Salt

I am a bit of a salt nerd. Whenever I am traveling I look for interesting local specimens, some of which I add to my own collection, and some of which I give as gifts to unwitting friends who wonder what they have done to deserve a kilo of salt instead of chocolates or some local pottery. As I was cleaning my cupboard yesterday I had quite a pile on my counter, and thought it would be fun to document the array of colors, sizes and flavors that are currently found in my pantry.

So, from the top:

::Gros Sel Gris de Guerande::
Bought in Brittany for about a Euro per kilo. It is made from evaporated seawater, and is full of minerals that lend it a rich, complex flavor. It is my standby salt in the kitchen, currently residing in my salt grinder and used for everything from salad dressing to pasta water and any run of the mill seasoning. The crystals are very wet, and range in size from teeny tiny up to a nearly centimeter in diameter.

::Fleur de sel::
Also bought in Brittany, where it is harvested when the west wind blows and forms a thin layer of salt flake on the evaporation ponds. The crystals are small and flake-shaped. Traditionally this was harvested by women, as it was considered too time consuming for the men to deal with (they would get paid by weight for the salt harvested, and as you can see this is much smaller and lighter than the grey salt). The women would then use the proceeds to buy household items. I’m guessing this has changed drastically since this salt became hip- it’s now sold for enormous amounts everywhere outside of Brittany.

::Australian Macrobiotic Sea Salt::
This is a grey, large crystal salt as well, harvested in the same manner as the salt from Guerande. I use it anywhere that calls for nice big grains of salt, like roasting chicken or seasoning meat.

::Australian Murray River Salt::
I love this salt. It is my favorite these days, with a light pink color and pyramid shaped crystals. It is harvested from the Murray River in Australia, where salination is a serious problem for grazing and farm lands, so buying it helps solve some environmental problems, too. This is the salt that I sprinkled across the top of the caramels, as the grey salts were too big, and the fleur de sel too tiny.

::Pink Himalayan Salt::
This salt is harvested in the Himalayan mountains, from deposits that were at one time ocean beds. It has a lovely pink tinge to it. It is small grained, and I use it in lieu of regular fine grained sea salt.

::Hawaiian Aelea Sea Salt::
This salt is medium grained, and has a lovely vivid pink color that comes from clay and iron oxide deposits. I use it to garnish when I want something that is going to really stand out, like a bowl of steamed edamame.

::Hawaiian Black Sea Salt::
This one is from Trader Joes. The black color comes from charcoal and it ends up staining everything it comes into contact with (including your mouth). I thought it would be an interesting garnish salt, but because the color bleeds, I just don’t end up using it much.

::Truffle Salt::
This was a gift from Justin’s sister- it is a fine grained sea salt that has been infused with truffles, and it is potent. It has an incredibly rich and deep flavor that goes well with meat.

::Fine grained iodized sea salt::
Because even in a kitchen with nine (nine! how did that happen!) kinds of salt, one needs to have a plain old fine grained salt for things like chocolate chip cookies. I pretty much only use this one for baking, when I need something that is going to dissolve easily into a batter.

Comments

[Aaron Kirschnick]

Re: fancy salts - this is a salt-lover's paradise:
http://www.salttraders.com/StoreFront.bok

Yum!