Layering Salt: The Secret Technique Nobody Taught Us
Story time: Matthew is making a Caesar salad dressing, complete with homemade fresh croutons and caramelized parmesan cheese crisps.
The dressing needs more salt. Matthew adds more salt.
Story over.
Moral of the story: Matthew is an idiot.
Okay, you have questions. Let me help.
Matthew failed to layer his salt. He thought that simply adding more salt was the perfect fix for his dressing. It probably got the job done, but he lost out big on an opportunity to further enhance the dressing’s flavor profile. Instead of just adding salt, he could have added some more pasted anchovy, another splash of worcestershire sauce, or some more parmigiano reggiano.
This is what is known as layering salt.
To layer salt in a dish, consider the salty and strategically use them to enhance the overall flavor profile. With proper salt layering, you add salt and umami, and herbiness, and sweetness. You get the point. Professional chefs leverage the inherent saltiness of each component to complement and enhance the dish. This approach causes a more thoughtful and deliberate use of salt, resulting in a more complex and flavorful final product. Finally, you only add more salt once all the other components are already perfect.
Here are some common salty ingredients you can include in a dish:
- Soy sauce
- Fish sauce
- Anchovies
- Capers
- Olives
- Salty cheese
- Worcestershire sauce
- Miso paste
- Bacon
- Cured meats
- Pickles
- Sauerkraut
- Kimchi
- Butter
- Caramel
- Peanuts
- Pretzels
- Crackers
- Anchovy paste
- Condiments
- Stocks and broths
- Pasta water
- Brine (for pickling)
- Sauces
- Seasoning blends
Any questions? Let me know in the comments. Or let me know if you have any good experience with layering salt in your own recipes! Hopefully this was a short and sweet tip that will help further enhance your cooking. And to help you practice, here’s my favorite Caesar dressing recipe inspired by Samin Nosrat from Salt, Fat, Acid Heat.
Basic Caesar Dressing
The origins of Caesar dressing are somewhat disputed, but it is largely agreed that this incredible dressing was invented in Tijuana, Mexico of all places for a group of Americans celebrating the 4th of July. Busy chef through together a bunch of creamy, salty, and umami-enhancing ingredients that ended up being a total hit among his patrons, who raved about it enough to make it famous in all of America---and it's now commonly found in spots throughout the world. Caesar dressing is also a great chance to practice layering salt: increasing the saltiness of your dish by holistically considering each salty component instead of only adding table salt to increase a dish's saltiness.
Yield: 1 cup
4 anchovy fillets
1 clove garlic
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 small to medium lemon
3/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (or steak sauce)
1 cup parmigiano reggiano
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
Directions:
Thoroughly combine all ingredients in a bowl.
Dip a lettuce leaf into the dressing and taste. If it is lacking salt, consider adding more anchovies, worcestershire sauce, or parmigiano reggiano. If none of those ingredients are needed more of, simply add salt. I frequently find myself adding more anchovy.
To best enjoy your salad, don't just drizzle dressing on top of some soggy lettuce! Thoroughly dry your lettuce, then TOSS it together to THOROUGHLY COAT IT in the dressing. Do it right or I'll find out.
Recipe formatted with the Cook'n Recipe Software from DVO Enterprises.
Matthew Christensen
Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2023
Email the author! matthew@dvo.com
