Battleangel

Why are Spice Mixes so damn salty? Anyone know? Call me crazy but when I buy a bag of Tandoori mix or Taco spice I find it bothersome that 30-40% of the total content is pure salt. Why is that?

For one salt isn’t good for you. And I know there have been conflicting research lately, but when we´re talking this much salt we can simply fall back on the very basic conclusion that anything in a high enough concentration can act as a poison. The salt that isn’t taken up by the body has go somewhere you know and even if we can cope it strains the filtration capacity.
Second of all, not all of us have lost our entire set of tastebuds yet, so we kind of like to keep them fit and trim. This leads me to believe that all you salt junkies out there need to get a quick fix and stop pestering the rest of us.
Thirdly, why pay for something (salt is very granular so I’d expect it to be maybe as much as 50% of the total weight) that you already have at home, and in abundance. I mean, it’s not exactly that I’m so incompetent that I can’t find the salt in my own kitchen. It’s just that I want to cut some corners. And without ruining the entire dish and poisoning myself in the long run.

As for the use of salt itself I only use sea salt nowadays. You know the stuff that is extracted around the Mediterranean. An although it only contains a few percent less Sodium chloride than rock salt (and thus might not be that much healthier in reality) I find it tastes better. And it is far better at bringing out the “true” sensation of the food without killing it.

It’s too bad really. Spice mixes make up the backbone for any well-rounded student or bachelor diet. Really.