When is the best time to add salt to cooking? How to add salt appropriately when cooking?

There is no fixed answer to when to add salt when cooking, how to add it, and how much to add. Many people just follow their feelings, which is what we call practice makes perfect. But for novice cooks, it is often difficult to grasp. So when should you add salt when cooking?

When is the best time to add salt to cooking?

If you are stir-frying, it is best to add salt before serving.

From a sensory perspective, to achieve the same saltiness, the amount of salt added later is less than that added earlier. When adding salt later, the salt has not penetrated deeply into the food, but the tongue can still feel the saltiness, so the amount of salt can be reduced at the same saltiness.

If you add salt too early when stir-frying vegetables, the osmotic pressure of the vegetables in the pot will increase when the salt and vegetables are stir-fried together. The vegetables will lose water and make their appearance "wilted". Adding salt before serving will make the vegetables crispy, tender and delicious.

Adding salt too early to salads will cause the juice to overflow and lose its crispness. Vegetables will not only lose water, but also vitamin C and other water-soluble vitamins, including folic acid, vitamin B1, B2, etc., will be lost into the soup due to water loss. In cells, they are protected to a certain extent, heat transfer is slow, and losses are small. Once they run into the soup, they will be directly exposed to high heat and lose the protection of other cell components, and the loss will increase significantly.

How to properly add salt when cooking

First of all, you need to understand the properties of salt. The salt we use now is basically potassium iodide salt. Iodine is very beneficial to the human body. Because iodine will gradually play a role at high temperatures, adding salt later is good for the body!

Secondly, it depends on the coarseness of your salt. If the salt at home is coarse, it is better to put it first when frying dishes that are about to be cooked. Otherwise, when the dish is taken out of the pan, the salt has not been dissolved, and you will taste the salt in your mouth, which feels bad!

If it is a stew, when there are many ingredients and it is thick, you must add salt first. Because there are too many ingredients and the ingredients are large, adding salt first will make it easier to absorb the flavor.

If you are stewing fish/bone (large pieces), you put salt when you take it out of the pot. Only the surface of the fish will be salty, but the fish meat will be tasteless. If it is bones, the bone marrow will taste bland, and the fish stew will be overshadowed!

If you are cooking frozen dumplings or noodles, it is best to add salt first, because salt water can prevent the dumplings and noodles from sticking to the pan.

If you are frying fish, you hope that the skin will not be broken. Before frying, put some salt in the oil to prevent the fish from peeling!

If you are stir-frying vegetables, it is best to add the salt later if it is fine enough, because if you add it first, the vegetables will release water! A good plate of stir-fried vegetables will lock in moisture to make it crisp!

In fact, whether to add salt first or later when cooking depends on the situation and cannot be generalized in one article!

What to do if you put too much salt in cooking

If the dish is too salty, you can add an appropriate amount of sugar, but if there is someone in the family who cannot eat sugar, do not add white sugar. You can add some vinegar to neutralize the saltiness.

If you are making soup, adding water can reduce the saltiness, but the soup will not be strong enough. You can put a few pieces of tofu or potatoes, or a few slices of tomatoes into the soup, and cook it for a while on low heat to reduce the saltiness. Potatoes and other foods are easy to absorb odors, which can not only make the soup lighter, but also will not destroy the taste of the soup. Or you can put rice in a cloth bag and cook the washed rice for a while, and the saltiness of the soup can be reduced.