A dash of this can amplify their flavor.
Westend61/Getty Images
When it comes to salt on fruit, opinions are strong and varied. Some people are repulsed by the notion of "ruining" sweet fruit by salting it directly, while others are diehard fans, swearing by the salt's ability to draw out flavor and make the fruit taste even better.
Despite always preferring salty snacks over sweet, I have to admit that I've been on the skeptical side of this particular combination for much of my life. My grandmother used to salt her cantaloupe generously, which horrified me as a child. But when I saw an Instagram post about putting salt on cherries—and read the comments about everyone thinking it's great—I figured the time had come to give it a try. Hopefully my more mature adult palate would allow me some insight into this puzzling practice.
So I bought some big, juicy Washington cherries, washed them thoroughly, drained them in a colander, and plopped a handful into a bowl. I grabbed some Himalayan pink salt and shook it over the cherries. Then I started eating, cautiously at first and then more boldly as I realized in amazement that the salt was, in fact, quite tasty.
Before long, I was rolling each cherry around in the bowl to pick up even more salt before eating. And suddenly I found myself giving an extra shake of salt over the whole batch. Most shockingly, when I took a bowl of unsalted cherries into my office later in the day, I found myself noticing the lack of salt. It was almost as if they had lost some of their intensity.
It turns out, that's the whole point of adding salt to fruit. It is an ancient cross-cultural practice that has long been recognized as a way of bringing fruit's flavor to the forefront, amplifying and enhancing it. Spices can do the same, hence the chili-lime watermelon trend.
Salt mitigates bitterness, particularly for fruits that are slightly underripe or tart, such as melons, cranberries, or grapefruit. Salt brings out the sweetness, lifting it above the bitterness and making each bite more appealing. The same concept applies to bitter vegetables like rapini, Brussels sprouts, kale, and cabbage, with salt helping to make them easier to eat.
Salting fruit has also been described as a way to rebalance the over-sweetness of modern-day fruit, much of which has been bred for maximum sugar content. Salt subdues the intensity of the sugar, making it more palatable.
If you haven't tried salt on cherries yet, you should. This might just become the tastiest trend of the summer—and a habit that sticks until your own grandchildren are someday watching you salt fruit with mixed fascination and alarm.
The Best 1-Ingredient Upgrade for Cherries - Yahoo Life
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment