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Tips for Making Salt Dough Yourself

Working with salt dough is a lot of fun. Great decoration can be created at cheap prices. The salty dough has to be really easy to work with. We show how easy it is.

Children love the salt dough to play with and paint, as do many adults. It is important that this is produced in a healthy way and we would like to show you how this can be done.

The salt dough only needs four ingredients

You only need four ingredients to make the salt dough yourself. Children love this salty dough because they can finally muddle and do handicrafts. Wonderful works can be created with salt dough. Toys can be made, pendants, decorations, and even ashtrays if you have a little patience. Salt dough definitely encourages children’s spirit of discovery. Basically, everyone has already tinkered with the dough, you just have to make sure that you make good salt dough.

For the perfect salt dough, you only need 2 cups of wheat flour, preferably type 405, plus 1 cup of salt, 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, and then another cup of water. Everything has to be mixed well and you can knead the dough perfectly and use it for yourself. Children also have a lot of fun here, many a child loves to knead the dough until it is perfectly smooth. If the dough is still a little sticky, add a little more flour.

Another salt dough recipe

Yet another recipe for making salt dough would be 1 cup flour type 405, 1 cup potato starch, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water, and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil. The whole thing is kneaded well and can be used immediately. You could also just use potato starch if you want the items to last a long time.

Important for the salt dough

Salt dough is best stored in airtight containers. You can always take out as much dough as you need. The dough can be kept fresh in the refrigerator for up to several weeks without drying out. So children could do a little tinkering every day. By the way, the salt dough doesn’t always have to go in the oven. It can also be air-dried. But this can take several days. The oven is a bit faster there. But here, too, one should proceed with caution. It is best to set the oven to 50 degrees and let the finished works of art bake for an hour. The work then has to cool down and harden. Some people also set the oven to 120 degrees, but then the salt dough becomes darker, but also harder. Cracks can also be avoided in this way, which are annoying if you set the oven too hot.

Paint or pre-dye salt dough

If you want to let off steam creatively with the salty part, you can color the dough in advance or paint the finished works later. Children usually enjoy it more if they are allowed to paint the works of art later. If you want to color the dough, it is best to use food coloring or Easter egg coloring. Even cocoa can be used or beetroot. Curry and other spices also add color to the salt dough. After baking and cooling, the salt dough can be painted with watercolor, poster paint, or even acrylic paint.

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Lifestyle

Make Salt Dough Yourself as a Christmas Tree Decoration

This is how you make your own Christmas tree decorations from salt dough. Make simple decorations from salt dough and use them to decorate the tree at Christmas and Advent. How to make salt dough and make great ornaments for Christmas and other salt dough painting and decorating ideas.

The Christmas tree is often the focal point of the Advent season. It shines brightly in all colors and the balls glitter and sparkle everywhere. Unfortunately, most tree decorations are short-lived: something often breaks and you end up with a lot of plastic waste. We spend too much money on colorful Christmas decorations. Isn’t that cheaper and better for the environment? Salt dough is a cheap and easy alternative, and it’s even fun to make tree ornaments. We’ll show you how to easily make your own Christmas tree decorations from salt dough.

Just make salt dough

All you need is flour, water, and salt, i.e. ingredients that are usually in the kitchen cupboards anyway. It is best to use two cups of flour, one cup of water, and one cup of salt so that the ratio is 2-1-1. However, individual changes can be made during the kneading process so that the dough becomes kneadable accordingly. If your dough is too sticky, add some water. If the dough is too dry, add some water. Knead the dough into an even mass and then roll it out on a floured surface. Salt dough is not edible due to the high salt content! Those who prefer to bake something edible with their children are better off baking cookies with children.

Ideas for the salty dough

Substituting cornstarch for the flour will make the dough whiter and softer. If you want colorful dough, you can color it with food coloring. If you add about a tablespoon of oil, the dough will be even smoother and more malleable, so you don’t necessarily need cookie cutters and you can even try to form figures by hand.

On the other hand, if you add a tablespoon of wallpaper paste to your batter before you add water, the dough will become firmer. Consistency and shelf life can also be improved by replacing half the wheat flour with potato flour. You can find out more under Making salt dough yourself.

Make tree ornaments out of salt dough

If you still want to make ornaments for your Christmas tree, you can make them out of the salty dough. Because it’s fun and looks good. In the following video, you can watch instructions on how to make Christmas tree decorations from salt dough.

Make pendants out of the homemade dough

Just like normal cookies, salt dough figures are now created with cookie cutters. For example, stars, fir trees, gift packages, shooting stars, and everything else related to Christmas come into question. Use a straw to poke a hole in your cut-out salt dough cookies so you can hang them up later. After that, the dough has to dry at room temperature. You must not bake it directly, otherwise, it may bubble.

Either you dry your cookies in the air for a day and turn them every now and then, or you dry them in the oven at 50°C with circulating air and the oven door slightly open, which you can also hold open with a wooden spoon inserted between them so that air can escape. Only when your salt dough cookies are dry and light on both sides can you bake them.

Put the cookies in the oven for about 60 minutes at a top and bottom heat of about 130-140 degrees. Depending on how thick your cookies are, the temperature should be adjusted. You can then cool the various shapes and paint them as you wish and tinker with the salt dough. You can also give away the finished pendants. Here are more ideas for homemade Christmas gifts.

Decorate Christmas ornaments from salt dough

You can then cool the various shapes and paint them however you like. But the salty dough is sensitive to water, which is why you should avoid painting with watercolors and use water-free paints. Acrylic and poster paints are well suited, but also finger paints, clear varnish, and even nail varnish with good coverage. Gold and silver stars are particularly pretty and can still be decorated with glitter dust.

So if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on your Christmas tree decorations, but still don’t want to do without great and individual pieces of jewelry, you can make them out of salt dough for Christmas. You can find out more under make beautiful and cheap Christmas decorations yourself.

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Food

Myths and Facts About Himalayan Salt

Myths and fairy tales are entwined around Himalayan salt, tempers heat up – and many people spend a lot of money on the pink-colored salt. What’s behind it?

So-called Himalayan salt is basically a rock salt colored pink by iron oxides (rust) or algae, which consists of at least 97% sodium chloride, i.e. ‘common salt’. Rock salt, geologically called halite, is mined from salt deposits that were formed when the seas dried up about 200 million years ago and the sea salt formed by evaporation was deposited.

Due to geological processes, these salt deposits are now underground. Roughly speaking, rock salt is ‘million-year-old sea salt’. There are also salt deposits in Germany, for example in Lower Saxony and in Berchtesgadener Land.

So why should you buy the much more expensive Himalayan salt instead of ‘Alpensalz’? The sales strategists have come up with arguments that we would like to investigate.

“Himalayan salt comes from the Himalayas”

This statement ended up before the Qadi at the Cologne Higher Regional Court, because most of the so-called ‘Himalayan salt’ comes from the Punjab province of Pakistan, which is not in the Himalayas at all.

The court ruled that advertising the salt in this way was a consumer deception, because “anyone who reads the product information on the packaging would at least expect that the salt was won in a valley or at the foot of the high mountain massif and was therefore particularly pure. However, the salt does not come from the Himalayan mountain range.”

“Himalayan salt contains minerals and healthy ingredients”

Devotees and sellers claim the biggest difference to regular salt is the high mineral content. Some suppliers even advertise that the salt contains ‘all 84 elements’ (out of 94 naturally occurring ones). That’s more of a marketing gibberish: However, the Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection (VIS) was only able to identify eight elements in a study of Himalayan salt, and it is certainly not wrong that elements such as arsenic or lead are not included.

The Stiftung Warentest was not able to find much in the highly praised Himalayan salt either: “Even in the Himalayan crystal salt, the laboratory was unable to detect the 84 elements that supporters ascribe to this type of salt.”

The Bavarian study came to the conclusion: “Additional elements are indeed present, but to an extent that is of no importance in terms of nutritional physiology.” Because in order to meet the need for these substances through salt, you would have to ingest a large (huge!) amount of salt , which is not acceptable from a health point of view.
The DGE recommends a maximum intake of 6 grams of salt per day.

“Himalayan salt is natural”

In principle, every natural salt (in contrast to industrial salt) is left in its natural state. It depends on what ingredients the seller adds. And you can’t always tell, because so-called ‘trickling aids’ such as lime do not have to be declared. That means: Even if no additives are printed on the packaging of the gourmet salt, there may still be some.

“Himalayan salt is unencumbered”

Himalayan salt was actually created at a time when there were no microplastics in the sea and when no pesticides got into the groundwater. But this applies to all rock salts.

“Himalayan salt lowers blood pressure and is healthy”

But on the contrary. And the German Society for Nutrition (DGE) finds clear words on this: “The connection between table salt intake and blood pressure is clear: A high table salt intake increases the risk of high blood pressure (hypertension).” Since Himalayan salt consists of at least 97% sodium chloride, i.e. salt, Increased consumption of this salt also leads to high blood pressure and cannot in any way lower it.

The consumer advice center NRW also strictly advises against it: “The advice to lower high blood pressure with brine is extremely questionable from a health point of view, because it can not only disturb the metabolism and water balance, but also put a strain on the kidneys.” A lot of Himalayan salt is to be consumed anything but a healthy idea!

“Himalayan salt balances the acid-base balance”

Advocates of the ‘alkaline diet’ often recommend Himalayan salt to restore the body’s acid-alkaline balance. However, this idea is not scientifically tenable, because a healthy person regulates the acid-base ratio all by themselves and does not need any special diet, specific base powders or well-travelled salt.

If there is no ‘overacidification’, no salt can help either. The DGE comments on this as follows: “However, there is no reason to fear hyperacidity caused by diet in healthy people. Various buffer systems in our body regulate the acid-base concentration in the blood and keep it constant. Taking additional ‘alkaline-enhancing’ dietary supplements is unnecessary.”

“Himalayan salt promotes health and well-being”

If you believe some advertising strategists, the expensive salt is a cheap panacea for almost all health problems. Some of these ideas should make you smile rather than buy salt. For example:
“Himalayan Salt Shows Promise for Blood Sugar Problems”
“supports the reduction of common signs of skin aging”
“reduces the development of respiratory and sinus problems”
“increases bone strength through minerals”
“promotes a healthy sleep pattern”
“improves libido”
“eliminates poisons”
One can also read about “vibrational components” and “living elements” through which the (low) mineral content “can be absorbed particularly well”. There are also various opinions on these statements from a scientific point of view, such as from the already cited Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection: “The bioenergetic effect, for which there is no scientific evidence to date, is therefore more likely to be assigned to the esoteric area.”

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Food

Smoked Salt: Production and Use of Smoked Salt

Smoked salt gives dishes a spicy, smoky note and is therefore particularly interesting for vegan and vegetarian dishes. Here you can find out how smoked salt is made and how you can use it.

Smoked Salt: How It’s Made

Smoked salt is made by smoking salt. The smoke condenses on the salt crystals, giving it the brownish color and smoky aroma. The different types of smoked salt differ depending on the type of wood used and the duration of the smoking. For example, while American hickory salt is smoked over hickory wood for only 48 hours, Danish smoked salt spends 160 hours smoking beech wood. Salt is usually smoked cold, i.e. at temperatures of around 20 degrees Celsius. To do this, the smoldering wood is in another room and only the cooled smoke is directed to the salt.

By the way: Not every smoked salt was actually smoked – some salts are simply treated with smoke aroma and colored with caramel. A look at the list of ingredients will tell you whether you are holding real smoked salt in your hand.

smoked salt in the kitchen

With its special and penetrating aroma, smoked salt is particularly suitable as a so-called “finishing salt”: You sprinkle the finished dish sparingly with smoked salt to complete the taste. Smoked salt is often used for meat or fish, but is also particularly suitable for vegetarian and vegan dishes that naturally contain less smoke flavorings. Here are some examples of dishes you can add smoked salt to:
The sweet, roasted aromas of oven-baked root vegetables or potato wedges are wonderfully complemented by smoked salt.
Mushrooms are often refined with bacon, smoked salt brings a similar flavor as a vegan alternative.
Barbecue sauce isn’t complete without smoked salt.
You can refine hearty egg dishes such as omelets or scrambled eggs with a pinch of smoked salt.

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Food

Salt Substitutes: These Alternatives Flavor Your Food Without Salt

There are many alternatives that you can use as a substitute for salt in cooking. Why too much salt is unhealthy and how to replace it without sacrificing spice and taste.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a maximum of five grams of salt per day for adults, but the reality is different: According to the organization, the majority of Europeans consume up to eleven grams of salt a day through food. Consuming too much salt over a long period of time can be detrimental to your health. High blood pressure in particular is a dangerous risk associated with too much salt.

Actively reducing salt consumption is not always easy: We get most of it from finished products, snacks such as crisps and pretzel sticks, but also bread and cheese. In addition to fat and sugar, fast food also contains a lot of salt.

So, if you want to control your salt intake, your primary goal should be to cut down on processed foods and cook more at home. This has a positive side effect: you save a lot of packaging waste and you know exactly what you are eating.

However, there are also some flavorful alternatives to salt that you can use in cooking. So you save on salt, but you don’t have to sacrifice taste and spice.

Spices as a salt substitute

“Seasoning” does not necessarily mean “salting”. Instead, use more different spices when cooking and thus develop the whole spectrum of taste. Spice powders are easy to use and widely available. Tip: If you don’t mind the effort, you can grind many spices yourself at home.

Keep the following in your pantry at all times:
For vegetables:
chilli powder
anise
garlic
nutmeg
fennel seeds
cardamom
For fish and meat (for ecological reasons, it is advisable to eat little or no fish and meat):
White pepper
Black pepper
curry powder
paprika powder
Caraway seeds
pimento

Replace salt with vinegar

You can also replace salt with high-quality vinegar. Although vinegar tastes tart, adding small amounts gives you a great flavor.

Herbs as an alternative to salt

Fresh and dried herbs ensure an intense aroma and varied taste. There is an abundance of herbs:
Parsely
chives
dill
wild garlic
basil
watercress
rosemary
thyme
lovage
oregano
coriander
marjoram
tarragon
mint
sage
lemon balm
As you can see, there are a lot of different herbs, many native, others Mediterranean. If you want to harvest your own herbs, you can create your own personal herb bed with your favorites.

Garlic and onions as a salt substitute

Onions and garlic have a strong flavor of their own and add flavor to your food without the need for additional salt.

Replace salt with yeast

Many dishes, especially soups and broths, can also be seasoned with yeast products. Yeast gives your food an aromatic, spicy taste. Yeast flakes, yeast extract and yeast seasoning pastes are suitable. When buying, make sure that the product in question does not contain any additional table salt.

Sodium reduced salt as a salt substitute?

As its name suggests, reduced-sodium salt contains less sodium chloride than regular salt. As a substitute, potassium chloride is in such products.

Sodium-reduced salt is suitable with regard to a low-salt diet in that you can save a lot of sodium chloride. However, it is said to have a slightly bitter aftertaste and taste less salty than regular salt.

The best thing to do is to try it out to see whether it is suitable and worthwhile as a salt substitute for you. Seasoning with natural ingredients such as spices, herbs or yeast is more recommended.

Salt substitute: More tips

If you want to reduce your salt intake, weaning it off slowly will help. On the one hand, you should (after) add less salt overall. Your taste buds will get used to it over time, so you won’t miss all that salt anymore.

Many seasoning products, such as vegetable broth and soy sauce, are also available in reduced-salt versions. Keep your eyes open when shopping and look around for such products. You can save a lot of salt this way.

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Cooking Tips

Tips for Making Salt Dough Yourself and Making Salt Dough

Working with salt dough is a lot of fun. Great decoration can be created at cheap prices. The salty dough has to be really easy to work with. We show how easy it is.

Children love the salt dough to play with and paint, as do many adults. It is important that this is produced in a healthy way and we would like to show you how this can be done.

Working with salt dough is a lot of fun. Great decoration can be created at cheap prices. The salty dough has to be really easy to work with. We show how easy it is.

Children love the salt dough to play with and paint, as do many adults. It is important that this is produced in a healthy way and we would like to show you how this can be done.

The salt dough only needs four ingredients

You only need four ingredients to make the salt dough yourself. Children love this salty dough because they can finally muddle and do handicrafts. Wonderful works can be created with salt dough. Toys can be made, pendants, decorations, and even ashtrays if you have a little patience. Salt dough definitely encourages children’s spirit of discovery.

Basically, everyone has already tinkered with the dough, you just have to make sure that you make good salt dough. For the perfect salt dough, you only need 2 cups of wheat flour, preferably type 405, plus 1 cup of salt, 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, and then another cup of water. Everything has to be mixed well and you can knead the dough perfectly and use it for yourself. Children also have a lot of fun here, many a child loves to knead the dough until it is perfectly smooth. If the dough is still a little sticky, add a little more flour.

Another salt dough recipe

Yet another recipe for making salt dough would be 1 cup flour type 405, 1 cup potato starch, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water, and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil. The whole thing is kneaded well and can be used immediately. You could also just use potato starch if you want the items to last a long time.

Important for the salt dough

Salt dough is best stored in airtight containers. You can always take out as much dough as you need. The dough can be kept fresh in the refrigerator for up to several weeks without drying out. So children could do a little tinkering every day. By the way, the salt dough doesn’t always have to go in the oven. It can also be air-dried. But this can take several days.

The oven is a bit faster there. But here, too, one should proceed with caution. It is best to set the oven to 50 degrees and let the finished works of art bake for an hour. The work then has to cool down and harden. Some people also set the oven to 120 degrees, but then the salt dough becomes darker, but also harder. Cracks can also be avoided in this way, which are annoying if you set the oven too hot.

Paint or pre-dye salt dough

If you want to let off steam creatively with the salty part, you can color the dough in advance or paint the finished works later. Children usually enjoy it more if they are allowed to paint the works of art later. If you want to color the dough, it is best to use food coloring or Easter egg coloring. Even cocoa can be used or beetroot. Curry and other spices also add color to the salt dough. After baking and cooling, the salt dough can be painted with watercolor, poster paint, or even acrylic paint.

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Food

Celery Salt: Application and How to Make it Yourself

With celery salt, you can add flavor to savory foods without resorting to flavor enhancers or other unhealthy ingredients. We show you how to make celery salt yourself and how to use it.

Celery salt naturally adds a savory touch to your savory dishes. Celery is an integral part of many soup seasonings – you can therefore use homemade celery salt in a similar way to soup powder. The advantage: It is completely free of unwanted additives.

Celery Salt: The Ingredients

To make your own celery salt, you only need two ingredients:
1 stalk of celery with celery greens
100 grams of salt
Buy the celery as regionally and organically as possible. In this way you avoid chemical pesticides and long transport routes. You can also do without packaging waste if you buy your vegetables at the weekly market.

Normal table salt is suitable for celery salt. It does not have to come from the Himalayas, nor does it have to be sea salt. This is neither better nor healthier – on the contrary, microplastics have already been discovered in fleur de sel and in sea salt. However, make sure that your salt is free of anti-caking agents and other chemical additives.

Additionally you need
a dehydrator and
a good blender or coffee grinder.
If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can alternatively dry the celery in the oven at a low temperature. However, a dehydrator is much more energy efficient.

Celery Salt: The Preparation

The preparation of celery salt is very simple:
Wash the celery thoroughly.
Separate the celery greens from the bulb.
Cut the bulb into fine cubes.
Distribute the cubes evenly in the dehydrator or alternatively on a grid.
Allow the celery cubes and celery greens to dry in the dehydrator for about 12 to 14 hours. Depending on their size, the pieces need about four to five hours in the oven at 50 degrees.
Grind the dried celery leaves and dice into a fine powder.
Mix the powder with the salt and fill the finished celery salt into a screw-top jar.
Stored in the dark, celery salt can be kept for several months.
Tip: If you want to do without salt altogether, you can season your dishes with just the dried and chopped celery.

How to use celery salt

You can use celery salt in many ways in the kitchen – here are some inspirations:
The fine seasoning goes well with potato dishes such as potato gratin, potato soup or fried potatoes.
Tomato sauce or homemade tomato sauce also get a special flavor from celery salt.
Whether it’s fried eggs, scrambled eggs or a vegan alternative – dishes with eggs harmonize well with the seasoning salt.
Celery salt is also suitable for refining salad dressings, sauces and dips.

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Food

Hirschhorn Salt: Composition, Uses and Disadvantages

Deer horn salt may be familiar to you from Christmas baking. Here we tell you how to use the leavening agent and what risks it entails.

What is deer horn salt?

Hirschhorn salt is a leavening agent that makes your cookie or gingerbread dough fluffy. It is a food additive that must be labeled with the number E503 in finished products. Hirschhorn salt is a chemical leavening agent, which also includes, for example, baking powder, potash, and baking soda.

Hirschhorn salt is a mixture of the ammonium salts ammonium bicarbonate, ammonium carbonate and ammonium carbamate. If you heat staghorn salt in the oven, the ammonium salts decompose into the gases ammonia and carbon dioxide. Some of these gases remain in the pastry dough, creating small air bubbles and loosening the dough.

Hirschhorn salt owes its somewhat curious name to its traditional origin. It was originally obtained from deer antlers. Deer antlers are particularly rich in nitrogen, the basic structure of ammonium salts. Nowadays there is a chemical process instead, in which ammonium chloride, calcium carbonate and charcoal are heated together.

Since deer horn salt does not contain any animal ingredients, it is suitable for vegan diets.

Where can you use deer horn salt?

Deer horn salt is particularly popular at Christmas time, as baked goods made with deer horn salt have a very long shelf life. It is particularly suitable for flat pastries that should expand more in width than in height.

Hirschhorn salt is therefore best suited for:
Gingerbread
shortcrust pastry
Spekulatius
Springerle
honey cake
American
However, you should never use deer horn salt for high cakes. On the one hand, the dough rises less with deer horn salt, and on the other hand, a larger amount of ammonia remains in tall doughs. Ammonia smells unpleasantly pungent and can cause symptoms of poisoning in the body. In flat doughs, on the other hand, the ammonia is almost completely expelled in the oven.

As a general rule, one gram of deer horn salt per 100 grams of flour is enough to loosen the dough.

What are the disadvantages of deer horn salt?

A major problem with staghorn salt is that it promotes the formation of the probably carcinogenic substance acrylamide. Acrylamide is formed at high temperatures in the oven as part of the Maillard reaction, in which sugar and proteins gelatinize together. Basically, the darker the baked goods, the higher their acrylamide content. You should therefore only bake your pastries until they are golden brown and not too dark.

Baking soda is an alternative to deer horn salt. The disadvantage of baking soda, however, is that, unlike staghorn salt, it has a slightly bitter taste of its own. Hirschhorn salt, on the other hand, gives baked goods a characteristic flavor that many find pleasant.

You don’t have to do without deer horn salt for your Christmas cookies. Avoid breathing in the ammonia-laden air created in the oven. Also, avoid baking your cookies dark brown. Then you are on the safe side.

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Food

Myth: Pasta Water Without Salt Boils Faster

Does salt belong in the pasta water? If so, when and how much? There are many myths circulating on the subject. We explain to you what really matters when it comes to salt in pasta water.

Preparing noodles is very easy: Boil water in a pot, put noodles in, cook noodles. But many wonder how much salt is needed and when to add it – right at the beginning in the cold water or as soon as it boils? All in all, the salt in the pasta water can affect three factors: the taste of the pasta, the boiling point of the pasta water and the cooking time. Let’s take a closer look at each factor.

Salt in the pasta water: why the timing is still interesting

Nevertheless, it makes a difference whether you add the salt to the cold or boiling pasta water. Salt dissolves better in hot than in cold water. Therefore, when you add the salt to the cold water, a larger amount that doesn’t immediately dissolve will sink to the bottom of the pot. There the salt causes stains and can damage the pot in the long run.

Tip: Stainless steel pots are much more robust than aluminum pots. Salt doesn’t do much harm to the former.

Pasta water: salt and its effect on cooking time and taste

The Max Planck Institute says: No, salt in the pasta water does not significantly affect the cooking time. So why would you salt the pasta water at all? The answer is: for the taste.

Salt in the pasta water ensures that the pasta retains its flavor. Behind this is a relatively complex physical phenomenon called osmosis. Put simply, you can imagine it like this with pasta water: If the water is completely unsalted, the salt concentration in the pasta is higher than in the pasta water (pasta naturally contain minerals such as sodium). The system wants to compensate for this concentration gradient. This is why minerals from the pasta go into the cooking water. The result: the noodles lose their taste. On the other hand, if you salt the pasta water well, the pasta can even absorb salt.

A matter of taste: How much salt in the pasta water?

You can decide how much salt you add to the pasta water according to your taste. A simple rule of thumb is: ten grams of salt for 100 grams of pasta and one liter of water.

Another tip comes from chef Sami Nosrat (author of the book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat): salt the water until it tastes like sea water.

Salt in Pasta Water: Does It Affect Nutrient Content?

Unfortunately, the question of whether salt in the pasta water influences the nutrient content of the pasta has not been conclusively answered. Intuitively, the section on osmosis would tell us that salted pasta water is beneficial because less of the material in the pasta migrates into the water. However, the difference may be insignificant or other factors that have not previously been considered play a role.

But with these tips you will have a nutrient-rich meal in any case:
Use whole wheat pasta instead of white flour pasta. The former contain more fiber, minerals and vitamins.
Whether with or without salt: when cooking, water-soluble nutrients are transferred from the pasta to the pasta water. This applies, for example, to B vitamins. You can save part of it by enriching the pasta sauce with the pasta water. The pasta water also contains starch from the pasta, which binds your sauce. And since you salted the pasta water well, it also adds flavor.

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Food

Too Much Salt: Signs And How to Avoid Salty Foods

Too much salt in the body can cause lasting damage to various organs. Here you can find out exactly how the spice affects our organism and how you can avoid consuming too much salt.

When do you start talking about too much salt?

Salt used to be considered an expensive luxury product that was only accessible to the social elite. Today it is part of the basic equipment of every kitchen. Hardly any dish can do without the former “white gold”. Salt is absolutely essential for survival: it supplies us with the electrolytes sodium and chloride.

These help our body in particular to regulate the fluid balance. Adults should therefore consume around six grams of salt per day, according to the Society for Nutrition. However, due to ready meals, fast food, chips and other snacks, we often consume too much salt.

According to the adult women consume about 8.4 grams of table salt per day. For men, the value is even 10 grams. This is clearly higher than the recommended daily amount.

Too much salt: health consequences

Too much salt in the blood causes more water to accumulate in the bloodstream. As a result, the volume of fluid increases and blood pressure increases. If blood pressure is elevated over the long term, this has a harmful effect on other organs. In particular, the heart, the coronary arteries, other blood vessels, the brain and the kidneys are affected.

cardiac insufficiency and cardiac arrhythmia
Heart attack
stroke
chronic kidney failure
kidney failure
deteriorated visual performance.

Too much salt is not only harmful to people who already suffer from high blood pressure. Elevated salt consumption is a key risk factor for serious organ damage in all population groups.

Too much salt: first signs

Since each person reacts differently to salt, it is not possible to give general indications of excessive salt consumption. High blood pressure is the only sure sign. Other symptoms can also occur, such as:

fatigue
difficulty concentrating
Tremble
seizures
edema

In order not to let it get that far in the first place, however, you should already take preventive measures to avoid too much salt in your food.

Too much salt: How to avoid the white gold

To reduce your salt consumption, you should gradually wean yourself off the popular spice. Our taste buds have often adapted so much to foods that are too salty that low-salt foods quickly seem bland to us. Therefore, you should give yourself enough time to slowly reduce your cravings for salt. This increases the likelihood that you will stay on the ball in the long term.

As a first step, you should first start cooking more at home and thus avoid ready meals. Make sure to add salt sparingly and to taste from time to time.

Try to avoid highly processed foods as much as possible. You can see how high the salt content is on packaged foods.

Eat enough unprocessed foods like fruits and vegetables. In general, a mostly plant-based diet will help you avoid excess salt by avoiding meat, fish, and dairy.

If low-salt dishes still seem too bland to you, you can refine your dishes with fresh herbs or spices.

You can prepare bread, rolls, crackers & Co. yourself at home and significantly reduce the salt content.

If you don’t want to do without animal foods completely, you should use low-salt representatives of this category. Types of cheese with a little less salt are, for example, mozzarella, Emmental or cream cheese. Mortadella and liver sausage are among the low-salt types of sausage, but in contrast to other foods they still contain a relatively large amount of salt.

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