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It’s “easy” to salt cooking water. It should be salty like the sea…except when it shouldn’t be. And don’t forget that some salts are saltier than others, so pay attention when you’re using sea salt, as opposed to kosher salt. Confused yet? I know I am—I’ve made my fair share of bland pasta and too salty beans. But no matter how many times I screw up dinner by miscalculating my water’s salinity, I can’t bring myself to pull out a measuring spoon for such a simple task. I blame my pride! I like to think my pinching precision is as good as Salt Bae’s, but really it’s hit or miss. That’s why I now keep a jar of Jacobsen Salt Co.’s Disco di Sale by my stove.
These salt disks each contain exactly 10 grams of compressed Italian fine sea salt and take the guesswork out of seasoning a pot of water. The first time I put them to use, I simply followed the directions on the jar and tossed three disks into four and a half quarts of boiling water, then dropped in a pound of spaghetti. The giant pot of water tasted less like the sea and more like the base of a well-seasoned broth. That night I ate the most flavorful red pesto pasta I’d had in years. Apparently, my fear of oversalting my cooking water meant that I’d been criminally undersalting it (something I didn’t even realize until I used Disco di Sale).
These quarter-size disks have since become my secret weapon for all things big-batch boiling. I use them to season everything from par-boiled potatoes for crispy hash browns to make-ahead blanched greens. When I’m cooking in smaller batches for, say, quick lunchtime noodles for two, I opt for one disk. They’re insanely easy to use and they make my food taste better, but mostly I like that they make me feel like a more confident cook, no measuring spoons required.