How Salt Improves Taste

How salt improves taste need not seem like such a mystery. There are 5 basic tastes to which our tongues are sensitive. Sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and savory.  In addition to being a general flavor booster, salt is particularly good at enhancing the taste of all of these. Here are some details as to how salt improves flavor.

Enhances Generally

The way foods taste is due to a combination of the many individual flavors they may have. Your taste buds are able to detect numerous flavors, which are then sent to the brain where the complete flavor is experienced. Salt is able to dynamically intensify these individual tastes.

Biological Need

Salt improves taste in large part because the body cannot properly function without salt. It is used to regulate numerous body systems but must be attained through diet.  This programmed desire for salt is one of the major reasons it can improve the taste of foods when added. People simply crave salt.

Complexity

The chemical nature of salt enables it to intensify pleasant tastes. Salt is also able to bring out a mix of flavors that were there, but not easily detectable. This is because some flavor compounds are too subtle to sense until salt is added.  Adding it to various foods doesn’t just make them taste saltier, but also makes their flavor more complex.

Sweet and Bitter

Besides being one of the basic flavors, salt can affect the flavor of sweetness. In small concentrations, it does this by suppressing the perception of bitterness. This is one of the reasons that salt is added to sweets and desserts. Those with some salt added tend to taste sweeter than those with none. Higher concentrations enhance the flavor of savory foods, such as meats. Also, salt has been shown to increase the perception of the thickness of soups.

Aroma

Salt helps improve taste by making foods smell better. Charged particles in salt are drawn to the water contained within the food, which allows volatile compounds to quickly evaporate. This boosts the aroma of the food and can positively impact the perception of its flavors.

Fruit of Wind and Sea

Lo premium truffle sea salt is produced using the finest Korean sea salt and carefully selected Italian truffles. Manufactured with a patented aging and drying method, Lo premium truffle sea salt undergoes a 5-year ripening process. This produces a high-quality salt with an optimal balance of minerals, slightly sweet aftertaste, and low salinity.  The pure bay sea salt that constitutes Lo premium truffle sea salt is derived by evaporating seawater in the natural sun and wind of Docho Clean Area, designated a UNESCO bio-conservation area. Uniquely packaged within individual stick pouches, Lo premium truffle sea salt uses this method to preserve taste and flavor against the ravages of oxidation.