HyperSalt

HyperSalt
Andre Willers
25 Nov 2008

Synopsis:
Gourmet flavoured salts on the surface of foods can replace or complement sauces .

Discussion :

Health benefits :
1. Less salt is used , as the taste-buds are activated by the surface salt-flakes .
Only the surface of the food need to be coated (where the rubber hits the tar)
Precise intake of salt can be effectively done by salt-spoon (1 ml at a time).

2. Sauce-replacement .
Fats and carbohydrates in normal sauces can be replaced .
Really effective for those on Atkins diet or restricted fat-diet .

But , the killer is that better , more concentrated taste is possible .
It is a feedback mechanism . Too much salt taste is too salty , but other tastes can be orchestrated .

Unique tastes .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com "HyperTaste"
This can be done economically and effectively via HyperSalt .

The Social scene .
Most of the enjoyment of food in affluent societies is in the social ambience .
Discussing and comparing various flavours .
Adding another dimension like salt and all the different flavours , as well as hyper-flavours adds extra complexity .

This has already happened . Google "gourmet salt" and see what is on offer .
Woolworths(SA) has some nice gourmet salts in pressure sealed containers .

What is difficult to get are the salt spoons . (About R15 each at ceramic shops.)

Fleur de sel , sel gris and so forth . Like the wine scene .
This is in .

Below the salt .
This was used to denote social standing in medieval societies . But how to do it when there are many flavours of salts ?

Tom is below the Olive Salt , but above the Thyme Salt , but poor Dick is below the Garlic Salt . And Harry is below the HyperAllSpice .

The pretentious jargon overwhelms even the wine chatter .


Sachets of HyperSalts .
Like sachets of salt and pepper now .
This would be a real money-spinner .

Initially this would mean an increased salt intake , but later on the manufacturers would cut out the salt in the basic food (less expense) .

Animal feeds
Most salts are used as animal licks . Flavouring it would enhance value at little extra cost . Buy oak-smoked karoo veal straight from the womb.

Isn't biotechnology wonderful ?

Methane Burps and Salt .
Salt in solution is displaced by methane .
The result is massive salt deposition after methane burps .
This is especially noticeable in landlocked seas .
The cycle is dead organic matter to the bottom , anaerobic bacteria makes methane , a burp occurs and salt deposits on large scale . If there is oceanic inflow , the salinity approaches ocean norms . If not , fresh water results . Your attention is drawn to large fresh-water bodies (American lakes ,etc) . They all have layers of salt deposits at the bottom .

What about mid-oceanic burps in currents ?
The picture is then completely different .
A clathrate burp (like on the continental shelf of Eastern America) will precipitate the salt layers , but the effect will move with the current . At the moving edges , eddy currents will churn up nutrients from the bottom and cause an explosion of algae , plankton and even krill population growth .
Bio-mass increases exponentially .
Really good fishing .

Mini-burps .
The clathrates are held down by the weight of the dead bio-mass drifting down , but also increased by it . This leads to a cyclical process of mini-burps .
Increased fishing decreased the biomass drifting down , advancing the timing of the process . The disappearance of cod from the Newfoundland banks are then due to the fishes sensibly moving out as the methane concentration rises and the salinity decreases . An evolutionary survival switch .
A mini-burp need not be a catastrophic event . Slow and steady will do the job . This has probably been incorporated into fish life-cycles .

The last mini-burp was around the 10-12 centuries AD . Warmer climates due to methane release . Lots and lots of fishes , as discussed .



Has human actions made much of difference ?

Doubtful . We are in a mini-burp now . Nobody is looking at methane and salinity concentrations . They do notice the lack of fishies in their normal haunts , but with typical human hubris imagine that it is their fault . In the meantime , the system hardly notices them .


And so it goes .

Andre