LogFAQs > #879569389

Nichtcrawler X posted...

Add the taste of salt, that's all it does.

The presence of sodium increases the activity of salivary amylase, which is responsible for breaking down starch in the mouth. Starch itself is very bland, but digesting it into simpler sugars results in molecules that are small enough to interact with taste receptors and produce stronger flavours. This is why salt is important when preparing starchy foods, like potatoes or pasta.

Whether or not you value what salt does to food is a matter of personal taste, certainly, but saying that it does nothing beyond adding a salty taste is factually wrong (and the above is just one of the ways salt affects other flavours). If that's your experience, you're adding too much salt, you're adding the salt too late in the cooking process (which results in salty patches because it hasn't had time to evenly distribute throughout the food), and/or you aren't paying attention to what else has changed.
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