On Wed, 14 Jan 2004, Bob Pastorio wrote:

> Lena B Katz wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 13 Jan 2004, Bob Pastorio wrote:
> >
> > A bit more or less of most ingredients
> >>won't materially affect the dish. Like everybody's Aunt Minnie cooks
> >>by the handful and it still works.
> >
> > hence why most recipes call for "kosher salt" when they want a different
> > grind...
>
> As far as I'm concerned, kosher salt is an affectation unnecessary for
> virtually all recipes. It's bigger chunks of salt than table salt.
> NaCl. That's all. Different brands are different-sized. Some have
> anti-caking agents, some don't. All sound and fury...

different sizes affect how quickly it dissolves and can radically affect
taste (that's the physicist in me talking). leastaways, my pretzels made
with table salt always taste saltier
than the storebought ones.

> > OTOH, having tastetested colored gelatin (with surprising results), i
> > realize that people don't know what their taste buds tell them, anywhoo.
>
> How, um, interesting.

makes a great parlor game or science experiment (or, try both in one go!)

Lena