Traditional Cooking Chemicals (part 1) - Salt - Dry brining & Wet brining

1. Salt

Ahh, salt: responsible for the salvation of many a food (or is that salivation?). The oldest seasoning in use, in small quantities it helps reduce the bitterness of foods and enhances the other flavors in a dish . In larger quantities, it can be used chemically to preserve food (dry and wet brining) as well as mechanically to alter how foods cook (salt roasting).

Salt crystals. IMAGE COURTESY OF NASA

From a chemistry perspective, salt is an ionic compound composed of a cation from a metal or ammonium and an anion from an acid. In solid form, salt is a crystal of atoms arranged in an alternating pattern based on charge: cation, anion, cation, anion, arranged in a 3D checkerboard pattern.

Our tongues detect one kind of salt, sodium chloride, as being “salty.” Sodium chloride (common table salt) is made up of sodium (a metal, and one that in its pure form happens to react violently when dropped in water) and chloride (chlorine with an extra electron, making it an anion). Other salts can register as different tastes. Monosodium glutamate, for example, triggers our taste receptors for umami. In water, the salts dissolve and the individual ions are freed, and they are then able to react and form bonds with other atoms and molecules.

While at first glance the chemistry of salt may not seem important to everyday cooking, it’s helpful to understand the basics of how it works when preparing and cooking food.

Atom

Basic building block of matter; these are the elements listed in the periodic table.

Molecule

Two or more atoms bonded together (where “or more” can be millions). H = hydrogen atom, H₂ = dihydrogen molecule.

Cation

Any positively charged atom or molecule (i.e., one that has more protons than electrons).

Anion

Any negatively charged atom or molecule (i.e., one that has more electrons than protons).

Note:

Cations and anions can be a single atom (Ca²⁺) or anything from a small molecule (NO₃) to a really large one, such as alginate (composed of many thousands of atoms).

1.1. Dry brining

Beef jerky, salmon gravlax, sausages, hams, prosciutto, and corned beef are all cured using salts, typically sodium chloride (table salt) or sodium nitrate, which gives foods like salami a distinctive flavor and pinkish color. Besides adding flavor, salt preserves these types of foods by creating an inhospitable environment for microorganisms .

Salt curing has been used for centuries to preserve fish caught at sea, and it’s also something that you can easily do at home. Surrounding it with a sufficient quantity of salt draws moisture out of food; this is called dry brining. But salt doesn’t just “dry out” the food (along with any bacteria and parasites). At sufficient concentration, it actively disrupts a cell’s ability to function and kills it, rendering bacteria and parasites nonviable.

Note:

This killing ability isn’t limited to just foods. For an adult human, the lethal dose of table salt is about 80 grams—about the amount in the saltshaker on your typical restaurant table.

Overdosing on salt is reportedly a really painful way to go, as your brain swells up and ruptures. Plus, it’s unlikely the ER physicians will correctly diagnose the cause in time. (Paging Dr. House.)

1.2. Wet brining

Wet brining—the process of soaking meat in salted water—can be used both to add flavor and to reduce water loss during cooking.

As an experiment, try doing an A/B test with brined and nonbrined pork chops. Does brining change the weight loss during cooking? Using a gram scale, weigh a pork chop prebrining, post-brining, and after cooking, and compare the percentage weight loss to that of a “control” pork chop that is cooked without having been brined. You may also want to test how brining changes the flavor. If you’re cooking for others, enlist them as tasters. Cook both brined and nonbrined pork chops, serve a portion of each to everyone, and see what preferences your tasters have.

Salmon Gravlax

In a bowl, mix together:

5 teaspoons (30g) kosher salt

1 tablespoon (12g) sugar

3 tablespoons (12g) finely chopped fresh dill

1 teaspoon (4g) vodka

1 teaspoon (2g) crushed peppercorns (ideally, use a mortar and pestle)

On a large piece of plastic wrap, place:

1 pound (450g) salmon, washed and bones removed; preferably a center cut so that its shape is rectangular

Sprinkle salt mixture over fish and massage into salmon. Wrap fish in plastic and store in fridge, flipping and massaging twice a day for a day or two.

Store in the fridge and consume within a week.

Notes

• Note the use of vodka as a solvent. Try substituting other spirits, such as cognac or whiskey. And in place of dill, try using coriander seed, loose tea leaves (e.g., Earl Grey or Lapsang Souchong), shallots, or lemon zest. The Scandinavians traditionally serve salmon gravlax on top of bread with a mustard dill sauce.

• You can substitute other fatty fish for the salmon and obtain a similar texture. What happens if you try tuna?

• Curing inhibits most common bacterial growth but does not prevent all types of bacteria from growing. Avoid serving this to anyone in an at-risk group. This recipe is a bit heavy on the salt—6% by weight—to err on the side of safety. You can reduce the saltiness by rinsing the finished product in fresh water, followed by recoating it with dill and ground pepper to restore some of the flavor.
  

  
  

• Salt curing—as is done in salmon gravlax—is the first step in making lox. After curing, lox is also cold smoked, which is the process of exposing a food to smoke vapors that have been cooled down. You can approximate the flavor of lox by adding liquid smoke to the rub .

  You can remove the skin from a piece of fish by placing it skin-side down on a cutting board and carefully running a knife along the surface between the skin and flesh while using your hand to keep the fish from sliding around.