A little pinch of confusion

  Oh dear, it looks like the marketing folk have gone a bit overboard with this one. As much as one can appreciate the sentiment, it's a shame no one told them it's  pile of nonsense. I am referring to the gibberish in the picture below where some bright spark thought they were on to something by suggesting that freshly ground salt is in some way superior.

  You can no doubt tell from my tone that there's no advantage in milling your salt fresh. The real question is whether they knew that or not and if they've sold any more as a result.

  While there's no advantage to fresh milled minerals, spices really benefit from being freshly milled. Though it's not that obvious, pepper is much better when it's freshly ground and here's another one for you. Pepper changes when it cooks and not always for the better. If you're frying or grilling any meat of fish, the temptation is to season with both salt and pepper before you cook it. I recommend holding off putting pepper on until it's ready to serve otherwise you'll burn the pepper and make it bitter.

  Buying packets of ready ground spices is convenient but, especially if the packet sits open in your cupboard for years, the flavour fades pretty quickly. Fresh ground spices are always better and more vibrant. I still remember the first time I smelled freshly ground cinnamon. It was a lot more intense and, weirdest of all, though it smelled similar to the packets of ground cinnamon I was used to, it was a totally different smell.

  I know it's a faff to grind spices as you need them but if you can be bothered, you'll notice the difference. Buy yourself a cheapo electric coffee grinder and not only will your food light up but you'll not find yourself inundated with packets of semi flavoured, out of date dust. Instead, you'll toss a few seeds into the blender and set your food ablaze. Just don't put your salt in there.

Kirk out

RevoltingFood.com