Salt and Pepper: A Few Thoughts

Many years ago, my husband was crazy about watching Emeril Lagasse on the Food Network. Emeril had a live audience and a jazz trio, and he would make food and yell, "BAM," and he threw salt around with wild abandon, and I was pretty much horrified the whole time.

Hey, I was still trying to learn to cook. I didn't know a lot, and I didn't know the difference between table salt and kosher salt. So when Emeril started adding salt to a pot of boiling water, or a skillet of pork chops, or, well, anything, I thought it was too much salt and it would chap my lips if I tried to eat it, and I was seriously annoyed with Emeril Lagasse's salt habit.

(Now is not the time to touch on how much cayenne pepper or hot sauce Emeril employed. That's a rant for another day.)

I also remember when I was writing for scrapbooking magazines, back in the hey day before 2006. There was a tutorial for how to make interesting backgrounds with watercolor paints and glossy paper. One of the techniques said to wash the whole sheet of glossy paper with watercolors and then sprinkle kosher salt over the wet page, let it dry, then brush off the salt. I had to go out and purchase kosher salt just for that project. It *did* make a great background... and I was introduced to kosher salt in the kitchen, thank goodness.

Turned out regular old table salt (Morton's, for instance, in the pretty round canister with the little girl under the umbrella, looking for all the world like a Hummel figurine in the rain) tastes saltier than kosher salt. So when Emeril was throwing around salt that actually registered on the TV cameras, it was kosher, and therefore not nearly as "salty" as table salt, and I was a judgmental so-and-so for thinking he was ruining the food the whole time.

Hey, man. Live and learn.

And about pepper: I like a pepper medley. I just do. I like black peppercorns mixed with pretty green and pink peppercorns, and if you want to throw in some brown or beige peppercorns, well, I welcome them to the party. The taste might not be as consistently round and mellow as black peppercorns, but the grindings are just prettier when they're multicolored. The vast majority of the time, if a recipe calls for "freshly ground black pepper," the pepper I'm adding is actually the medley that I picked up from the grocery store.

When a marinade or a brine calls for black peppercorns, I generally use black peppercorns. But for grinding, for fresh pepper flavor in a dish? I'm going for the multi-colored, multi-talented peppercorn medley.

Let me know what you think about kosher salt and freshly ground pepper in the comments below! Thanks for reading --

--Bay

Comments

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry Sauce 12 oz. fresh cranberries, washed and drained 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 1/4 to 1/3 cup water 1 1/2 cinnamon sticks 1/2 tsp ground allspice 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg The zest and juice of one small-to-medium orange Pick through the cranberries carefully to remove the squishy/bad ones. Rinse and drain. Combine cranberries, sugar, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, and water in a medium pot. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce to simmer; cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Add the orange juice and zest, then allow the sauce to cool before serving at room temperature. Refrigerate leftovers; sauce will be good for 10-12 days. I never even liked cranberry sauce until I tried this recipe. Neither did my husband. My mother-in-law used to send us searching for an orange cranberry relish at grocery stores all over Knoxville -- I only found it twice, but when I did find it, I bought her three containers of it. This recipe is so good, I cannot imagine having Thanksgiv...

Easy Everyday Steak with Even Easier Steak Sauce

Easy Steaks with Even Easier Steak Sauce 4 modest steaks*, 6-7 oz. each, 1 to 1.5" thick 2 green onions, thinly sliced, whites and greens separated 3 Tbsp ketchup 1 Tbsp brown sugar 2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 Tbsp wine vinegar (sherry, white wine, red wine, etc.) Salt & pepper Olive oil Remove the steaks from the refrigerator 30-40 minutes before you plan to cook them. (So if you started baked potatoes 20 minutes ago, now is the time to take the steaks out.) Dry them off with paper towels -- gently, use a patting motion -- and salt and pepper them liberally. Set them aside while they come up to temp. Maybe now is a good time to slice up the green onions and measure the other stuff. When the steaks are at room temperature, combine the ingredients for the sauce (whites of the onions, ketchup, brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcerstershire, wine vinegar, and a pinch of salt and pepper) in a bowl or measuring cup. (I use my Pyrex measuring cups a lot. They...

Lumpy Chicken Salad

Lumpy Chicken Salad 2 to 2.5 cups cooled rotisserie chicken, pulled off the bone and chopped into 1/2" dice 3/4 cup light mayonnaise 3 to 4 Tbsp Dijon mustard 2 to 3 Tbsp light Italian dressing 1/2 cup small diced celery 1/3 cup red grapes halved (quartered if they're very big) 1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped pecans 1/3 cup Honeycrisp apple, peeled and 1/2" diced scant 1/4 cup green onion, greens sliced diagonally Salt & pepper to taste Optional: diced red pepper, dill pickle relish Combine the ingredients, chill for 2-3 hours, serve. Delicious and easy! My friend Erik reminded me today that it's too dang hot to cook in the kitchen right now, and he is absolutely right. When July takes over the Cruddy Little Kitchen, I take the toaster oven outside to the porch for anything that needs to be baked. I run an ugly orange extension cord out there and use electric tape to try to make sure nothing gets electrocuted if a thunderstorm blows the rain sideways toward the toaster ove...

Cruddy Little Kitchen

Search This Blog