It’s a surprise to many people that not all salt is created equal. The table salt most people use to fill their salt shakers at home is not pure salt. Most salt has iodine added to it, as a solution to a shortage of the element in most people’s diet. This is the ubiquitous Iodized Salt. In addition to iodine, table salt and some other fine pour-able salts have sodium ferrocyanide added to prevent caking. These additives have benefits but for some recipes they have drawbacks. In canning these ingredients will make the liquids cloudy. They can also contribute an off flavor for brine’s and dry cures. When you want absolute control of the appearance and flavor of your creation take salts with these ingredients off the list.

In addition to the purity issue, there are differences in the coarseness of available salts. Popcorn salt for example is very fine. Table salt is normally fairly fine. Canning and pickling salts and kosher salts are fairly coarse. Rock salt is left as crystals that are not ground. These salts can be mined or extracted from sea water through evaporation. They are normally made without additives and are largely the same in terms of content but they will react different in recipes and have different purposes because of how quickly they dissolve. Kosher Salt for example gets its name because it is used to help make meats kosher by extracting the last of the blood from meats. It’s coarseness prevents the salt from being absorbed fully before the blood is picked up by the salt.

In addition to these differences, there are salts available that have flavors added to them. They can have fruit flavors added for use in tropical drinks, smoke flavors used for dry curing, and even pickle flavored salt used for… well I was surprised at how popular pickle flavored salt was for making chips, burgers or your favorite side dish have that pickle taste. (Not to be confused with pickling salt which has no flavor added to it.)

Smoked flavored salts are very useful in dry cures. This is especially true if you are cooking the meat in an oven where smoke can’t be introduced. They are normally pure so the only thing they add is that smoky salt flavor to your recipe.

Knowing what is available and how it can be used can be very helpful when preparing to dive into that special recipe. The coarseness of the salt will also effect its volume when measuring it for a recipe. So until you get a handle on how it will change your recipe, use a little less salt. Then add to flavor. It won’t take long to get the right amount.

I have a variety of salts in the IGT Store so you can see some of the available offerings.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope the added complication added to your life is worthwhile.

No, sorry my fault. I wasn’t looking for the actual number.

The bigger the item, the more difficult the dilemma. I thought I would share some information about some safe techniques for thawing meat fairly quickly and some of the pitfalls people run into while trying to thaw something for dinner.

The first and most obvious way to accomplish this is to put the package in the frig for a day or two (three for large items) before you are planning to cook it. We call that Refrigerator defrosting.

It is a truth of life that the best way to solve a problem is to plan ahead and take the time to do things the right way. OOOOKay. Now for reality. You forgot to take it out or you are having a big dinner and the amount of time you allowed in the frig didn’t even soften the ice on the outside of the package. What do you do?

First let’s talk about your options.

Panic. Great way to vent but not great for thawing anything

Cook it with the packaging on and hope for the best. NO, bad idea. Though it is tempting. The grief you get from family and guests will make you think better of it.

How about tossing it in the microwave. Alright, this is an obvious choice. It works to put an item in the microwave on defrost, especially small items.

You just need to make sure it is not getting cooked during this process. If meat cooks in the microwave while you are trying to defrost it, the flavor and texture can be negatively affected. The meat will cook quickly in some sections and still be frozen in others. To me this becomes an unsalvageable piece of meat very quickly.

My advice, don’t try to defrost on the HIGH setting and don’t toss it in and forget about it. Normally, all I try to accomplish with this method is thaw it enough I can get the packaging off and break up the meat as I need to for cooking. For hamburger, for example, I still want the burger cold when I take it out. If it gets warm, or worse yet starts cooking, you can’t make patty’s with it. If it’s going in a casserole, it’s not so important. Though I don’t like meat cooked in the microwave so I am still careful about thawing meat this way.

How about that turkey or a large roast. Can that go in the microwave for defrosting? I’m sure people do that but I use another technique from the meat room. Water bath defrosting.

In this technique the meat is placed in water until it is thawed enough to cook. The technique is simple but requires some diligence.

First the meat should never get warm. This will cause the bacteria (yes all meat has bacteria on it unless it has been sterilized in some way) to grow and possibly spoil the meat and make someone sick. This is why thawing meat on the counter at room temperature for a few hours is bad idea. You could end up with a piece of meat that looks great but is loaded with a deadly amount of salmonella. So, the point during a water bath is to keep the meat cool, below 45 degrees as a general rule but not cold, close to 32 degrees.

The first water bath is the warmest since the meat is like a giant ice cube. This one will be lukewarm. To the touch it should feel neither warm or cold. This may be about room temperature or a little cooler. In about ten minutes (maybe as long as 20) the water will be quite cold. Now it is time for a new batch of water. This time a little cooler. You want it to feel cool but not cold. The outside of the meat should be softening a little and we don’t want to allow it to warm up. So from here on out we keep the water below 50. Throughout this whole process the meat should remain cool or cold to the touch. If it starts feeling warm or even lukewarm you need to use cooler water. No need to panic if you find it is warmer than you want, just check it often so that it isn’t warm for a long time. You should be checking it every 10 to 20 minutes. I am never far away while doing this, I watch it and test the water and the meat on a regular basis so I don’t get surprised.
For poultry and some seafood you will want the package off as soon as possible, after the first or second bath normally. Hamburger or sausage will need to remain in the package as it is not very appetizing to have hamburgers made from hamburger soup. For roasts you can remove them from the packaging (it tends to insulate the meat quite a bit from the bath) but I would put them back in a ziplock bag for the last half to third of the process. The water can have a negative impact on the appearance of the meat.

With each bath you will start with cooler water until you are using the coldest water you can get out of the tap. If your water is warm out of the tap, you will need to add ice to your bath. Each bath should last until the water is cold (like ice water) and then gets changed. Leaving the meat in the cold water will slow the thawing process down. I would guess changing the water each 20 or so minutes will speed up the thawing process by about 30 percent. If you can run water over the meat (especially toward the end of the process) it will help too.

This process is safe as long as we don’t let the meat get warm. At 45 degrees it would take a couple of days or more to spoil, at 40 it would take 5 or more days. So, 1 or 1 1/2 hours won’t be any problem. At some point you have to make the call that it is ready.

One little problem you can run into is a piece of meat that is thawed outside and frozen inside. It is hard to get good results with meat in this condition, especially a large roast. You will have an overdone looking piece of rare roast. If it is a roast, for example you may want to allow a little extra time in the bath (one or two baths worth) so that you don’t get an ugly surprise when you go to serve it. For a turkey, you can run water into the cavities to help thaw it faster inside. Allowing a little extra time will take care of the more stubborn parts. Just make sure it is well covered and that you don’t run out of broth. The drumsticks are especially prone to turning prune-like unless you shield them for the last third of the cooking time.

If you should decide to use this thawing process, you can do it a few hours before you are ready to cook the meat, just pop it in the frig. You , however, should never refreeze meat after this or any extended thawing process. The bacteria in the meat grows a little during thawing and refreezing it means re-thawing it. You could have a piece of meat that was fine the first time but is unsafe the second time. If you change your mind about dinner, go ahead and cook it up. Then you can freeze it. You see after cooking you have killed most of the bacteria and are starting with a, largely, clean slate.

I’m sure there are other ways people defrost meat. Like hairdryers or blowtorches but I prefer something edible when I’m done. Next time your in a pickle try a bath. No for thawing dinner. It’s faster than you might think and perfectly safe if you stay in the basic guidelines for temperature.