You're reading SMALL WINS. Every fortnight: one technique that'll make you a better cook, plus the recipe that proves it. Six times a year: ‘The Fundamentals’ condenses everything worth knowing on one topic (e.g. ice cream) into a primer with the need-to-know knowledge and recipes. (Free subs: a monthly cooking lesson, plus 10 flagship recipes in the index.)
Do you need a recipe for tzatziki? Perhaps not, but I’ve seen enough recipes instructing you to wring out the cucumber with a tea towel to think that, just maybe, you do.
And sure, tzatziki is never bad — but I’m going to say that this tzatziki is better. Not because of any fancy ingredients, just simply because of technique. And ‘technique’ makes it sound like I’m about to share something complex and intimidating — I’m not — it’s just that the way that you do things makes a difference. Plus, this method delivers a chef’s treat in the form of salted cucumber gimlets — need I say more?
-Alexina
Lesson » The pull of salt
There is endless talk about salt in relation to flavour: its ability to make other ingredients taste more of themselves, the fact that chefs use far more salt than the average home cook… but I think we rarely touch on how salt acts on ingredients, and the effect that it has beyond flavour.
Salt is hygroscopic (it attracts water) and, in drawing moisture out of ingredients, it achieves two effects:
It concentrates flavour
It modifies texture (namely, by softening ingredients)
We indirectly covered this in my previous newsletter on dry brining, but I’d like to more explicitly draw your attention to it today because it’s a subtly transformative act that has a number of use cases in the kitchen, particularly in the realm of vegetables.
Dealing with poor tomatoes?
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.