It all started in ancient times when salting was the best way to preserve and reliably store food. Having reliable stores of food meant that small villages could feed and sustain more people, and that’s how a lot of early societies started to expand.
Salted food slowly became more common since it was always around and ready to eat, and eventually salted foods became so common that their taste was not just accepted, but expected. And why not? Salt makes food taste good.
What Does Salt Really Do?
Whatever you are eating (hopefully) was or came from something that was alive at some point in time. Living things, so long as they come from this Earth, are largely made of water, which dilutes the taste of anything that you eat. It has been proposed that adding salt to food enhances other flavours by tying down water molecules. Basically, salt might stop water molecules from diluting all the other flavours in your food.
Besides concentrating other flavours in food, salt also decreases the bitterness that you will naturally find in foods like coffee. You can even add salt to your coffee to brew a better cup! In this case, salt isn’t there to add a salty taste, but rather to hide bitterness.
Because we are surrounded by salt, being ever-present in every meal of the day, it’s easy to dismiss it as mundane, but between building early civilizations and boosting the flavours of our food, it’s safe to say that it is the way that salt brings out other flavours that makes foods (especially salty ones) so satisfying.
From teenkidsnews.com
