Salt Water Soak

[TastyofHasty]

Hi folks, just wanted to pass on a quick idea I read in a book on preserving foods, (this was about broccoli, but worked with artichokes & probably all sorts of stuff) which was, "soak in salt water for about 30 minutes before cooking." I have a nice big 1.5 gallon saucepan; throw in about 2 tablespoons salt, fill it halfway with water, stir ... add veggies from garden and let sit 30 minutes. Supposed to drive out worms.

A word about salt. Check out your salt label. Generic brand iodized salt has in it upon inspection of label: "Ingredients: Salt, Sodium Silicoaluminate, Sodium Thiosulfate, Potassium Iodide" ... whereas Morton Canning & Pickling Salt has: "Salt"

I read somewhere a couple of years ago ... watch out, you are being poisoned by your salt!!! And discovered this interesting fact ... so now we eat (partly) iodized salt ... but mostly just the plain old salt from the Canning and Pickling Salt box. Which is more expensive but not all THAT bad considering how much salt you use in a year or whatever.

[bluelacedredhead]

It works. Saves trying to explain away the lumps in the Cheese sauce you served with the Cauliflower :p

I don't add salt to cook with except to add to baking (for the required reaction with leavening agent etc ); to pickle/preserve and to hardboil eggs. And I don't use it at all on any foods, except oddly enough, a toasted denver sandwich??

We found that once we started to raise our own meat that prepackaged foods like frozen meat pies were far too salty for our palates so we stopped buying those too.

But don't ask me to throw away my pepper grinder! Now I'm afraid that someone will tell me that freshground pepper is bad for my health. Pleez say it isn't so.

[flowerpower]

Blue, pepper is good for you. I love anything hot and spicey. I add red paprika to alot of things. A little goes a long way.

I will use sea salt to boil water. Or to bathe in- especially Dead Sea Salt.

[TastyofHasty]

Anyway, using salt water to drive out worms or other stuff, from our fresh from the garden veggies, seems like a good idea for "organic" gardeners. I'm just BEGINNING to discover the wide variety of "minor wildlife" out there ... and eating worms does NOT fit in with my "organic gardening" dreams. (If you eat a worm, does it die? or ... do you "get worms," which our ancestors used to do & I don't know NOTHIN' about ...) :eek:

Are there any OTHER pre-eating food preparation ideas anybody else out there uses?

Best regards,
Tasty

[tabitha]

buy pure salt in bulk, it isnt more expensive than the ----------- they sell at the grocery store. you can either find a natural food store in your area and have them order 10-50 lbs, or use a cooperative. salt will last forever if you keep it dry in something like a food-grade bucket, or many half gallon canning jars.

we buy unprocessed sea salt but many other sorts of salt are out there.

tabitha