Salt goes on the protein twenty minutes before it meets heat. Long enough to pull water to the surface, short enough that the surface dries and browns. Salt it at the last second and you steam the meat. Salt it after cooking and the seasoning sits on top, loud and uneven.
Vegetables are different. They want salt in the pan, not before, unless you are roasting them whole and want the skin tight. Bread wants salt in the flour, always. Yoghurt wants it early so it can dissolve quietly in the cold.
One salt, one moment, and then leave it alone. Most dishes that taste flat are not undersalted. They are salted in three places, at three times, by three pairs of hands.
Atelier Sobhy, Amman
