On Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

 Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat was a fantastic book defying the definition of "cookbook." Nosrat creates an engaging narrative around cooking and starts at the basics: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Nosrat makes several key points: 

• Salt from within and without
• Layer types of salt, fat, acid, and even heat (think twice-baked croissants, or boiled then baked potatoes)
• Taste as you go!

If we think of salt, fat, and acid in terms of what it does to flavor: salt enhances, fat carries, and acid balances (p168). 

Salt

I had a couple paradigm shifts around salt as a result of this book, namely rethinking it from seasoning to mineral. It holds a role far more important than I ever realized: "Salt has a greater impact on flavour than any other ingredient...this is why it makes sense to measure salts by weight rather than by volume," (p.36, 37). Cooking is truly a chemistry lab, "salt also unlocks many aromatic compounds in foods, making more readily available," (p42). Further, osmosis, diffusion, and time are salt's main modes of change.  With time, salt dissolves protein strands into a gel, which allows those proteins to retain water better as they cook, keeping things moist (p48). That being said, one has to think about the time, because too much time with salt will draw excessive water out and make things rubbery. 

A tip on beans that I need to keep: "Add a palmful of salt, and a generous pinch of bicarbonate of soda, which will tip the pH of the pot towards alkilinity and help coax even more tenderness from the beans," (p366). 

Fat

Fat does a lot for a meal- it can act as a main ingredient, seasoning, or cooking medium (p84). Also, I had no idea that the term "shortening" comes from a reference to the fact that fat inhibits gluten strand production (p121). 

Acid

First things first, we, the laypeople of the kitchen, can think of acid as salt's "alter ego" (p136). It is an integral part of our favorite meals, and comes in all sorts of ways including wine while a sauce cooks, lemon or lime squeezed at the last second, or in parmesan cheese. Anything with a tang is acidic. Where salt affects both texture and flavor, acid is mostly a flavor add but can trigger chemical reactions, like ceviche. Or, for the perfect poached eggs, add a splash of vinegar, which will coagulate the egg whites (p148). 

Heat

The heat section of the book focuses on sweating, browning, and time. Browning produces flavor through the Maillard reaction, and it's important to be intentional about our onions, for example - do we want them delicate (sweat) or acidic and sweet (caramelized) (p226). The question we all ask: "am I frying things right?" is answered by Nosrat: "The key to getting a crips, golden-brown crust is to encourage that steam to escape as quickly as possible," (p230). Further, don't just think about heat as the outside of a food, think about heat level for even cooking, too. 

I absolutely loved this book, rather unexpectedly. Life is short. Why not eat good food?

Highly recommend this book. It even has cooking practice lessons and recipes at the end!