Smoked or cured anything

Bacon. Ham. Salami. Smoked salmon. Smoked turkey from the deli counter. They look like an easy protein. Open the package, done.

Here's what nobody told me: smoking and curing are salt jobs. Salt is how the meat keeps. Every smoked or cured thing I've checked has been a sodium bomb, without exception. "Natural," "artisan," "no nitrites added": none of those words touch the salt. They just make the label nicer to read.

So I stopped negotiating. Smoked or cured means no, the same way a red light means no. It saves a lot of time standing at the deli case squinting at fine print.

What I do instead is boring, and it works. I grill a whole pack of chicken breasts and freeze them in portions. When I want something quick, it's already there. And when I want that smoky flavour, smoked paprika brings the smoke without the salt.