Seasoning Technique

This week we will be the final blog on seasoning and using salt.  When I teach classes at In Good Taste I always tell students that properly seasoning their food is the number one way to make it taste better.  No other technique can have such a dramatic affect on the flavor of food.  So I want to share some tips and techniques for seasoning food. 

Salt Selection - While there are many types of salt to choose from (See last week's blog), it is important to find 1 salt that will be your main salt for seasoning.  I recommend a kosher salt because the grains are large making it easier to see how much salt you are using.  I am very partial to Red Diamond Kosher salt.  Regardless of the salt you select, try to only use that 1 salt for the majority of your cooking.  Over time you will learn to season with that salt.

86 the Salt Shaker - 86 is a restaurant term that refers to running out of or getting rid of something.  Seasoning is tactile, meaning that it is best to use your fingers to pinch the salt when you season.  Using a salt shaker makes it difficult to gauge how much you are using.  It's also the easiest way to add too much salt to food.  So, that being said it's time to throw away the salt shaker and replace it with a bowl of salt.  To add salt to food, simply grab a pinch from the bowl and sprinkle it over your food.  Over time you will develop a seasoning instinct and learn how to gauge salt amounts by how much you grab with your fingers.

Season in Layers - This is probably the most important technique for seasoning.  Seasoning in layers means adding salt at the beginning and throughout the cooking process.  This technique allows the salt to be absorbed into the food, seasoning it from the inside out.  This creates better continuity and brings out the flavors in food as they cook..  It also means less salt is needed to season your food.   Seasoning food after it's cooked keeps the salt from combining with the food and limits the overall flavor.  The best way to understand this technique is to think about ratatouille, which is made by adding ingredients one at a time according to cooking times.  When I make ratatouille, I add a little salt with each ingredient addition.  By the time the ratatouille is done, it only needs a small amount of salt at the end to finish it.  Seasoning in layers helps avoid salty food, because you add small amounts as you cook.  This helps to avoid having to add a lot of salt at the end, which can make food taste salty, because the salt is on the outside of the food and not throughout.

Taste, Taste and Taste Again - There is no way to tell how much salt you are using without tasting the food you are cooking.  When we teach classes here at In Good Taste, we put out containers of tasting spoons and encourage students to taste throughout the entire cooking process.  Seasoning in layers and tasting go hand in hand.

Here are a few other seasoning tips and tricks:

1. When making vinaigrettes, add the salt to the vinegar before adding the oil.  Salt dissolves in water based vinegar, but doesn't dissolve well in oil.
2. Season reductions lightly in the beginning.  Anytime food is cooked down or reduced it concentrates the flavors and the salt. 
3. Season proteins just before cooking.  If you season steaks 30 minutes before cooking them, the salt will start to pull moisture out of the meat, making it dry.  See the blog, "The Effects of Salt on Food", from 2 weeks ago for some exceptions to this rule.
4. Test the seasoning of large batch fillings or stuffings, such as sausages or meatballs.  Cook a tester and taste it for seasoning.  Once you fill raviolis or form meatballs it is difficult to incorporate more salt to the batch.