BADOP! Founder's Tins Available Now

Hey folks!

A few years ago, as I was wrapping up work on my book, The Wok, I started thinking more about MSG and ways to get folks to use it more effectively in the kitchen.

Today, I’m proud to introduce BADOP!

It’s a blend of kosher salt and MSG designed to make all of your food taste better, using the recipes you already love and the same habits you already have. Our Super Frienjis have had access for a couple of weeks, and starting today, it’s available to everyone at badop.co.

Since it was first isolated from sea kelp in 1909, MSG has been the not-so-secret ingredient that makes food richer, more savory, and deeper in flavor. Growing up it was just a standard seasoning. My grandmother and mother both kept a shaker of MSG right next to the salt, pepper, and sugar, and we used it in our everyday cooking to enhance the flavor of everything from our breakfast rice bowls to pasta sauce to soup. This was not unusual for a Japanese household where MSG crystals or stocks laced with natural MSG extracted from sea kelp have been a pantry staple for centuries.

These days, more and more folks in the West are getting familiar with MSG and its flavor-enhancing powers. But the questions I get most frequently are very practical: How do I use it? How much should I add? At what point in cooking should I be adding it?

Those questions are exactly what led to the creation of BADOP!

The idea is simple: Swap your pinch of salt for a pinch of BADOP! in all of your favorite recipes—sweet or savory—and your food will just taste better, no extra work required.

Season your steaks. Dry-brine your chicken. Sprinkle it on a salad or some buttered popcorn. Pinch it onto a burger before smashing it on the griddle. Use it in chocolate chip cookies or butterscotch pudding. Sprinkle some onto a chilled, sliced cucumber (my favorite childhood snack). Add it to a dirty martini or make this BADOP! Gochujang Michelada.

Season onigiri and sushi rice. Cook your beans with it. Add it to your chili or beef stew. Sprinkle it into your broth to find flavors you didn’t know existed in there. Season your pasta water for deeper, more savory pasta. Add it to your pizza dough in place of salt. Season your omelettes and dry-brine your Thanksgiving turkey.

Put it this way: I’ve yet to find a single case where replacing salt with BADOP! has not made my food taste better.

The ingredients are simple: pure salt and pure MSG, nothing more. But getting them right took a year of development and experimentation. I wanted the right ratio for everyday cooking, with grain sizes that keep the salt and MSG evenly mixed and make the blend easy to pinch between your fingertips and sprinkle evenly over your food, just like my favorite kosher salt. We put it in a flip-top tin that’s easy to open whenever you need a pinch. (It’s also pretty cute, don’t you think?)

We’re launching with our Founder’s Tin, an extra-large tin containing 8.5 ounces of our Salt+MSG blend. Every Founder’s Tin purchase comes with 5% off future orders for one year, plus early access to the seasoning blends we have planned for the coming year. There are a limited number of these first tins, with regular tins to follow.

To our Super Frienjis who got in early: Thank you for being part of this from the start. I’m really proud of what we’ve made, and I’m excited to finally share it with everyone.

I hope it earns a spot next to your stove.

Get your BADOP! Founder’s Tin here at badop.co today 🔗