Extolling the Virtues of Salt

Yes, that is what I said, this advocate of being able to taste your food, of real food not premade from a bag or can. Salt has many virtues. We can exfoliate with it, apparently get some stains out with it. What we just shouldn't do is bury our food in it and I don't care how many teaspoons of it a soup company has removed from it's cans, it isn't enough.
All cooking is enhanced with the addition of a touch of salt, a gentle grind, a pinch. We call it seasoning. In the Bistro we refer to it as S & P to taste and good sea salt not something called 'iodized'.
I am on this rant because I have been walking the aisles of the local grocery store, those dreaded inner aisles, not the outer circle where the good stuff lives, deli cheeses, fresh vegetables, fresh meat. Many stores offer samples of this and that new product. I often take a taste, without ever intending to buy, then read the label. And I wonder, why does that beautiful food bruschetta need to contain 8% of my daily intake of salt? Salt was the 4th ingredient on the package. There should be a long list of items in bruschetta before you get to salt.
Then there are the meats, beautiful steaks, great roasts, and something from a box in the frozen section called riblets. I didn't need the box to tell me where salt was in the list of spices. Huge percentage of salt. And people were grabbing up these things like the next best BBQ.
My local butcher, who I know on a first name basis, was bemoaning selling striploin steaks, seasoned. California Seasoning. Yes you guessed it, salt, freeze dried garlic, dehydrated onion, spices and assorted chemicals, in that order. Not about to read that on any menu are you? But it is too easy to grab that shaker and sprinkle on the seasoning rather than to chop up a fresh onion, a clove of garlic, some fresh thyme, a drizzle of red wine and lastly a gentle grind of S & P. But doesn't it sound better and wouldn't you be proud to serve something that you took the time to marinate in the real stuff?
So here's to salt that wonderful enhancement of real food with a gentle grind. Enjoy the wonderful weather this weekend, seek the advise of your butcher and have a great BBQ.