Where does the salt come from ???

My major peeve with formula restaurants is the ridiculous amount of salt.

I just looked it up ... if you order a McDonald's 100% beef burger, dry, on a bun you get 395 mg of sodium. (That's more salt than there is salt in their "salt packet.")

How can that be?

Where does the salt come from?

A single frozen White Castle burger (no cheese, a very small burger, steamed onions and a tiny roll) clocks in at 185mg sodium !!!

This site is revealing:
http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal/chooseCustomize.do

In nosing around the McDonald's web site, I see you can make your own Big Mac sauce by simply mixing the following:

- Soybean oil
- Pickle relish [diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative) spice extractives, polysorbate 80]
- Distilled vinegar
- Water
- Egg yolks
- High fructose corn syrup
- Onion powder
- Mustard seed
- Salt
- Spices
- Propylene glycol alginate
- Sodium benzoate (preservative)
- Mustard bran
- Sugar
- Garlic powder
- Vegetable protein (hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat)
- Caramel color
- Extractives of paprika
- Soy lecithin
- Turmeric (color)

And, finally:
- Calcium disodium EDTA (protect flavor).

Well dangit. I'm out of Propylene glycol alginate. Maybe I will try again some other day.

quote:

Originally posted by NebGuy

Well dangit. I'm out of Propylene glycol alginate. Maybe I will try again some other day.

That shouldn't stop you ... you can make your own by simply esterifying the alginate extracted from kelp or large algae.

It comes from the salt mines.

Since salt makes most everything taste better it only makes sense that the worse the food, the more salt would be added to make it edible.

Speaking of burgers, the secret to some of the best in restaurants is grinding quality beef the night before and letting it sit heavily salted overnight.

What about stuff you (me) never thought had salt ?

Yesterday while buying a few cans of Bumble Bee Solid White Tuna in Water, I somehow included a can of one I never knew existed; Bumble Bee Very Low Sodium Chunk White Albacore in Water.

I spotted it when I got home and thought it was a great idea even though it never occured to me there was salt in canned tuna.

I made my usual tuna sandwich and took a bite. OUCH ! I reached for the salt box for some potent grey to grind through my fingers onto it. Not good. I did it again. Not good enough. I did it again. Finally, my sandwich was normal.

Should I check the milk carton to see if it's loaded with salt?