Salt, early and in layers
In the right amount, salt suppresses bitterness and makes food taste more like itself. It works best added in stages: a pinch on the onions as they soften, more when the liquid goes in, and a final adjustment before serving. Salt added only at the table sits on the surface and tastes harsh. Meat benefits from being salted well ahead, anywhere from 40 minutes to a day.
Cook with kosher salt, which is coarse enough to pinch and hard to overdo. Table salt is finer and denser, so use about half as much by volume if a recipe was written for kosher. Remember the salt already present in soy sauce, stock, cheese, olives and canned goods before adding more.
Acid, the missing ingredient
A stew that tastes muddy or a soup that seems to lack something usually has enough salt and no brightness. A teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar stirred in at the end fixes it without making the dish taste sour. Your acids are lemons and limes, vinegars, wine, tomatoes, yogurt, buttermilk, mustard and pickles. Fresh citrus juice fades with long cooking, so add it off the heat.
Heat from pepper and chiles
Black pepper tastes of something only when it is freshly ground, since the pre-ground kind loses its aroma within months. Dried chile flakes give more when they are warmed in the cooking oil for 30 seconds at the start. With fresh chiles, most of the fire lives in the pale ribs and the seeds attached to them, so cutting those out tames a jalapeno considerably. Wash your hands afterward and keep them away from your eyes. Add heat gradually, because it builds as a dish simmers and you cannot take it out.
Tasting and fixing
Taste with a clean spoon at every stage.
- Food that is flat or bland needs salt, a pinch at a time.
- Food that is dull or heavy needs acid, half a teaspoon at a time.
- Food that is too salty needs diluting with more unsalted liquid, vegetables or grains.
- Food that is too spicy is calmed by dairy, fat or a little sugar, because the compound that burns dissolves in fat and not in water.
- Food that is too sour needs a pinch of sugar or a spoonful of butter or cream.
Tip Season cold food more firmly than hot food. Chilling mutes flavor, so potato salad and gazpacho need another taste and usually more salt after they come out of the refrigerator.
