Holy Salted Potatoes Batman!

[madd0ct0r]

everybody knows when you cook potatoes, you add a little pinch of salt to the water.

"This makes the water boil hotter, reducing the cooking time."


Think about the temp seawater boils at and conclude the above is rubbish.

So why do we add salt?

1. Mindless Tradition

2. Mmmmm. Salt.

3. Stops water osmosing into the potatoes, making them 'soggy'


answers on a postcard please

[Johonebesus]

I have never heard such advice. I was told that you might add salt when boiling foods for flavor, but never to hurry the boiling.

[Serafina]

Saltwater has a boiling temperature of 108°C (for those who dont know Celsius: normal water boils at 100°C).
So you DO get hotter water without boiling it - and you can not really heat it beyond boiling without adding pressure - thats what pressurized boiling pots are for.

It also has a lower specific heat capacity, so it will give more energy to the food.

Of course, flavouring is also an important reason to salt the water.

[Dooey Jo]

Of course, for any of the physical properties to actually matter, you'd have to add a relative fuckton of salt (relative to amounts one would consider edible). Everyone I know adds it for the taste. Personally, I pretty much never add salt to such things.

[Simon_Jester]

everybody knows when you cook potatoes, you add a little pinch of salt to the water.

I'm not sure everybody knows this. I can't remember ever hearing it before in my life, though that proves nothing, because I'm not exactly plugged into the world of cooking tips.

The people who do know this may have originally got it from someone who just made it up, or they may have gotten it from someone who overheard some actual chemists talking and failed to realize that a pinch of salt in a pot of water will raise the boiling point by some trivial amount (0.1 degrees? 0.01?) that makes no difference worth mentioning.

[Serafina]

FYI, the information i posted refers to salt water in the oceans, which have a salt content of 35.000 ppm - or about 3%.

I typically add about 10 ml of salt per liter of water - about 1%.
(Based on the typical tablespoon, which can hold between 10 and 15 ml).

So it's definately less salty than ocean water, but there still should be a substantial difference.

[Zixinus]

Partly because adding raw salt was a way of getting salt. But also because it helps bring out the other tastes. I've heard that even people making cakes add some salt to sweets.

[Akhlut]

Salt interacts with all tastebuds, so it does enhance the basic flavors of foods (sweet, sour, umami, but not the other sensations of taste, as that is mostly olfactory factors at work).

[Dooey Jo]

So it's definately less salty than ocean water, but there still should be a substantial difference.

Well... 10 g of salt would raise the boiling point by about 0.17 degrees (you'd need ~1 mol per litre to raise it by 1 degree, and 1 mol of salt is 58.5 g).

[Vehrec]

[quote=Micheal Symon]You can't make good food without salt. You can make passable food, you can make edible food, you can even make food for people you don't like.[/quote]

It's a flavor thing, ok? You ever had pasta boiled in unsalted water? Flatter than Kansas. Same deal with the spuds.

[Twoyboy]

FYI, the information i posted refers to salt water in the oceans, which have a salt content of 35.000 ppm - or about 3%.

I typically add about 10 ml of salt per liter of water - about 1%.
(Based on the typical tablespoon, which can hold between 10 and 15 ml).

So it's definately less salty than ocean water, but there still should be a substantial difference.

Depends what you call substantial.

ΔTb = Kb x mB

Where Kb is the ebullioscopic constant (0.512 for water at 1 atm) and mB is the molality of the solution. So if you add 10g of salt per L (kg) of water, that's 10/58.44 = 0.171 mols NaCl which multiplied by 2 for each ion is a 0.342 molal solution.

ΔTb = 0.512 x 0.342 = 0.175

So the BP of your water is now 100.175°C


I add it for the taste as I don't like raw salt and as such don't add it to my food after cooking.

[Broomstick]

Partly because adding raw salt was a way of getting salt. But also because it helps bring out the other tastes. I've heard that even people making cakes add some salt to sweets.

Yes, that is true. Virtually all cookie/cake/muffin/etc recipes have salt. It's a pretty small amount, but it's there. Also bread.

Me, I add salt to potatoes because it makes them taste better. I also add it after they're done cooking.

[LadyTevar]

I've salted my pasta water, but never my potato-water. The potatoes suck up the salt and then are too salty!

[Marcus Aurelius]

I've salted my pasta water, but never my potato-water. The potatoes suck up the salt and then are too salty!

That's why you put proportionally less salt in potato water. I usually put one teaspoon of salt per 1 L of water for potatoes or even slightly less. Since this is cooking, exact measures are to be avoided like plague

[loomer]

I've salted my pasta water, but never my potato-water. The potatoes suck up the salt and then are too salty!

Same here - I see no need to have salty potatoes instead of their natural sweetness (actually, can a yank explain why a lot of Americans seem to find the humble boiled potato 'bland'? Is it the constant exposure to sugar via HFCS causing taste bias?)

[Broomstick]

No, people thought they were bland before the HFCS invasion. Possibly reasons:

1) Some common US potato varieties might, in fact, be bland in comparison to others

2) Length of time said potatoes were in storage, or poor storage conditions.

3) Potatoes prepared solely in boiled water

4) People accustomed to strongly flavored sauces or seasoning on their potatoes might find plain potatoes bland.