Buying wisely

[alpharaposa]

So, I'm trying to cut down on sodium overall, which means even more peering at food labels. (I'm already trying to avoid HFCS.) And I find out some interesting things.

We're making lasagna this week, which requires tomato paste. Hunts has a "no salt added!" tomato paste. Contadina doesn't. But when I look at the amount of sodium in Contadina tomato paste, it has exactly the same amount as Hunt's low-sodium alternative. The regular Hunts tomato paste doesn't bear thinking about.

Same for the canned tomatoes. Hunts starts with a lot of sodium, with more expensive low-sodium packages. Contadina just starts with less sodium and turns out to be the same price as the normal Hunts.. or cheaper.

So much for thinking all the brands are all the same!

Some foods can't really be brought down in sodium. Sausage will always have a pretty big chunk of it. Cheese will be hard to get down past a certain point. I am surprised at how much you find in most store-made breads, though. Yes, I know you need salt to make bread, but I'm pretty sure the loaves I make at home don't have THAT much.

Thomas' English muffins, on the other hand, have no HFCS, are low in sodium compared to sandwich rolls and their own bagel line, and come in a variety of flavors. I know what's becoming the new breakfast choice. anher and I have considered making our own breakfast sandwiches once in a while, and some eggs and cheese on an English muffin would be pretty healthy compared to a bagel loaded with cream cheese.

Anyway, shopping done. Time to take a breather and drink more water. The humidity's near 100% today, so I'm worn down from my brief excursion outside.

Comments

[jocelmeow.livejournal.com]

This doesn't really lend itself to lasagna, but your lowest-sodium cheese options are generally Swiss or Swiss-types. Emmentaler (what people think of as "Swiss cheese") is about the lowest. Jarlsberg (which is Norwegian) is pretty good, too, iirc, and Jarlsberg Lite is quite low but is rather rubbery.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I might have to switch from provalone to Swiss for my sandwich cheese.

Which isn't bad. I like Swiss, it's just not my favorite.

[jocelmeow.livejournal.com]

I don't care for it myself. It think it tastes like earwax. Gross, I know.

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Salt is a common bread ingredient, but not required. Just run a search for salt-free bread recipes.

Re: Well...

[stryck.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that salt had something to do with the fermentation process, and it seems that impression is correct (http://joannasfood.blogspot.com/2008/10/salt-in-bread-dough_22.html).

Which means, salt is in yeast bread because it makes it rise properly. Soda and/or baking powder breads probably don't need salt except as a flavor additive.

At least the article tells me which kinds of bread have less salt- the quicker rising kinds, such as the recipes I find on my flour. Very helpful. So I should probably avoid sourdoughs and other slow-fermentation types.

Re: Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I did find these low or no-salt recipes, some of which are yeast breads and others not. You may wish to experiment, or not.
http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blhelp13.htm
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,yeast_free_bread,FF.html
http://www.bigoven.com/private/sodium+free+bread-recipe

Re: Well...

[stryck.livejournal.com]

I've been doing some looking as well. Some of the recipes I've found look really good, but all they have are bread machine directions. Argh.

If I were the sort of person who baked breads all the time, converting from "bread machine" to traditional methods wouldn't faze me, but it's frustrating that so many people can't be bothered to include an alternate set of directions for those of us without one.

Grr. Maybe Google can find me a link on how to convert from one to the other.

Re: Well...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

That's pesky, all right. I'm a skilled intuitive cook and I'd still rather work from a handmade recipe than an adapted bread machine recipe. Let's see...
http://www.preparedpantry.com/usingbreadmachinemixesinyouroven.aspx
http://www.recipelink.com/mf/31/9002

In general, look for handmade recipes that have a similar content to your bread machine recipe, and use the handmade instructions with the bread machine ingredients. There are a few major "processes" for making bread, depending on the type, and beyond that there's not much variation in the steps.

Also, some of my recipes are salt-free and most are low-salt, because I don't like salt much. I only want to taste it when my body's mineral supply runs low. So if you browse my recipes, you may find some appealing stuff there.

[silussa.livejournal.com]

Have you looked for and had any luck finding a barbecue sauce which doesn't use HFCS as a primary ingredient? I was rather surprised when I started looking at the ingredients label how many DO.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Actually, one idea might be to start making your own barbecue sauce. If it's tasty enough, you could enter it in a local contest sometime.

Ingredients: tomato sauce, sugar, spices, flavor options (like Coke or chocolate). That's pretty much it; the corn syrup is just there to sweeten and slightly thicken the sauce. And you don't really have to have the sugar/sweetener if you don't want it.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Nah. I don't like store-bought barbeque sauces because I don't like sweet barbeque. The only kind of barbeque sauce I really enjoy is the Carolina style that's mostly vinegar, which is easier to just do at home.

It annoys me, because I really, really like good jerky, but 98% of the stuff in the stores is full of sweeteners, which turn me off. I used to be able to find peppered jerky that wasn't full of sugar, but not any more. :( Have to go to a specialty store for that kind of thing.

[silussa.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Amazon.com? They're selling a lot of shelf-stable foodstuffs these days. I know I just ordered some vegan beef jerky. :)

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

One thing that I discovered with breakfast sandwiches is that slices of seasoned chicken breast work really, really well. Make it yourself and you know the sodium is low.

Re: sodium in homemade bread. I think mine is a half teaspoon per loaf so not much there. I imagine yours is comparable.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Most breads that don't involve an overnight rise seem to be 1 tsp or 1 1/2 tsp salt for two loaves. It's a shame I don't have the time to actually bake all the bread we eat. I love a good homemade loaf, though.

What's your recipe?