Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

In something of an unusual, move I picked up a book about cooking. To be completely honest the title and cool art on the cover was what initially hooked me, but I’m really glad I read this book. It was a delightful read and helped me feel more confident about my ability to whip something up in the kitchen.

As the title suggests, the main idea is that there are essentially four core pillars of cooking that will make you a pro in the kitchen if you master them.

First is salt, incredibly important for bringing out the flavor of your food. Next is fat, which can be a main ingredient, a cooking medium, or a seasoning. After that there is acid, the ultimate secret weapon for bringing balance to a dish. Finally you have heat, the process that transforms the food into it’s final form.

The author, Samin Nosrat says that she didn’t always know that she wanted to be a chef. Food started becoming a big deal to her when she and her boyfriend started bonding over delicious meals. After an amazing dining experience at Chez Panisse, she applied for a job there just to get closer to the artistry of that kitchen. Eventually she became a chef and developed her theory of Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat which was validated for her as she traveled the world and discovered that these elements were the four most important components of cuisine everywhere.

Here are the notes that I took:

• “There is no better guide in the kitchen than thoughtful tasting.”
• Salt is an essential nutrient and we are hard-wired to crave it.
• Sea salt is made by evaporating sea water, rock salt comes from the deposits left behind in ancient lakes.
• Homecooked meals tend to have less salt than if you are eating out
• Salt has a greater impact on flavor than any other ingredient.
• “Used properly, salt minimizes bitterness, balances out sweetness, and enhances aromas, heightening our experience of eating.”
• The pace of evaporation determines what shape salt crystals will take.
• If you are going to measure salt, it makes more sense to do it by weight than volume since the size of slat crystals is inconsistent. A teaspoon of fine salt will be 2-3 times as salty as a teaspoon of course salt.
• Note for the health conscious: iodized salt (the fine salt with iodine added which is often used as table salt) often contains dextrose, a sugar used to balance out the iodine.
• The more quickly salt dissolves, the less likely you are to over=season a dish thinking it needs more salt.
• What is flavor? Our taste buds only perceive five “tastes” (saltiness, sourness, bitterness, sweetness, and umami– also called savoriness), but on the other hand aroma involves our nose detecting any one of thousands of various chemical compounds. Flavor arrives at the intersection of taste, aroma, and other sensory elements such as texture, appearance, and temperature.
• The more aromas you perceive, the more you will enjoy your food (hence why you should swirl and smell wine before tasting it, why food tastes bland when you are sick and have a stuffy nose, etc.)
• Salt opens up the aroma of many foods, unlocking the flavor.
• Many people turn to sugar to balance out the bitter flavors of a sauce or soup, but in most cases salt will do a much better job of masking the bitterness.
• Anything that enhances flavor is a seasoning, but sometimes in the kitchen “seasoning” simply refers to salt which is by far the most powerful and most important seasoning.
• If food isn’t salted properly, no amount of fancy cooking tricks can make up for it.
• “Food shouldn’t be salty, it should be salted.”
• When a food tastes flat, under-seasoning is the most likely culprit. Try adding some salt.
• “Cooking is part artistry, part chemistry.”
• With meat, it’s key to season well beforehand. The diffusion of salt (salt penetrating the inner parts of the meat) is a slow process and takes time.
• Salt chicken the day before you cook it and salt Thanksgiving Turkey 2-3 days ahead.
• Do NOT salt seafood ahead of time, seafood should be seasoned before you start cooking, but not too far before.
• Salt vegetables before you cook them
• Salt mushrooms only after you’ve started cooking them
• Make sure to add salt to beans
• Cook vegetables in highly-seasoned water
• In general when cooking with water, season your water until it tastes as salty as the sea (remember, most of that salt will go down the drain)
• If you want to operate like a real chef, throw out your salt shaker and put your salt in a bowl where you can grab it by hand.
• Where there is pepper, there should almost always be salt, but not the other way around. Remember, salt is a seasoning, but pepper is a spice.
• Salt usually improves sweets and desserts, enhancing flavor.
• Taste everything, every step of the way. Your mantra should be: stir, taste, adjust
• Food can only ever be as delicious as the fat with which it is cooked.
• Fat can be a main ingredient, a cooking medium, or a seasoning
• Fat’s effect on flavor: Put simply, fat carries flavor.
• Olive oil is your go-to fat for Italian, Greek, Middle-Eastern, and all Mediterranean Cuisine. Use it also for condiments.
• Depending on how we use fat, we can achieve any of five distinct textures in our food: crisp, creamy, tender, flaky, and light.
• Crispy: water needs to evaporate from cells. The surface temp of the food needs to be elevated past the boiling point (212 degrees Fahrenheit). It also needs perfect, even contact with the pan, which isn’t actually possible. Hence the need to use fat as a cooking medium to make sure the entire surface of the food comes up to temperature.
• Usually you want to preheat the pan, then preheat the fat, then start cooking
• For making mayo: use room temperature eggs, add oil a drop at a time until half is in, the start adding it more quickly.
• When making mayo, stop adding fat if the whisk isn’t leaving visible tracks
• For making sauce, start with a warm pan and cold butter.
• Oil yields cakes that are more moist than butter
• The true value of acid is not the pucker effect, but the balance of contrast it brings
• Anything below 7 of the pH scale is an acid. In practice, it’s anything that tastes sour. Lemon juice, vinegar, and wine are common sources of acid in cooking.
• Acid is the taste that makes your mouth water the most.
• Acid on it’s own is not particularly satisfying, it’s value lies in the contrast it provides
• Never use bottled citrus juice which tastes more bitter
• Lemons are best in northern climates, hence their use in Mediterranean dishes. Limes are more tropical, hence their use in Mexican and Thai
• Acid dulls vibrant greens, so wait until the last minute to add to salad
• Acid keeps reds and purples vivid
• Fruit that is susceptible to browning can be preserved with acid
• Cook onions and legumes until they are tender before adding anything acidic
• Browning food is a way to introduce acidity through a process called canalization (think grill marks)
• Fermentation produces acidity
• Chocolate is bitter, sour, and has umami. Add sugar and salt and you have all the tastes.
• Heat is the element of transformation of your food
• The goal is to provide the right amount of heat so that the interior and the exterior finish cooking at the same time.
• The goal of cooking at low heat is tenderness
• When cooking food in liquid: only vegetables, grains, pasta, cooking hard eggs and reducing sauces need boiling water. For everything else, bring the water to a boil then reduce to a simmer
• There’s no recipe for meat as simple as a simmer in salted water.
• Oven temperatures have four basic categories: Low (which is 175-275), medium low (275-350), medium high (350-425 and high (425+)
• 350 degrees Fahrenheit is the “middle C” note of baking
• With salt, fat, and acid, your taste is your guide. With heat you will need to use your other senses to determine if something is done.
• For instance: fish turns from translucent to opaque when cooked, shrimp changes color and begins to curl, pasta begins to droop.
• Food should usually sizzle when put into a pan indicating that the pan and the fat are preheated. If it starts to sputter, take some fat out.
• Anchoring: pick one element to work a meal around

This was a very enjoyable read and I definitely feel like I understand good cooking better and came away with several practical tips to help in the kitchen