1/8 Teaspoon

I wasn't going to post anything today.  But, when I realized it was Saturday night, and it occurred to me what I had written somewhat facetiously in last Saturday night's blog, I snickered and sighed, and I decided I had to post tonight.  Especially since my little bakers-in-training are all snuggled up and ready for bed...

So, here we are again on another Saturday night.  Baking.  Actually, tonight's cookie baking had a special purpose, which you can read about in my next post.  But, yes, we spent another lovely Saturday evening doing what most single thirty-somethings with no kids do:


Check out the flour pattern on the right side of the rolling pin.  It looks like a bunny! 

I know.  Photos aren't that good tonight, but the subject matter is so cute.

 Anyhow, while making my sugar cookies this Saturday, and being the precise baker that I am (not), I couldn't help but notice the requisite 1/8 teaspoon of salt required in this (and probably many other) sugar cookie recipe.  How about that--5 1/2 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 pound of butter.  But, the recipe apparently won't work quite right--won't be as good--if you omit that 1/8 teaspoon of salt.





It would have been so much more fun to have a picture of the cute little Morton's Salt girl with her umbrella; but, in this household we unfortunately must sacrifice cute labels for price savings. 

Seriously, think about that for a moment.  In a big mixing bowl of 5 1/2 cups flour (that's a lot of flour), and 1 cup of sugar, and 1 pound (that's a lot--4 cubes--of butter), that 1/8 teaspoon of salt gets its own line-- equal space on the recipe card.  I pulled out some of my cook books and started looking through recipes, and sure enough, in almost every one, there it is.  Equal billing.  Equal space as the meat and the flour, the eggs and the butter (Yes, even the butter!).

And, what is more?  It's not enough just to add the pinch, or the dash, or the smidge of salt.  It has to be added at the right time.  Sometimes you add it with the butter.  Sometimes you add it with the dry ingredients.  Sometimes you save it till last.  Yes.  All that for a pinch, a dash, or a smidge--of salt, no less.  And similarly noteworthy, they never tell you it has to be "Morton's Salt" or "Fred Meyer" or "QFC."  Just salt. Doesn't matter where it comes from.  But don't forget it.  The salt.  Be it a smidge, a dash, a pinch, or a carefully measured 1/8 teaspoon.   You gotta have it. 

I know, this isn't any earthshaking discovery.  Brilliant minds have long recognized or philosophized about the characteristics of salt.  It's in the Bible.  But, there was just something about seeing it written in a cookbook--the way that Betty Crocker and everyone else seems to put that 1/8 teaspoon of salt on equal footing in terms of importance and necessity with the flour, butter, and sugar.  It takes up so little room, you would think you wouldn't miss it, but it's there, and you would.  I could go on and on about the metaphor that is salt...

And so it went, an evening of inspirational baking and with just the right amount of salt.

Above:  The cookies I present to the neighbors...


Below:  The cookies as they look in the privacy of my kitchen. 

I will leave you with a foreshadowing of tomorrow's post...and no, it has nothing to do with cookies or baking.  Well, almost nothing...

Once upon a time, there were two horses...