Back in the days when I was a novice cook, I painstakingly followed every recipe step by diligent step. Measuring each ingredient by the teaspoonful, tablespoonful, and cupful; I was stumped by one alarming ambiguity. Salt. It was always ‘as per taste’! Where did one start – with a pinch of salt and work one’s way up pinch by pinch? Or did one proceed boldly with a spoonful?
I would hesitantly add a quarter spoon, then another, tasting between each quarter-spoonful. Finally, having fatigued my harried taste buds I would helplessly appeal to my husband. As I waited nervously, my husband would lick, sip, take a bite, roll his tongue, close his eyes, and then would pronounce his verdict. ‘Just a touch more’.
Invariably.
I date my obsession with a pinch of salt to those early formative days. While not encouraging you to reach out for the salt cellar, I still firmly believe that it is that judicious, final pinch of salt that raises a dish to its pinnacle of perfection!
Salt enhances other flavours
For salt acts in mysterious ways, enhancing and enriching other flavours, quite content to play a supporting role when denied a starring role. Mary Poppins may trill about the spoonful of sugar that changes bread to cake, but it is the pinch of salt that elevates an ordinary cake into an extraordinary one. Even the rich Christmas cake – redolent with sugar, spice, and brandy-soaked raisins requires a pinch of salt to round off its flavours! Chocolate attains the peak of its luscious decadence, and buttery caramelised almond rocks attain heavenly status with that sprinkling of sea salt.
No meal is complete without its presence. Take breakfast, for example. Whether you start the day with a humble bowl of porridge or a deliciously nutty granola, both need the same generous pinch of salt. The tangy orange juice improves much with it while the egg descends to blandness without a sprinkle. The traditional Indian lunch thali starts with a pinch of salt (to add as per taste); and can you even imagine having your favourite soup without salt? It draws out the bitterness from the eponymous bitter melon, making it palatable. And what would our meals be without pickles and relishes, besides salad, sauce, salsa and sausage – which are derived from sal – the Latin world for salt!
Many communities in India begin their year with a taste of the flavours of life – a little sweet, a little bitter and a little sour – all rounded off with a pinch of salt.
symbolism of Salt
But salt does not merely add flavour to our meals. Salt is vital to life itself. Animals in the wild travel miles in search of salt licks, and early humans followed their tracks. These much-used hunting trails widened and became paths along which humans migrated. Indeed, the history of humanity is liberally sprinkled with salt.
Salt had great significance and symbolism in every civilisation. The Aztecs, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Chinese – every culture, land and religion has its own myths and beliefs. Salt was a valuable commodity in the ancient world, in fact, Romans paid their soldiers partly in salt. Nations went to war for their salt resources, and trade in salt gave rise to ‘salt routes’. It has inspired and symbolised rebellion – can we forget Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi march?
An essential ingredient of many religious rituals, salt was thought to dispel evils, to purify and to sanctify; and symbolised man’s covenant with God. From baptising the newborn to preserving the dead, salt was man’s companion throughout life. Words as diverse as ‘salvation‘ and ‘salary‘ have their origin in salt!
Easy access to salt (and the salt cellar) was a sign of wealth and social status. Salt signified loyalty and fidelity; the terms namak-halal (righteous or loyal) and namak-haraam (treacherous or disloyal) are still widely used today!
The metaphorical grain of salt
I have to confess that this obsession with salt has crept into the very philosophy of my life. I find myself unconsciously adding a wholesome pinch of salt to the news I read, and the many posts and forwards on my social media feed. It serves me well. I find it to greatly improve flavours. Adding a grain of wit and humour can do much to neutralise bitterness, take the edge of sourness, and round off sweetness!
As the wise have said:
’Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt.”
Colossians 4:6
Amen to that.