What to buy first

Rather than shopping by cuisine, shop by the dishes that actually repeat in your kitchen. The American Heart Association publishes a seasoning list that pairs specific herbs and spices with specific foods, and it is a practical place to start because every item on it is a single ingredient with no salt.

A starter shelf that covers most American home cooking:

1. 1 Black pepper, ideally whole peppercorns and a grinder. The American Heart Association suggests reaching for freshly ground black pepper, or a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime, before the salt shaker.
2. 2 Garlic powder and onion powder, checking that the label does not say salt.
3. 3 Paprika, which the association pairs with lean meats, fish, soups, salads, sauces, and vegetables.
4. 4 Thyme, paired with lean meats, sauces, soups, onions, peas, tomatoes, and salads.
5. 5 Rosemary, paired with chicken, veal, lean beef and pork, sauces, stuffings, potatoes, peas, and lima beans.
6. 6 Bay leaves, for stews, poultry, soups, and tomatoes.
7. 7 Dill, for fish, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, green beans, cucumbers, potatoes, and salads.
8. 8 Curry powder, paired with lamb, veal, chicken, fish, tomatoes, and tomato soup.
9. 9 Dry mustard, for lean meats, chicken, fish, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage.
10. 10 Cinnamon and ground ginger, which the association pairs with fruit, apples, breads, and chicken.

Add basil, parsley, sage, allspice, turmeric, caraway seeds, and nutmeg as your cooking calls for them. Nothing on that list is exotic, and nothing on it needs to be expensive.

Read the jar before it goes in the cart

Ingredient lists run in order by weight, heaviest first. If salt appears first on a seasoning blend, the jar is mostly salt. That is the single most useful thing to check, and it takes three seconds.

FDA defines the claims that appear on the front of packages, and the definitions are precise rather than promotional:

1. 1 Sodium free or salt free means less than 5 mg of sodium per serving.
2. 2 Very low sodium means 35 mg or less per serving.
3. 3 Low sodium means 140 mg or less per serving.
4. 4 Reduced sodium means at least 25 percent less sodium than the regular version of that product.
5. 5 Light in sodium or lightly salted means at least 50 percent less than the regular version.
6. 6 No salt added or unsalted means no salt was added during processing. The food may still contain sodium naturally, so the package has to say so separately if it is also sodium free.

Two of those deserve a second look. Reduced sodium and light in sodium are both relative claims, measured against the same maker's regular product. A blend that was very salty to begin with can be 25 percent lower and still be salty. Only sodium free, very low sodium, and low sodium describe an actual amount.

The serving size matters as much as the number beside it. Seasoning labels often use a quarter teaspoon as the serving, so a figure that looks harmless multiplies quickly if you shake a tablespoon into a pot of chili.

One more label detail is worth knowing. Some salt free blends replace sodium chloride with potassium chloride. Since December 2020, FDA has allowed makers to write "potassium salt" instead of "potassium chloride" in the ingredient statement, so the same ingredient can appear under either name. For most people this is unremarkable. For some it is not, and that comes up at the end of this article.

Aromatics and acids belong on the shopping list too

A seasoning pantry that lives only in jars will disappoint you. The American Heart Association puts it plainly: "Onions, garlic, herbs, spices, citrus juices and vinegars can add flavor in place of some, or all, of the salt." Three of those five are things you buy in the produce aisle.

Keep on hand, in whatever quantity your household actually goes through:

1. 1 Yellow onions and a head of garlic. These are the base of most soups, stews, beans, and braises.
2. 2 Fresh ginger, which keeps for weeks in the refrigerator and freezes well.
3. 3 Lemons or limes. The association specifically suggests fresh lemon juice in place of salt on fish and vegetables.
4. 4 Cider vinegar, which it pairs with salads, vegetables, and sauces. A second vinegar, such as red wine or rice vinegar, covers most of the rest.
5. 5 Dried chiles or crushed red pepper. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases names hot peppers, along with lemon juice and herbs, as alternative seasonings in place of salt.

Acid does something salt cannot. A splash of vinegar or a squeeze of citrus at the end of cooking sharpens flavors that had gone flat, and it costs almost nothing. This is ordinary kitchen practice rather than a research finding, but it is the technique most often missing when a dish made with less salt tastes dull. A separate article in this series goes deeper into building flavor with citrus, herbs, garlic, and cooking method.

Build the shelf around dishes, not around a spice rack set

Matched sets look tidy and waste money. Build instead around three or four meals you cook most weeks. Using the association's own pairings, a few small shelves might look like this.

For roasted vegetables and roasted chicken: rosemary, thyme, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, and a lemon. For soups and stews: bay leaves, thyme, parsley, caraway seeds, black pepper, and cider vinegar. For fish and eggs: dill, chives, parsley, dry mustard, and lemon. For warm spiced dishes, beans, and rice: curry powder, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and allspice.

Notice how often the same five or six items reappear. That overlap is the sign of a pantry that will actually get used.

Buying small and storing well

Whole spices hold their flavor longer than ground ones, because grinding exposes far more surface to air. Peppercorns, cumin seed, coriander seed, and cinnamon sticks are worth buying whole if you will use them. Everything else is fine ground.

Buy small. A large container of a spice you use twice a year is not a bargain. Many grocery stores and food cooperatives sell spices from bulk bins by weight, which lets you buy a single tablespoon of something for less than a dollar and find out whether you like it before committing to a jar.

Store brands and the bagged spices sold in the international aisle are usually the same plant material at a fraction of the price. Whole cumin seed, turmeric, and dried chiles in particular are often several times cheaper there than in the branded spice section a few aisles over.

Parsley, chives, and basil grow on a windowsill with almost no effort and give you fresh herbs for months. Hardier herbs such as rosemary and thyme dry well if you have more than you can use.

Heat, light, air, and moisture are what dull dried herbs and spices. The rack mounted above the stove is the most convenient place in the kitchen and the worst one for the jars. A cool, dark cabinet or a drawer away from the range is better.

A few habits that cost nothing:

1. 1 Measure into your hand or a spoon rather than shaking straight from the jar over a steaming pot. Steam carries moisture into the container.
2. 2 Close jars tightly and keep them out of direct sun.
3. 3 Write the month and year on the lid when you open something. You stop guessing.
4. 4 Rub a pinch between your fingers and smell it before you cook. If there is almost no aroma, it will not season the dish no matter how much you add. Replace it or use more of something else.

These are kitchen practices rather than findings from medical research. They are worth following because a faded spice is the most common reason people conclude that seasoning without salt does not work.

Expect your taste to move

Food seasoned with less salt does taste different at first, and pretending otherwise helps no one. The American Heart Association says it may take some time for your taste buds to adjust to a lower sodium diet, without putting a number on it.

There is old and rather elegant research behind that. In a 1982 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, young adults ate a reduced sodium diet for five months after a two month baseline period, while a comparison group ate normally. The amount of salt they preferred in soup and crackers fell in the reduced sodium group and did not change in the comparison group. Crackers even tasted saltier to them than before. The authors concluded that the level of salt people prefer depends on the level they have been eating, and that the preferred level drops after intake drops. How fast that happens for any one person is not something the study answers.

A few moves make the transition easier. The American Heart Association suggests mixing lower sodium and regular versions of the same product in equal parts, which works well for broths and pasta sauces. It also suggests cooking pasta, rice, and hot cereal without salt, since other flavors will carry the dish. Tasting food before you salt it sounds obvious and is not: many of us salt by habit before the fork reaches the mouth. Draining and rinsing canned beans and vegetables can cut their sodium by up to 40 percent, according to the association. A separate article in this series covers changing a family recipe one ingredient at a time.

When the potassium in a seasoning matters

This is the one place where a seasoning choice becomes a medical question. Some salt free products are built on potassium chloride, and the amount varies widely. The National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements reports that potassium based salt substitutes range from roughly 440 to 2,800 mg of potassium per teaspoon.

For most people with healthy kidneys, potassium from food is handled without difficulty. For some people it is not. The Office of Dietary Supplements notes that when the kidneys cannot clear potassium normally, because of chronic kidney disease or medicines such as ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, or potassium sparing diuretics, even potassium intakes below the recommended amount can push blood potassium too high. That is why the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases tells people with chronic kidney disease to use spices and herbs instead of salt substitutes, which it describes as potentially high in potassium, and to limit foods listing potassium chloride among the ingredients.

If you have reduced kidney function, or you take medicines that affect potassium, ask your health care professional or pharmacist before using any salt substitute or any blend that lists potassium chloride or potassium salt. A separate article in this series works through the questions to bring to that conversation.

A pantry built from plain herbs, spices, onions, garlic, citrus, and vinegar avoids the question entirely. That is part of why the kidney institute points people toward exactly those ingredients.

Start with one dish

The fastest way to find out what belongs on your shelf is to cook something you have made a hundred times, hold back half the salt, and finish it with lemon or vinegar and whatever fresh herb is in the refrigerator. Taste it. Write down what it seemed to be missing: brightness, heat, depth, or something green on top. That note is a better shopping list than anything printed on the side of a spice rack.