Salt

I do have some truffle salt but I don't use it too much.

rwj

[Jenise]

Robert--it's fantastic on seared scallops.

Yes, I've had it that way and it ROCKS. It is also good in mashed potatoes and homemade sausage (pork). But I don't make those things very often.

rwj

It's big and flaky and comes in a round plastic tub in which you twirl the rim of your margarita glass. It's actually quite nice.

What Larry said.

I have often used it to salt my steaks before BBQ'ing them.


Ooops!


Sorry.


The backdoor was still ajar.

I started working a couple of days a month in a local spice shop over the summer. She carries about 15 different types of salts. What I've been most intrigued with of late is the smoked salts. Alder smoked, chardonnay smoked, smoked black, amongst 1 or 2 others. Just yesterday I used some of the smoked black as an accompaniment to a hardboiled egg I'd brought for a snack. VERY tasty. And the alder smoked was killer as a finish to a pot of ham/beans I made a couple of weeks ago.

A question that Celia's post raised in my mind was whether or not we receive a healthful quantity of iodine in the processed foods we use? Can I assume that the mfg's of canned/processed items use iodized salt to increase the sodium levels assuming they use salt at all as opposed to some other source of sodium, or should we still be using some good old Morton's occasionally to maintain a healthy level?

[Jenise]

Scott, most people get enough iodine through their regular diet. Seafood (including kelp) and fruit/vegetables grown in iodine-rich soil, plus whatever iodized salt finds its way to you in prepared food will typically feed you the 150 micrograms per day you need. (A 1/4 tsp of iodized salt contains about 95 micrograms.) Interestingly, I would have thought a daily multi-vitamin would also contain iodine, but I just checked mine and it does not.

The documentary about iodine deficiency in Tibet was astounding. It seems particularly relevant in pregnant women - an iodine deficiency can lead to severe retardation in the foetus, and even a slight iodine deficiency can cause some loss of IQ.

I was interested to see that it's now becoming a problem again in Australia, because of a change in the processing method of our milk. Since iodine is no longer used to clean milking equipment, we no longer get the benefits of positive contamination. Add to that the fact that more and more people are moving towards gourmet (uniodised) salts, and you have a new re-emerging problem with iodine deficiency. And yet, we only need so little ! After the programme, we went back to using iodised salt in our cooking water, as well as switching to a multivitamin with iodine in it...

[Jenise]

Yes, Celia, pregnant women and children need more than adults. I wonder, though, reading your comment about postive contamination from milking equipment, how hundreds of years ago people got enough iodine. Perhaps there were just a lot more cretins in our midst?