Cooking
Reading the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini in college made me want to live in Florence. It brought the renaissance period to life. Filled with art, crime and intrigue it was gossipy and a great read. The cover featured a photo of one of Cellini's few surviving masterpieces, a gold salt cellar. According to Cellini, the figures that decorate it represent earth and water, although other sources claim they depict Neptune and Amphitrite, additional reclining figures, representing winds and the times of day, are carved into the base. At the time I'd never even heard of a salt cellar. But just like Cellini's writing, it is an over-the-top work of art.
Lately as I've spent more and more time in places like Sur La Table, it dawned on me that I really really needed a salt cellar.
You can't underestimate the importance of salt. Salt makes all the difference in cooking a great meal. Having salt at your fingertips is key so that you can season your food as you cook it. Just seasoning at the table doesn't do the job. In fact, adding salt at the table is most often considered an insult to the chef. If food is properly seasoned while cooking, it shouldn't need any additional salt. For example, pasta. If you don't season the water with salt, your pasta will taste slightly dull. No amount of salt at the table will fix it.
My sister sent me a beautiful white salt cellar for my birthday. I have no idea where she got it. It's not like the Cellini salt cellar, it's a white ceramic one made to sit near your stove and its main feature is accessibility, in fact it's not ornamental in the least. And that Cellini salt cellar? Turns out it was stolen last year from a Viennese art museum. The reward is 70,000 euros. And the value of the piece? Would you believe 58 million dollars? No salt included.
- Menu For Hope 6: Top Chef/iron Chef
Are you or someone you know addicted to Top Chef and Iron Chef America? If so, this prize package is just for you: Season your way to good taste with Diamond Crystal® kosher, coarse and fine sea salt and put to use that iconic salt cellar you've...
- Contest Winners
What American city is also the site of one of the largest salt deposits in the world? Because I didn't say major American city or the largest salt deposit both Detroit and Hutchinson are correct answers. For the record, Hutchinson has the largest...
- All About Radishes
Do you think radishes only belong in salad? Growing up that's the only way we ate them. Not that there's anything wrong with that but the French give the radish a little more respect, they eat them with butter and salt. Actually what they do...
- Birthday Gifts
I've been wanting Fleur de Sel for some time, but we just could not find it anywhere around here. Matt finally found an on-line salt-seller (not a salt cellar, though I'm sure they sold those, too), and me? Well, I'm going to have to start...
- To Brine Or Not To Brine
I used to be a fan of brining meat: immersing it into a salty liquid and letting osmosis carry the salt deep into the flesh. Cook's Illustrated has championed the technique for years—they may still—and that's where I first learned...
Cooking
Salt Cellar
Reading the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini in college made me want to live in Florence. It brought the renaissance period to life. Filled with art, crime and intrigue it was gossipy and a great read. The cover featured a photo of one of Cellini's few surviving masterpieces, a gold salt cellar. According to Cellini, the figures that decorate it represent earth and water, although other sources claim they depict Neptune and Amphitrite, additional reclining figures, representing winds and the times of day, are carved into the base. At the time I'd never even heard of a salt cellar. But just like Cellini's writing, it is an over-the-top work of art.
Lately as I've spent more and more time in places like Sur La Table, it dawned on me that I really really needed a salt cellar.
You can't underestimate the importance of salt. Salt makes all the difference in cooking a great meal. Having salt at your fingertips is key so that you can season your food as you cook it. Just seasoning at the table doesn't do the job. In fact, adding salt at the table is most often considered an insult to the chef. If food is properly seasoned while cooking, it shouldn't need any additional salt. For example, pasta. If you don't season the water with salt, your pasta will taste slightly dull. No amount of salt at the table will fix it.
My sister sent me a beautiful white salt cellar for my birthday. I have no idea where she got it. It's not like the Cellini salt cellar, it's a white ceramic one made to sit near your stove and its main feature is accessibility, in fact it's not ornamental in the least. And that Cellini salt cellar? Turns out it was stolen last year from a Viennese art museum. The reward is 70,000 euros. And the value of the piece? Would you believe 58 million dollars? No salt included.
- Menu For Hope 6: Top Chef/iron Chef
Are you or someone you know addicted to Top Chef and Iron Chef America? If so, this prize package is just for you: Season your way to good taste with Diamond Crystal® kosher, coarse and fine sea salt and put to use that iconic salt cellar you've...
- Contest Winners
What American city is also the site of one of the largest salt deposits in the world? Because I didn't say major American city or the largest salt deposit both Detroit and Hutchinson are correct answers. For the record, Hutchinson has the largest...
- All About Radishes
Do you think radishes only belong in salad? Growing up that's the only way we ate them. Not that there's anything wrong with that but the French give the radish a little more respect, they eat them with butter and salt. Actually what they do...
- Birthday Gifts
I've been wanting Fleur de Sel for some time, but we just could not find it anywhere around here. Matt finally found an on-line salt-seller (not a salt cellar, though I'm sure they sold those, too), and me? Well, I'm going to have to start...
- To Brine Or Not To Brine
I used to be a fan of brining meat: immersing it into a salty liquid and letting osmosis carry the salt deep into the flesh. Cook's Illustrated has championed the technique for years—they may still—and that's where I first learned...