergeek1418 don't the salt get wet or something from the moisture drawn from the yolks? I wonder if it's fine to heat the salt up to dry it again.
But this meant I can't add herbs and stuff to the salt right? Those would burn when I heat the salt.
The salt does get kind of caked up and wet, and I've always just tossed it, but baking it in a low oven should dry it out. Then, a minute or two in a mortar and pestle should loosen it back up.
But, really --- salt is pretty cheap. Is it actually worth it?
The same salting trick works for black teas. Just don't do it in England unless you want to be evicted from the country.
From experience, it doesn't work as well for green teas. Or rather, the salt unbalances the flavors somehow. But for black teas, especially ones with milk and sugar, a pinch of salt brings out so much more flavor.
Evicted... 😂 ❤
@@lonnagardiner1728 Oh, you're far too late. Both Elizabeth and Charles have declared me PNG on pain of death, which received a "Jolly Good" rating from Parliament.
That said, if you have milk and sugar with your black tea, try adding a small pinch of salt.
***
Sorry, you'll have to excuse me now, I think I just spotted RAF paratroopers outside.
Us silly woodworkers also use salt to keep boards from sliding around from slippery gluing ups.
@MakeSomething DAVE!! I always enjoy seeing your comments in totally non-woodworking videos.
@@BR0JASON like photo bombing!
Interesting! I've never heard of this before. Kosher salt?
@@DanielJSouza Nope, gotta be Maldon. Only the best for my builds!
In the glue? Why have I never heard of that until now???
Explains why we always used salt when churning ice cream!
I grew up in a house where we always salted our grapefruit. People would look at me weird and asked why we didn't use sugar like everyone else. I always said it reduced the bitterness. Now I understand it better. Thanks Dan!
I love Dan's presentation as much as I like the content!
The amount of salt in blanching and the results blew me away. Can’t wait to try it. I appreciate the detailed instructions that were fun and easy to remember. 🥰
Glad to hear it!
Hey, super dry white wine goes with almost everything. The herby popcorn with a grassy vinho verde or alvarinho. So many thoughts on dry white wine and beans. That segue is also valid.
If something doesn't go with white wine, it goes with black coffee. 😊 I've been adding a tiny pinch of salt to coffee for years. I think my dad got the trick from my grandmother.
Thank you for the segue support
Love the herbed finishing salt idea!
Think you could use regular table salt instead of kosher or flaked salt?
Just made green beans for dinner. What a difference!!! Thank you so much!! ❤
I will try the trick with the beans. Thanks!
Thanks Dan for the herb salting trick. I love saving my home grown herbs, so I will definitely try your method.
And cooking dried beans that way too.
Study abroad, in Bourges, France (2000 & 2002) taught me about salt.🤗 You taught me something new! Thanks! The bean brining and the highly saline blanching. No one ever said anything about making the water like the ocean. Thank you.🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻💋
Favorite lesser known use is how important iodized salt is medically. Tons of inland/poorer people weren't getting enough iodine in their diet and it being vital, adding it to salt vastly decreased thyroid/etc. issues (at least, in developed nations.)
decreased right?
@@DamKaKaDaNi thank you so much, I was busy when I wrote that and Idk if that was from someone talking to me or autocorrect but that's a big ol' bad typo!!!! Thanks!!!!!!
Thanks Dan!
Campari is a favorite. Never in aillion years would I think of adding salt to it.
I am aware of the many things salt can do, and all of the other tips were spot on. I wonder how many realized that what you did to chill the wine is also how cream is frozen in ice cream churns.
One thing I would love to learn about is cooking things entirely in salt. I was 6 years old when were visiting someone who made what she called a pot roast, but was done in a pot filled with salt entirely surrounding the beef cut. When she pulled the beef out, the salt was like a block that had a cavity in the shape of the beef. She did explain it to me, but it's been so many decades that I can't quite remember the details of what she told me. It was the best beef ever.
300 grams of fine salt, 300 grams of flour, 2 deciliters of water, 2 tablespoonfuls of oil. Mix, roll out, place browned meat with earbs like rosemary or whatever you prefer. Pack the salty doe around the meat. A touch of water will help if the the doe wont stick together. Bake in oven according to type and size/ weight of meat.
You can also try a mix of salt and egg, internetserch might come up with something.
Thanks, Dan! This video is packed with useful information. Enjoyed every minute of it!
When doing that you need to spin the bottles along their long axis. Doing that sets up flows that thin the boundary layer both inside and outside, and MASSIVELY increases the thermal flows and cool the wine down super quickly.
You have outdone yourself here, my friend. Never knew any of this. Love the herbal salt idea. A fabulous tutorial. Kudos.
Thanks so much.
quick question: Do you also boil the beans in the brine or in unsalted water?
Fabulous! So much useful knowledge and tips packed into 10 minutes! I'm going to try the coffee hack tomorrow!
Very interesting tips! Thank you for sharing this with us! 💜
The bean tip was new for me. I’ve been salting my coffee for so long I’d forgotten why😂 Thanks for the refresher. Another way to use salt: seasoning fresh salad. Several years back I saw a friend sprinkle flaky sea salt directly on her leafy green salad. I’ve done the same ever since. It really brightens the flavor.
Hello this was an eye opener. Thanks. I’m now going to blanch veggies in a more salty environment! That’s a great tip. And they did look greener than the control batch! You also can’t beat using the cheap salt as a cleaner in your home! Thanks for sharing this with us!
Kosher salt is a great cast iron cleaner. A quarter cup or so in a damp pan, and you can scour any leftover mess.
True
Great tip
I prefer coffee grounds as they need to be thrown away anyway and they work as a mild de-greaser.
I work in a restaurant and that’s how the carbon steel pans are cleaned. And it’s done by the chefs, so the skillets don’t even come close to the commercial dishwasher which would destroy the seasoning.
Great presentation Dan. You gave me many ideas to try.
Great timing. Harvesting string beans now & didn’t know about blanching with salt. Thank you!
I love you, food nerd. The salted herbs just changed my life.
Fantastic, Dan! I learn so much from you!
Thank you so much for adding metric measurements.
Thank you for using grams hope this continues! Love it
I have around 12 kinds of salt in my pantry. I so appreciate this video! I will definitely make that salt solution and decant it into a clean dropper bottle for that Negroni. I will also try that bean brining solution on my Lima beans. You are the best! Be well!
If you grill, try Alaskan alder-smoked sea salt. Incredible!
@@angelbulldog4934Thank you! Will try!
Thank you for giving measurements in both imperial and metric 😀👍
I used the ice/salt trick teaching my students about freezing point depression. We made ice cream in baggies. They loved it!
Thank you for all of the tips. great to have the correct ratio for blanching. i have salt in my coffee and now i will in Negronis!
Seamless transitions. Well done mate
I love using salt with both my attitude and personality. It's fun yet keeps some people at bay whilst being able to enjoy a Negroni.
Definitely going to try the salt brine for the beans and see the difference
Actually several things I learned 👏👏👏👏
I love to hear that!
Brilliant, Dan. Thank you so much for this great information...time to make some legit beans!
From the U.K. thank you for giving measures in grams. Much appreciated.
But you use stones and farthings and invented ounces
Same (Brazil 🇧🇷)
As an American who uses a food scale for everything, I also appreciate it.
I had two grams and four great grams!
If only their cookbooks use grams too instead of ounces
Yea! Can't get enough of Dan.
Definitely trying the salt in my coffee! The extra salt in the blanching water is also to be tried! Thank you for these great cooking tips!
I think many of us in our 30's and 40's right now grew up being told salt=bad. Once we get past the bad information we were told, it does open up a lot more possibilities.
Yea, there's a study of salt intake and mortality and it forms a V shaped graph. Having too little salt is actually quite bad for you as it's so important to cellular function. The bottom of the V (lowest mortality) was around 5g per day, compared to the RDA of 2g.
Urinary Sodium and Potassium Excretion, Mortality, and Cardiovascular Events (2014) 102,000 participants.
well salt still does increase blood pressure among other issues, like killing your taste buds. This isn't to say it shouldn't be used in cooking. Just know it still has to be used in moderation
100% agree. Salt aids in hydration & can help thyroid function. I drink a glass of sole water using sea salt for this. Plus the minerals in sea salt our bodies need. All in moderation
Clearly salt is bad
@@shantabraamyan3103 There's new evidence that suggests salt increasing your blood pressure is genetic and doesn't actually happen to everyone.
Thanks for the dried beans info. I always salt beans AFTER they are fully cooked. Now I will brine them first!! I'll try the coffee thing, too.
I was excited to see "how to eat green beans" snuck into this episode because tis the season! Give me more tips for eating green beans and zucchini please!
Hi, we need an extra chapter on osmosis, you brought it to my mind because of ZUCCHINI ! I'm ever so sorry for those who grow a few feet in their garden, and end up with monster-harvests of it, AND don't know how to get around with the stuff ! Whether for ratatouille or other mediterranean recipes, or a mere omelet, or pasta sauce, etc... you need to OVER-SALT them, and let them stand and drip for 15 minutes, and then strain and RINCE them, and squeeze them dry. Chef John's Farmer's Frittata recipe is a good guide for this procedure, and the vegetable is unrecognizable, firm, tasty, not bitter, the lot ! And this stands for cucumber as well, especially for summer cold soups or tzatziki (Chef John also shows the way for the latter...) Hope this helps 😊!
Salt brine dry beans! Genius! And thank you for the green bean and salt tip. I’m not using nearly enough salt. I appreciate the ‘recipe!’
another outstanding episode!!!! THIS ONE is going into the best food hacks folder for sure in my YT Playlist section!!!!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I have been hoping someone would make a video about this subject. Thank you!
Just watched your strawberry pie episode, now I need to make pie and a salt solution for my coffee!
Dan's dead herb sadface is genuinely heart-wrenching.
It's such a sad thing!
I’m going to try making herb salt now
❤thanks for making life much easier for us through science
Dammit, Dan! I shouted “HA!” when you said “if for some strange reason you don’t have the tools for that setup…” and then kept quietly cackling. GOLD 😂
Cannot believe we haven’t thought of the salty ice bath for wine before! The homemade ice cream that we used growing up used rock salt and ice to freeze the mixture. Love your segments!
That's a great chapter of culinary chemistry added to your resume, but a great part on osmosis is still missing-more to follow, we should hope ?! What about saurkraut and lacto -fermentation, what about draining water out of cucumbers or zucchini, to firm them up and prepare for further cooking or seasoning, what about curing and preserving fish and meat, and surviving through winter when harvests are over? So, let's hope Dan's ressource is still on the way, and thanks for the starter! ❤ from Paris!
I spent a few years working with wastewater treatment. A lot of the salt passes through these systems. The salty water that gets dumped down the drain either ends up in the nearby river (an issue for wildlife and the next user of that water) or in the groundwater (an eventual issue for those with wells). I try to reduce the amount of salt that goes into the drain by re-using the salty water from brining or cooking pasta as much as possible. I tend not to salt cooking water as much as often recommended.
Hi Dan,
Awesome topic! Any advice on how to prevent blanched green beans from turning brown once they are dressed with acidity. I try to dress them at the very last minute. In a restaurant setting that works, but every time I put out a big platter of green bean salad for a party where people help themselves and might come back for seconds, the longer that big bowl of salad sits, the yuckier the green beans look. Any solution to that?
Love your work!
-Helen
Maybe drizzle the salad after it's on the platter instead of tossing the salad with dressing and completely coating the beans.
Nice tips! For blanching I use sodium bicarbonate instead of salt. One tablespoon per pot of water. Vegetables cook VERY quickly (for Broccoli, 1 minute in this boiling water is enough), maintain their color, and won't come out salty.
Fun fact: if you blanch purple cabbage in this solution, the water will become dark blue. Kids love this. 😅
Good job!
Salty. Content. I. Like. Thank.
You.
I'm from Texas and my Depression-era raised mom (whose family was from the Carolinas and Oklahoma) raised me on bean soup and cornbread -- but the saline soak is going to be my next experiment! As a young bride my father-in-law told me that adding salt to the water too early would make the beans "bullets". But I'm sooooo tired of my dried beans blowing out. I'd love to be able to cook some for soup and some for other uses where I can remove them from the broth earlier and reserve them for sturdier uses like salads.
Who knew?!! Thank you.
Whenever I crush garlic with a knife (that is finely chop it, then rub it with the side of the knife to create a paste), I add some course sea salt. It makes for better crushing, with the rugged texture of salt tearing through the garlic and some osmosis releasing some garlic juices to make it pastier faster.
Love the herb/salt trick and can’t wait to try it on the bounty of summer herbs I’ve got. Question, though, about the drying….. summer’s really humid here, so drying something is challenging-especially as Dan said, you need to leave the salt/herb mixture out for 36-48 hours. Does anyone have any thoughts on this, how to make it work when the humidity is high?
The salt, itself is what draws the moisture out of the herbs. Any moisture in the salt itself will eventually evaporate, as long as the temperature of the salt/herb mixture is above the dew point (I. E. if the dew isn't actually condensing in the immediate area).
It may take a little longer, but the herbs have already been dehydrated from the salt, so they shouldn't spoil.
You could’ve mentioned that the salted ice water is how ice cream churns work. The old-fashioned types at least.
Thanks! They’re all new to me and tomorrow I’m going to try salt in my coffee.
on the old prawn trawlers who only used ice to keep the prawns they use to add a lot of salt , in layers first the prawns then the ice then salt shoveled on top ,the salt would cause the ice to freeze on top and helped insulate as well
Herb salt is a great idea. Quick question-can I still leave it out on the counter if the humidity is high ? Here in Hawaii humility is usually around 70-80 % +. And salt clumps and gets watery if left out. Should I put the herb salt in a slow oven to dry ?
I have the same question! "Room temperature" may work different for those of us in high heat + humidity areas 😅
6:35 Love the fourth wall break with this, lol. Laughing at your own silly scripts humanizes you
I'm definitely a human
Make an episode on KCl substitute for NaCl salt! If it’s healthier for folks with high blood pressure, how to use it properly from a culinary point of view?
I kept an article from, I believe the 1990s Detroit Free Press written by chef Jimmy Schmidt where he described a technique for dry poaching peaches in very hot salt. It’s interesting but I haven’t attempted it yet since the salt gets up to 500F and it’s a little dangerous! Maybe this year I’ll do it; he says it lightly sears the peaches without actually making them salty, enhancing their flavor.
That's super interesting. If you try let me know
I have always loved salt on my food, but I was unaware of how sodium chloride works in food prep. Thanks!
My Grandmother always added salt to soak beans, in the percolator for coffee, and generous additions when blanching veggies.
The salty boiled green beans are a game changer!
Thank you! I noticed that some of these salty experiments" used different types of salts. If one only keeps kosher salt stocked in the kitchen, would the salinity ratios change drastically for those salty suggestions that were made with table salt? Perhaps adding salt to my morning coffee with help me solve future cooking questions more easily. 😉
I just love your videos…you’re like the Alton Brown of Cooks Illustrated 😂
Crunchy peanut butter mixed with honey, on a piece of toast with flakey sea salt.... A combo I'm literally addicted to!
that sounds amazing
A lot of people do not realize or just do not want to believe. That Salting before or Salting during cooking is much better than "Wanting their guest to salt to taste" What happens is there is never enough salt for a good flavor UNTIL they put 1 grain too many and I do mean 1 Grain. LOL Then it's TOO Salty !
"On Food and Cooking" is such an amazing book. If I could only have one cooking book for the rest of my life, I'm pretty sure it would be that one by a landslide.