Every household has it. It is in every living thing. Life started in salty water. We don’t know much about it but we use it everywhere. It opens up our taste buds and then the aromas flow into our brain in a better way.
It is called NaCl, Sodium Chloride by scientists. We call it salt, it is easier. There are many types of it, kosher salt, sea salt, Celtic sea salt, rock salt, iodized salt, Murray river salt, Tibetan pink salt, smoked salt… They are all salt of course with different properties. They have different additional minerals, microbial life, and salt content.
Cheese making and salt crossroad during the ageing, brining, rubbing, milling. Salt prevents available water to go into bacteria by holding it. That is why some cheeses aged in salty brine solution (feta), rubbed with salt (blue), added during the milling (cheddar) to enhance the flavour as well as protecting the cheese from spoilage bacteria.
The best salt you can get would be home brand rock salt. As we cheese makers use a lot of it, I buy it in bulk. A grinder or mortar and pestle will make it finer to use in cheese and you can chuck it into brine as it is. I also use sea salt from the health food shop. It is the wet stuff in plastic bags.
Normal table salt and iodized salt are not recommended in cheese making as they have additives, iodine and other things added. Iodine kills lactic acid bacteria which are the starter cultures and anti caking agent does not allow correct flavour development.
So stack up some rock salt in your cupboard and always make sure you have excess as you don’t know when you will be needing it.
Oh also protects you from daemons if you spread to window sills. 😉
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