Posted by John Maxwell on July 20, 1997 at 23:31:46:
In Reply to: Re: Can someone explain to me why ??? posted by Gerard on July 20, 1997 at 09:04:30:
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: : : : Is Sel de guerande ( grey sea salt from Brittany,France) apperantly the best salt to cook with and also, why would you soak filetted fish in milk. Does it really slow it down from loss of freshness?
: : : : Thanks in advance
: : : It beats me that anyone would think different salt makes a difference, maybe in Nu et Cru (raw fish cured in rock salt) but once dissolved who could tell?
: : : I got into a discussion regarding sea salt in bread, my position is it makes no difference, some say it does .
: : : Imagine you go into a restaurant, sit down and taste a dish.
: : : You say "wow great salt!" . No chance right?
: : : Gourmet salt!
: Sounds a bit pretentious to me.
: Give ten chefs or bakers the same ingredients and you can get 10 different results, relying on trick ingredients is no solution . Reminds me of the baker on CIS who only makes brownies with imported BElgian choc. Or baking bread with spring water.
: I work with a young French gal, she thinks I'm wrong re salts but I understand the french approach to food, they refine everything to its maximum quality but that doesn't mean you can pick out the salt in a blind test in food...except as I said previously in a cured dish. A good chef can get caught in the ingredient game.
: Gerard.
Gerard, being able to "pick out" any ingredient is not the goal. Being able to control the flavor of a dish is. There is a difference between Belgian and Swiss chocolate. The purity of a bottled water yields very consistant results. If it sounds pretentious to you that I choose every ingredient with care, then so be it. I will deal with pretentious. What I won't accept is ordinary. ok, or good. Every customer I have ever prepared food for deserves my best shot every time. Perhaps you are confusing "pretention" with passion.
Do you cook with cheap wine? Do you have a preference for mayonaisse? Do you drink Coke or Pepsi?
But let's bring the discussion back to salt. Salt has a very distinctive flavor of its own. Salt brings out the flavor of other foods. Salt has an impact on the moisture content of foods. Salt has some leavening action. Salt has a bleaching action. Salt is a very potent chemical which, when added to food has some very pronounced results. Hans (above) was correct in his description of Kosher salt and its properties. Sea salt is briney, and table salt with iodine is different still. I'm sorry you can't tell the difference.