Cooking Wisdom 

A measure of a "pinch" of salt is an essential ingredient in a limitless variety of recipes, savory and sweet. Salt enhances the taste of foods and actually  reduces the sourness of acid, and increases the sweetness of sugar - when added to sweet dishes. Salt and sugar react together as balancing agents: sugar will reduce saltiness, while over sweet foods can be moderated by adding a touch of salt.

You will salt in the majority of the bread recipes, for it strengthens the gluten - the building fiber of wheat - and helps to form a crisp crust on the bread. Yet too much salt will inhibit the action yeast, so bakers must measure carefully, according to the recipe. The best salt to use in the kitchen is the fine, free-flowing table salt, or the larger crystals or pure sea salt such as Maldon salt, crushed in the fingers or in a mill.

Flavoring extracts will keep indefinitely stored in tightly sealed bottles, and in cool, dark place. If a recipe demands "a few drops" of some essence, the mixture should be tried and tasted before cooking - add the essence drop by drop until the desired strength is reached.

Ice cream needs stronger flavoring than temperate foods, because mixture lose their flavor as they get progressively colder - also cold numbs the taste buds.

Vanilla pods are preferable to vanilla essence. Whole pods can be cooked in sweet sauces to flavor them, after which the pods can be washed, dried and used again. Vanilla sugar is a useful form of flavoring, and the pod of vanilla can be kept in a jar of fine sugar for adding to cakes and confectionery, bearing in mind that it can be overpowering.