I'm very particular about my salt. I refuse to buy cheap salt and often wondered if there was any basis for my salt snobbery or just simply that I'm a sucker for good branding.
On one particular day of our trip, I remember needing to salt our food. I do love salty food. I grabbed the salt on the table to add to my eggs or tagine or whatever it was we were eating and salted my food. I salted it again. And again. I remarked on how salt-less the salt was. I don't think I've ever experienced unsalty salt before. The quality of salt really does matter.
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and tramped underfoot by people." - Matthew 5:13
I always think of this verse when I'm reminded of my salt snobbery. In reality, salt is so important to what we eat, to our bodies, to our culture. What good does poor salt do for us? It can add some flavour to food, sure, but it's not fulfilling its job of creating something full of life. Salt that has lost its saltiness is caused by salt that has become
diluted with other substances. Salt can never actually lose its saltiness but the flavour becomes diluted through contaminants like water or other additives. In order to keep salt salty, it needs to stay pure. Are we not the same?
I was asked recently by someone I was teaching how to make sourdough pizza if they can just use their normal table salt in their bread. To this question I balked without hesitating: why use normal table salt when you can use a salt full of character? However, I wasn't actually sure how to respond so I just said no it's better to use good quality salt without really understanding why. Luckily, someone else in the room commented that that question is like asking an Italian (which the first person was) if it matters what flour you use in your pasta. Of course it does!
Salt is not just salt.
