🧂 Salt
Also known as: table salt
Added to cheese and butter.
Salt here means ordinary table salt, sodium chloride. In dairy, it is added mainly to cheese and butter. Milk itself also has a little natural sodium, but it does not taste salty.
In cheese, salt does several jobs at once. It adds flavour, helps press out extra whey and stops unwanted microbes from growing. Cheese is salted in different ways: rubbed with salt, put in brine, or salt is added straight into the curd. Brined cheeses such as brynza and feta are usually especially salty. Butter can be salted or unsalted. Salt adds flavour and helps butter keep longer.
The WHO advises adults to eat less than 5 grams of salt a day, which is about one level teaspoon. Too much salt is linked to high blood pressure. Britain's health service, the NHS, counts cheese with more than 1.5 g of salt per 100 g as “very salty”. Many cheeses are just like that. So it is better to eat cheese in small pieces, and strong-tasting cheeses let you get by with less.
How it connects to milk
Links
Frequently asked questions
Why is salt added to cheese?
Salt adds flavour, helps separate the whey and protects the cheese from unwanted microbes. Without it, most cheeses would keep less well.
How much salt per day is safe?
The WHO advises adults to have less than 5 grams of salt a day. Cheese and salted butter count towards this amount too.