I was tempted to buy some very expensive Black Salt recently (from Hawaii?) but then woke up and asked myself what on earth I'd do with it.
Above is just a selection of my different salts, from damp grey Sel de Guérande to Australian Wild Herb Salt, and my favourite Celery Salt. I could tell you what they're all used for, but I'd be here until midnight.
I suppose we should all eat LESS salt, but I seem to be eating (or at least buying) more.
Are you are salt aficionado?
48 comments:
Salt has even become gourmet here. Salt flakes, flower of salt, Himalayan, cave rock salt. Used to be just coarse salt for the olives, semi coarse for salting and fine with or without iodine for the table. Oh and the celery and garlic and heaven knows what else salt is also popular at the moment. We go the traditional....of course. Plain old salt, with iodine, and try not to use too much - losing battle.
It seems that the more careful we are with the salt , there are more types of salt,I use "gros sel de l'ile de re'" what ever it is, i just cheked it.
Made in France...
I'm pleased to hear that it's international. When I was small, salt was salt.
The Isle de Ré is a small island off the West coast of France, in the Atlantic. The salt from there is highly regarded, although I'm not sure quite why.
Anything Australian with wild in it, is the one to use...scrap the others:)
We use Fleur de sel de Camargue for our posh cooking. So important to get the balance right - over salting can spoil a meal. (Today we are using Paxo table salt because I can't find anything else in Sarah's kitchen!)
I haven't opened the Wild Herbs one yet.
The one I use most is the grey damp-ish Sel de Guerande.
Don't use salt either for cooking or at table, just for preparation of chutney and pickles/
And yes, in my for-off younger days salt was salt, Saxa if memory serves me correctly.
I remember that our salt had a picture of a boy salting the tail of a chicken. Was that Saxa; I think it was.
Whatever that salt was Cro (the one with the boy and the chicken) we grew up with it in NZ too. Here sea salt from the rocky shores of the Mani is the most highly prized.
I've remembered now, it was Cerebos Salt.
I buy Anglesey Sea Salt at 5 quid a time. I haven't a clue why but I tend to get carried away when I'm in Waitrose.
Is that £5 for a 10 Kilo bag?
I love salt and I really crave it in the summer when I'm sweating at work. I only tend to use sea salt and table salt though. I have brought a cure kit for some beef I've got but haven't used it yet.
Like Rachel, I buy the Anglesey salt from Waitrose and, like Rachel ' God knows why' 'cos it's so expensive.
I''m afraid that I have to have salt on my food ..... how on earth could you eat a tomato without salt or anything else for that matter ?!!!!! XXXX
Yes, I also have many varieties of salt, my favorite being Crazy Mixed-Up Salt and Garlic Salt.
We buy huge sacks of cheap sea salt for curing Pork; something you never see in UK supermarkets.
Absolutely; I'm quite a big consumer of salt, even though I know I shouldn't be.
Garlic and salt usually go together, so why not in one pot?
I buy Maldon salt, hand gathered in Essex. It's good. The black exotic salts are just coloured by their environment, but I suppose the colouring may have trace minerals. I like celery salt on eggs. In general, I eat far less salt than I used to and find many restaurant food inedible because of too much. This is because you need less as you get older, and your body tells you not to induce a stroke or heart-attack, I think.
I don't get it salt is salt! It is a chemical how can different salts taste anything but salty?? Most of our canned goods here in the States have way too much sodium, so I cook without it and add it at the table
There's obviously a lot of hot air involved in the marketing of all these different salts. I prefer them to be as natural as possible.
Everything seems to contain either far too much salt or far too much sugar.... you take your choice.
Instead of NaCl we have bought Low-Salt which is KCl - potassiun chloride. A few years ago it was thought to be better for my husband, but now we just don't bother with any (or at least not very much).
There is something exotic about salting your food with Himalayan pink salt. I bout the black salt and it does have a different taste.
And don't forget the movement that changed the world when Ghandi and his followers ant to gather their own salt. Surprised they don't sell Ghandi salt.
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I'm sure they do somewhere, Donna. I've only had the black salt once, and did think that it was very sophisticated and exotic. I don't think it tasted any different though.
I remember Low-Salt being very popular years ago.
I use Baldene. I was in Sarasota Florida recently and while dining out ordered an appetizer that consisted of fresh mozerella and sliced tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic. It was served on a 1" thick slab of pink Himalayan sea salt. As the cheese and tomatoes sat on the slab, the salt was absorbed and it was just delicious. As well as a beautiful presentation. I asked about cleaning the slab. They run it through the dishwasher and when they get too thin, the chef grinds it up to cook with.
Thousands of tourist mainly Japanese and Chinese flock to the old celtic salt mines at Hallstatt where they are given a conducted tour and a small souvenir packet of the white gold that is salt. Underground you get to go on a salt miners slide down to the lower levels and a camera takes your photo and records your speed - about 30 km per hour as you pass the midpoint. In China there's is now a full scale replica been created of the village below the salt mine. The salt extracted from the mines was transported in flowing water through a system of hollowed out tree trunks, said to be the world's oldest pipeline. At the other end the salt was removed from the water and transported to where it was required. In the winter fires were lit at regular intervals under the tree trunks to the prevent wooden pipeline from freezing solid. The salt is produced is known as Ischler Saltz.
I very little salt in my cooking, and just buy basic Morton's Iodized Salt, in the dark blue cylindrical cardboard container with the metal spout on top. Morton's label features a little blonde girl in a yellow dress, shielded from a rain shower by a large white umbrella. Their motto continues to be "when it rains, it pours."
I see and admire the packaging of all sorts of exotic salts from all over the world for sale at my grocery shop, but just walk on by.
Best wishes.
I used to adore celery salt but sadly the farmer can't bear celery, so that has gone out of the window now.
Sodium Chloride from ICI is about as natural as you can get - by the ton.
Nice variety! Julia loves salt--my ocean child. I'm always telling her to cut down and yet still find her sneaking a bit on her tongue as I walk into the kitchen. I bought a Himalayan salt stone last year and she's worn it smooth.Maybe she's a deer.
I love to eat salt, clean with salt, cook with salt and make soap from salt. I feed it to the cows and the horses and the chicks but never the pigs. No never the pigs because pigs cannot sweat. But when they come back from the locker I smother the chops with sea salt so I guess you could say, the pigs do eventually get salt.
Me too . I don't use any salt during cooking so that the individual has control over the amount. A result of being brought up by a mother who loaded everything she cooked with salt.
A good friend of ours a vegetarian who is healthy obsessed and has been passing out has been diagnosed with.. you guessed it.Lack of salt
That sounds interesting, as well as practical. I wonder where they get their slabs from.
Wow, I'd love to see that, and have a ride on that slide.
I know the picture well, and the motto. Salt seems to attract some very good advertising.
I use it on fried or boiled eggs; I couldn't have any other.
I've not heard of these salt slabs before; I must look out for one.
The Cows and Horses here usually have a salt lick somewhere in their fields. Pork and salt seem to go together, especially when it comes to Charcuterie.
My veggie son and wife won't use Iodised salt; they think it'll kill them. They both seem to have less energy than us.
When I was a child I remember occasionally seeing people with bulging eyes and goiters, which was a sign of lack of iodine. Iodized salt was introduced as a public health measure and one rarely sees people with goiters these days. Your veggie son probably doesn't eat seafood, so how does he get the iodine his body needs?
In my kitchen we have iodized sea salt, kosher salt, pickling salt, and some pinkish stuff that my husband bought from a health store. But how about vinegar? I have at least 9 different kinds (and use them all.)
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