Tip Part 1: Season meat with salt by sprinkling it from a height of roughly 6 to 8 inches.

This ensures an even layer of salt, with no bland spots. Salt the meat right before or after you remove it from the heat. Otherwise, salt leaches moisture (juiciness) from the meat.

Sprinkling at the end also preserves the delicate flavor of kosher salt or sea salt, which would dissipate in the cooking process.

Rather than sprinkling from a salt shaker, take pinches of salt from a salt server (shown in the photo), or use a small, Tupperware-type container (or repurpose a plastic container from prepared food).

Tip Part 2: Use kosher salt or coarse sea salt instead of table salt. These salts are no different nutritionally from table salt,* but chefs prefer them for their texture. The larger, irregular grains add a bit of crunch and hint of briny flavor.

You also need less kosher or sea salt than table salt. Because table salt is processed into a very fine grain, a teaspoon of table salt contains as much salt as 1.5 teaspoons of kosher salt or sea salt.

*All salt is at least 97.5% sodium chloride. The remainder comprises natural minerals found in the salt deposit (or sea water, if sea salt), or added minerals such as iodine in iodized salt. Table salt also includes a small amount of calcium silicate, an anti-caking agent that prevents clumping.
See the many different types of salt in our Salt Glossary.

Yet, in the Middle East, the pomegranate has been a popular fruit for millennia—long before well-honed knives, running water and fine mesh strainers were household basics, and long before people knew that pomegranate was a superfruit, high in antioxidants.

If you know the easy technique shown in the video below, the pom’s thick outer layer (the pericarp*) is not really a problem. In the time it takes to peel an orange—and in less time than it takes to peel, core and slice a pineapple—you can be enjoying a pomegranate.

The pom is different from other fruits because the portion of edible fruit—actually sacs of fruit juice called arils, which surround the small, edible seeds—is tucked inside such a thick pericarp. Unlike an orange or grapefruit, you can’t simply peel it with your fingers and dig in to the fruit.

 
FOOD TRIVIA: The pomegranate, the edible fruit of a shrub or small tree, is botanically classified as a berry.

MORE about the pomegranate: history, health benefits, and how to juice and store pomegranates.

*The pericarp comprises the skin and protective layers under it. Think of the skin and pith of a lemon or other citrus, which protects the juice sacs—although in the case of citrus, the exocarp (skin), the outermost layer of the pericarp, is edible. The pomegranate is one of the few fruits where the entire pericarp is inedible.

Stone Brewing Co., a California craft brewery known for its Arrogant Bastard Ale and other well-named, well-crafted artisan drinks, has released a new beer to support aid efforts for the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster. All proceeds will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross Society.

The Japanese Green Tea IPA (India Pale Ale) is a collaboration between Stone Brewing, Ishii Brewing Co. of Guam and Baird Brewing Company of Numazu, Japan.

Toshi Ishii, a former Stone brewer, contacted Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele shortly after the Japanese disaster with a proposal to make a beer that could help with recovery efforts. They circled in Bryan Baird, a brewer in Japan.

The three brewers naturally selected green tea as an ingredient. IPA was chosen as a style that would accentuate the tea’s herbal character. The recipe includes Sorachi Ace, a variety of hops originally developed in Japan, as well as Pacifica, Crystal, Warrior and Aramis, a new hops cultivar from the Alsace region of France.

The ale is available in 12-ounce bottles with a suggested retail price of $2.49-$3.49. Find a distributor near you.*

Party Idea

Have a party to benefit Japanese disaster victims. Serve Green Tea IPA and collect donations for the Red Cross. You can make an online donation for Japan via the American Red Cross.

While the March 2011 disaster is no longer in the news, the victims will need aid for many years to come.

*The beer is available in AK, AZ, CA,CO, FL, IL, KY, MA, MN, NC, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SC, TX, VA, VT and WA.

Summertime and the livin’ is easy—with a
refreshing wheat beer. Photo of German
Weizenbier by Ukko | Wikimedia.

Summer beers have been brewed for centuries, pioneered by Belgian and German brewers. Recipes were developed to make the beer crisper and more thirst-quenching, with moderate alcohol (lower alcohol drinks are recommended as the temperature rises).

First, a portion of the malted barley—often 50% or more—is replaced with wheat, which adds refreshing acidity and creates a lighter-bodied beer. The result is a category called witbier, weissbier or white beer, referring to the paler color of the brew.

American brewers make many beers based on these two styles.

Get to know wheat beer by having a wheat beer tasting.

You can have a dedicated beer tasting, or combine it with a cookout. It’s a fun and enlightening summer event.

1. Check out the selection at your local market. We find that the best number for a tasting is a dozen, but try fewer if you prefer.

2. Look for imported witbier, weissbier, hefeweizen and kristallweizen. American brews are called wheat beer or summer beer—for example, Samuel Adams Summer Ale. It’s brewed with malted wheat, lemon peel and grains of paradise (melegueta pepper), a rare African spice related to cardamom that was first used for brewing in the 13th century.

3. Set the beers on a table with small tasting cups (two-ounce plastic cups work well).

4. Do some online research and print out descriptions of each beer, including name and price. Tape them onto the table in front of each beer.

5. Provide index cards or blank paper, plus pens, so guests can write down their favorites along with tasting notes.

Catch up on the different types of beer in our Beer Glossary.

We’ve tried a few vitamin water drinks over the years, where either a tablet or a powder is added to a bottle of water immediately before consumption. Every one we tried tasted, well, yucky.

The first brand we’d drink because it actually tastes good is Activate Workout. It’s produced by The Rising Beverage Company, which makes other enhanced waters as well.

According to the company, which conducted research with an independent analytical laboratory, vitamins and other active ingredients lose their potency sitting in water.

So they created a release-top bottle cap. Twist the cap and the active ingredients fall into the water. Shake the bottle and drink.

We tried two of the four flavors, which include Grape, Lulo Pear,* Passionfruit and Pink Grapefruit.

*Lulo, also known as naranjilla or “little orange,” is a South American fruit that tastes like rhubarb and lime—perhaps with a hint of pineapple.

One serving (8 ounces) provides 50% DV of vitamins B6, niacin (B3), pantheonic acid (B5) and vitamin B12, plus 240% DV of vitamin C. By consuming the full bottle, you’ve had your DV of these five vitamins, plus small amounts of vitamins A and E.

That being said, we never really “got” vitamin-infused water, except as a marketing ploy. None of the brands we’ve seen provides a well-rounded complement of vitamins. It’s more about feeling good that you’ve made a healthy choice. (And a lot of people feel good about it: Vitamin-enhanced waters is a sizable and growing category.)

Activate Workout contains 0 calories and no preservatives. It is naturally (and pleasantly) sweetened with stevia. The line is certified kosher by OU.

There’s a store locator on the website. You can download a coupon there, or purchase from the website.

The company is also a good corporate citizen:

 
We like the colorful bottles, and have repurposed them as water bottles. As for the vitamins, we’ll continue to take what we need in tablet and capsule forms.