First of all, it's not SALT you need to worry about -- it is
SODIUM. Sodium is IN salt but it's also in all sorts of
other products. You can not use a single grain of salt while
cooking but still prepare a meal heavily laden in sodium.
Quoted message said:spare ribs
Buy these at the butcher, not the grocer -- otherwise, they
may have added sodium.
Quoted message said:***1/2 cup salt***
Egads -- that's 24 teaspoons and there are 2350mg of sodium
in each teaspoon! US RDA is 2,400mg, and that's 5 times what
we actually need, let alone a recipe that uses 56,400mg of
sodium! That's just a heart attack on a plate. If your uncle
is on a low sodium diet, then he should be getting no more
than 2,000mg-3,000mg PER DAY -- even most dietitians will
not go higher than 4,000mg-5,000mg in a 24 hour period.
Quoted message said:2-3 onions
Not bad -- only about 10 or so mg of sodium.
Quoted message said:4-5 stalks celery
These are a bit high at around 100mg for a cup of chopped
celery. Over the course of a recipe they're seldom an issue.
Quoted message said:1-2 yellow beet
Probably around 125mg or so here.
Quoted message said:2-3 cups Vietnamese fish sauce
This is going to be kind of high -- you'll want to check
the label.
All in all, this recipe is a bit of a problem -- it
doesn't say how much water to use nor does it say how much
pork. Half a cup of salt is an awful lot for just a single
rack of ribs.
Quoted message said:I believe the salt serves to break up the meat during
cooking, so it's necesary. It'll also land him in the
emergency room.
Salt serves no "necessary" purpose in a recipe other than
flavoring. It may do other things, but nothing that cannot
be worked around. If you want to break the meat up, cook it
longer and it will break up on it's own.
In this particular recipe, the salt is used to flavor the
meat before covering it in barbecue sauce. Most of the
flavor you'll get will be from the barbecue sauce so it's a
bit redundant. Also, a good portion will remain in the
broth/stock after the meat has cooked but it will be very
difficult to determine how much would actually be ingested.
Pork has a goodly amount of sodium anyway. In the end, the
added salt's just not needed.
You can use a variety of spices and herbs, all no-sodium, to
give the broth flavor (and subsequently, the meat).
Personally, I prefer my ribs barbecued. 🙂 Try preparing the
recipe without any salt at all, then select a really good
barbecue sauce. If your uncle is not on any meds that
potassium would be an issue for, use a couple of tablespoons
of a salt substitute in the stock.
Quoted message said:Does anyone know of something that can be used in place of
the salt that will not adversely affect the taste? I'd
appreciate any help you all can give.
Unfortunately, there's not much you can do to work around
this 'un. Low sodium is a tough situation for cooking. First
and foremost, one must get used to eating less sodium --
once you do, then your tastebuds begin to notice smaller
amounts. It's like anything else -- if you get too much, you
overload and more seems like less. Now, you can TRY some
salt substitutes to either get that number down or replace
it altogether. The biggest thing is serving size. For
example, 1/2 cup of salt may be a LOT of sodium, but if it's
going into a pot that will generate 50 servings then you're
only consuming 1,128mg (still a helluva lot for someone on
low sodium).
There are two types of salt substitute out there that can
help out -- either the half and half kind (half table salt,
or sodium chloride (NaCl) mixed with half potassium
chloride) or just potassium chloride (KCl). KCl has a bit of
a [censored] to it -- in short, it tastes nasty as hell when eaten
plain or over something (like french fries). On the other
hand, it's not so bad when you cook with it from the get go.
For example, I'll use it to season soupy dishes, fried rice,
and ground meat crumbles. I'll be boiling up a chicken here
soon for some soup -- I'll use KCl in the pot when I make
the broth. Bear in mind that this can be an issue for
medications however -- you don't want to overdo it on
potassium if he is taking heart meds that prevent him from
losing potassium or if he's already on potassium
supplements.
You can also look at a variety of spice blends to juice up
the flavor. Mrs Dash isn't bad (the table blend is great
when cooking burgers, go figure) and of course you can
always make your own blends as well. I also use a lot of
onion and garlic in m dishes -- great for any kind of
broth/stock type cooking IMHO.
If you'd like to find some decent low sodium recipes, visit
lowsodiumcooking.comlowsodiumcooking.comOpen ↗ and/or buy the low sodium
cook books authored by a fellow named Gazanigga (they're up
on Amazon for something like $12 and $17).
Low sodium is not an easy lifestyle to get into, but once
you do it gets much easier. It is VERY important for some
heart ailments, less so for others, and equally important
for other ailments that are not even heart related. If you
have any other questions about low sodium dieting, feel free
to drop me a line off-group as well.
James
