When I have salted a dish that is cooking, to judge whether the salt is sufficient, I do not taste, I sniff. For many years, the only person who knew of this peculiar practice was my husband, Victor. He was skeptical, but noninterfering. For me, it worked, but I was careful not to let others, who might have been less understanding, know what I was doing. During one of the trips my husband took when he was doing research for his wine book, the conversation with a wine producer turned to the variety of substances the sense of smell is capable of distinguishing. βYou may find it hard to believe,β Victor said, βbut my wife claims she can detect by smell the presence of salt in food.β βIt isnβt hard to believe at all,β the man replied. βI can give you a demonstration of it right now.β He thereupon poured equal quantities of the same wine into two glasses and asked my husband to look away while he sprinkled salt into one of them. He then let Victor sniff, asking him to say whether one glass of wine had a richer, fuller aroma than the other. One did; it was the one with salt.
