From: mjf9968@rigel.tamu.edu (Pi(3.143832666))
Newsgroups: rec.audio
Subject: What if...
Date: 29 Sep 92 16:27:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: rigel.29SEP199211273171
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41


	You ever wonder what would happen if REC.AUDIO people
	discussed, say, cooking? ...


From: rjr1186@stut.gart.edu
Newsgroup: rec.audio.cooking
Subject: Re: Gourmet Salt!
Date: 29 Sep 1992 12:01 CDT
Distribution: world

In article...
>>>>Has anyone else tried the new Froog Brand Gourmet Salt?  I
>>>>used it on my rice pilaf last night, instead of Morton's, and
>>>>the difference was INCREDABLE!  The bitterness was much
>>>>sharper-- much more clearly defined.  And the sweetness
>>>>was suddenly much looser and pleasant-- it tasted very "warm".
>>>>Depsite the $48/lbs price tag I will never use anything else
>>>>but the Froog's Gourmet Salt!  I advise you all to do the same!
>>>
>>>What a moron you are!  You paid $48/lbs for SALT?  It's people
>>>like you who keep nefarious used-car dealers in business.
>>>Look, it's just SALT.  NaCl.  All salt is NaCl, and there's no
>>>way that one bit of NaCl is going to taste different from another
>>>bit of NaCl.  Much less make the sweetness taste "warm".
>>>*sheesh*
>>
>>No, it's not just NaCl.  Mortons and other low-end brands 
>>*iodize* their salt-- they add ionic Iodine to it!  This may be
>>great for your health (I eat enough seafood that I don't have
>>to worry about it :-), but it tastes like utter shit!  What
>>kind of salt you use can have just as much effect as whether or
>>not you use iron or aluminum pans!
>
>Hate to burst your bubble, son, but you can't taste the iodine.
>Study after study has shown that the human taste buds have no receptors
>for iodine.  None.  Not a one.  It is IMPOSSIBLE for you to taste the
>iodine in something.  The Froog's Gourmet Salt is just a rip-off,
>that continues to make money because people like you refuse to face
>up to the scientific TRUTH of cooking.

I once worked in Paris with a chef who could measure out, with .5g
accuracy, any weight of salt you wanted with his bare hand.  He'd just
pour it into his cupped palm and stop at eactly how much you wanted.
It was amazing.  He'd also at times make up some sauce or other then
turn his back and ask you to add a pinch of any spice you wanted to
to it.  He'd turn back around, taste the sauce and be able to name what
you had added.  He could even tell when you had added more of a spice
you had added earlier.  It was amazing.

I've worked in professional cooking all my life and I've met people,
people I respected, who could tell the difference between some mighty
small changes.  Science has its application-- it gave us Teflon, thank
god-- but it's just impossible to model the complexity of the human
taste and oral-feeling system.  The only thing that matters in the end
is how it tastes to you.  If you can tell a difference with the Froog's
Gourmet Salt, by all means go ahead and buy it.  Ignore the "But you
can't-- it's impossible!" detractors.

Personally, I prefer the salt I purify at home from lab-grade NaCl
using my Krell mono-amps to create a changing electral inductance
across the evaporation vat.  If you're interested, my article in
next months "Krell's Cooking World" gives all the details.

****************************************************
*Studly Wellhung      * Life ain't worth living'   *
*stud@preten.tious.edu*  if your dick ain't pierced*
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