If there’s one thing I get questions about, over and over, it’s how to apply salt to dishes. For some reason, folks just don’t seem to get the results they expect from just measuring it. A French Chef tells us, salting is as much art as science…
Daniel Boulud mentoring a young chef: The art of garnishing
is also performed with well-practiced fingers…
Daniel Boulud is a celebrated French chef who quietly put down roots in New York City more than 34 decades ago. His mentoring has helped shape The Big Apple’s resto scene by shaping many new chefs who’ve become stars in their own right.
And if anyone knows the fine points of salting, it’s him. And he’s produced a tutorial Instagram video where we can all watch him in action as he demonstrates his technique.
We’ve been doing it wrong
Boulud says ‘real’ chefs don’t rely on measuring spoons to season their dishes. They always use their fingers. Spoons are to fingers as tools are to instruments. The kind of instruments you play to make beautiful music.
Boulud uses the ‘pinch’ method – measuring his salt by the amount you can pinch between your thumb and fingers. “It’s important to use fine salt to season, and be careful,” he recommends. “Two fingers, three fingers, four fingers. It depends on the thickness of what you do, the size of what you salt.”
And be sure to sprinkle your salt evenly across the dish – whether it’s a steak or a pot of soup.
“[It] isn’t an exact science,” as Boulud explained in a conversation with Food & Wine, “It’s about be-coming familiar with how a specific, consistent amount of salt looks and feels.”
Practice makes perfect
Practice, practice, practice. That’s the only way to become adept at seasoning, as anyone who’s been to culinary school will confirm. It gets to be a reflexive skill which you don’t even stop to think about…
~ Maggie J.