What exactly does a "pinch of salt" do for any dish?!
Answers: I made no-bake cookies tonight and it called for a pinch of salt...what is it about salt that only a slight pinch is needed to somehow complete the recipe of just about any food even if its dessert?
Occasionally it's for flavor, but mostly it us used to speed reactions.
If you want to get scientific, salt helps to extract flavors from other ingredients...In the science of food its almost a flavor catalyst ;)
it accentuates the sweetness from the sugar you're adding
it just helps it bake and it evens out the ingredints
it brings out all the flavors of other stuff.
Salt takes some of the sweetness out.
salt helps bring out the favors of foods, pulls them together
It brings out the flavors in the food.
It adds flavour and is a risky thing as a pinch can't be measured.
A pinch is the amount of salt you THINK it needs, and if you don't know it is a learning curve. It is better to start with very little and experiment.
Salt enhances all other flavors. It brings the flavors out.
The salt simply enhances the flavors inherent in the other major ingredients like chocolate, butter, sugar.
That means to take your thumb and pointer finger and dip into salt and get a pinch of it; whatever your 2 fingers can hold.
For baked goods, it enhances rising and works with the leavening. In yeast breads, it controls the yeast from going wild! For other things, it enhances the flavor of the sweet ingredients, so they dont' taste so flat. They'd be sweet, but flat, w/o salt.
it keeps the surface from icing up
It gives it just the right amount of seasoning.