Preserving with Salt

Historically, the most important function of salt had nothing to do with flavor. It was most important as a preservative. And in that, salt still works as it did thousands of years ago. Salting food immobilizes the bacteria that cause food to spoil and also reduces the water activity in meat that encourages the growth of bacteria. We no longer need to preserve food with salt, but we still do it because it gives us some of our most cherished foods: bacon, ham, cured salmon, for instance. And it’s so easy to do for recipes.