“[T]he primordial condiment that was prepared by the earth billions of years before early humans ever learned to enliven their food with it.”
-Harold McGee

We start with salt. We must. Before history, before tools, before technique. We start with salt, a basic taste. That to which other food is compared. A fundamental descriptor, the basest ingredient. The brine of ocean, the salinity of blood. It is in us, of us. Keeps equilibrium.

There is no other ingredient more important to cooking than salt. It is one of our five or six basic tastes. But salt brings more than saltiness. It livens all flavors, coaxes aromas from food. Damps bitterness. Without salt, our food would taste shallow, less like itself.

And so first we learn of salt. We must use it. It is singularly important, before all else.

“What’s the most important thing for a cook to know in your kitchen?”
[Keller] paused, then said, “Seasoning.”
“What do you mean, seasoning?”
“Salt and pepper.” He paused again. “Salt, really.”
“The most important thing for a cook to know is how to salt food?”
“That’s right,” he said.
-Michael Ruhlman, The Elements of Cooking

Salt is vital to food. It preserves the pickle, melds in complex reactions not fully understood. It textures cheeses, improves the crumb color and grain of bread. I keep a small shallow bowl in my cupboard, scatter salt unafraid. And taste, taste, taste.