Is there such a thing as a "perfect" amount of salt for a dish?

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Percent of what? I cannot imagine eating anything that had as much as 30% salt and you are putting that on the low end. Or do you mean percent of something other than the food you are eating?
no, not the overall content of the dish. What I was trying to explain there was that 100% is too much salt. 0% is too little salt but there is a broad range of what is an acceptable amount of salt between those two poles. Perhaps a better way of explaining it would be to imagine it as grams of salt instead. So 100g of salt is too much, 0g of salt is none... so too little. But for that given dish if you were to put in between 30g and 70g of salt it would taste fine and seem reasonably salted.
 
Salt is also essential for a properly functioning body:

"
Salt, also known as sodium chloride, is an essential mineral that helps your body function properly:

  • Fluid balance: Salt helps maintain fluid balance in the body.

  • Nerve impulses: Salt helps transmit nerve impulses.

  • Muscle contractions: Salt helps contract and relax muscle fibers, including those in the heart and blood vessels.

  • Nutrient absorption: Salt helps the body absorb nutrients.

  • Thyroid function: Salt helps the thyroid function properly.

  • Cystic fibrosis: Salt can help improve symptoms of cystic fibrosis."
 
no, not the overall content of the dish. What I was trying to explain there was that 100% is too much salt. 0% is too little salt but there is a broad range of what is an acceptable amount of salt between those two poles. Perhaps a better way of explaining it would be to imagine it as grams of salt instead. So 100g of salt is too much, 0g of salt is none... so too little. But for that given dish if you were to put in between 30g and 70g of salt it would taste fine and seem reasonably salted.
So, you didn't actually mean percent.

How big is that dish that will contain 30 to 70 grams of salt? That would be between 2 and bit over 5 tablespoons of salt.
 
So, you didn't actually mean percent.

How big is that dish that will contain 30 to 70 grams of salt? That would be between 2 and bit over 5 tablespoons of salt.
If 100% is the point at which too much salt has been added and 0% is obviously no salt at all then it's fine to express it as a percentage. Say perhaps you had 100% of the salt in a container and had the option to add it all or just 50% of it.... Not sure if I should read into your username too closely but if 'taxlady' means you're into your accounting then I can understand why you're wanting to see numbers expressed in a way that's familiar to you. As for expressing this in grams instead... again just for illustration, you have to imagine the dish. It's not a particular dish which would have that much salt.
 
I understand what you're trying to say @ingenieur , Exactly what most of us have been saying - there is no perfect amount of salt for any individual dish,
Well you can put in too much and it would ruin the dish. But what I've been trying to explain is that I feel there is quite a large margin for error and the 'right amount' can be somewhere within a ballpark... just not out of the ballpark.
 
Honestly, there’s no such thing as a “perfect” amount of salt for a dish. It totally depends on a bunch of stuff. Like, everyone’s taste buds are different...what tastes perfect to me might be way too salty or not salty enough for you. Plus, it really depends on what you’re making. A big, hearty soup is gonna need more salt than, say, a fresh salad.

Then there’s the ingredients. If you’re working with stuff that’s already salty, like bacon or parmesan, you don’t need to add as much. And don’t even get me started on the different kinds of salt—table salt, kosher salt, sea salt—they all measure differently, so a pinch of one isn’t the same as a pinch of another.

Honestly, the best thing you can do is just add a little bit as you go and taste it. Like, start small and build up because it’s way easier to add salt than to fix something that’s too salty (trust me, I’ve been there).

So yeah, no “perfect” amount of salt exists, but if you’re tasting and adjusting as you cook, you’ll figure out what works. Cooking’s all about experimenting anyway!
 
Keep in mind that salt is added when a person adds salt granules, granulated salt or even large crystals. It is also invisibly added when you use condiments or processed foods. And last but not least, it is added when food is brined or vegetables/fruit/nut/seed have sodium as natural to their 'just picked' state.
sodium-food-chart.webp



what-foods-high-sodium-printable.png
 
If 100% is the point at which too much salt has been added and 0% is obviously no salt at all then it's fine to express it as a percentage.
Its not fine to express it as a percentage unless you explain it as a percentage of what

And even then its an odd way to discuss the quantity of a seasoning you are adding to your food
 
No, there is no such thing. That is why most recipes end with "salt & pepper to taste".

I used to get prepared meals from Factor_75 and now I get Traditions prepared meals from Serving Seniors. They look almost exactly the same, but there were two differences; Factor_75 was very expensive while Traditions meals are free to seniors, and Traditions meals have no seasoning whatsoever and are very bland, while Factor_75 meals were perfectly seasoned.

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....Factor_75...............Traditions
 
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Some day they will develop a refined version of a pocket salinometer that can display Parts per Million (PPM) of salinity. The only one I have seen is from Asia and has a three light system like a traffic light. Until we can easily measure PPM of salinity and come to a consensus agreement on an acceptable "range" of salt level we are all left with just our tastebuds.

I used to tell my cooks that their target for salt level was 75-80% of what they remember Campbells soup tasting like. Why? After over a hundred years of selling soup they have literally spent millions of dollars on tasting panels and uniformly still made their soups too salty! For me at least... It does seem to me that industrial/commercial food service has accepted a standard of salt level that exceeds my preference and that of the food I cook and serve to others. As many others have stated, you can always add more!

Tangentially, something I also emphasized was the following statement my cooks heard frequently
"Water evaporates, Salt does not!"
 
If 100% is the point at which too much salt has been added and 0% is obviously no salt at all then it's fine to express it as a percentage. Say perhaps you had 100% of the salt in a container and had the option to add it all or just 50% of it.... Not sure if I should read into your username too closely but if 'taxlady' means you're into your accounting then I can understand why you're wanting to see numbers expressed in a way that's familiar to you. As for expressing this in grams instead... again just for illustration, you have to imagine the dish. It's not a particular dish which would have that much salt.
Ah, that explanation works better than your previous one.

And yes, you are reading too much into my username, if you think that I wanted numbers expressed in accounting terms. I do like to have numbers expressed in logical terms, that don't require guessing to understand.
 
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I thought the low end of salt use was 1500 mg/day, high end 2500 mg/day. I try to get the low end of salt use personally.

It depends. For most people, I think 2,400mg is the upper limit. I am limited to 2,000mg, and probably use less than that.

CD
 
Percent of what? I cannot imagine eating anything that had as much as 30% salt and you are putting that on the low end. Or do you mean percent of something other than the food you are eating?

Read it again. 0-100 was a scale, not an actual amount.

CD
 
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