Himalayan Salt…Really?

MATTHEW2 COMMENTSFROM THE LUNCH BOX, REVOLUTION

Jun 15

 6 0 0 94

La Tomate's Salt at the Prosciutto Bar

So I was online the other day and wanted to know: why all these new, fancy-ass salts?

I’m so obsessed with collecting them, I feel almost a childlike thrill, like I used to back in the days of my childhood collecting Lincoln pennies or Mercury dimes.

[These first three images from LA TOMATE are by PHOTOGRAPHYBYALEXANDER

(A special thanks to Alexander Mozorov for the opportunity to use his photos above!)]

Puglia Sea Salt

I love walking through salt sections at supermarkets. It’s become an obsession bordering on the ridiculous. It all started at the American Library Association convention in Toronto many years ago. The ST. LAWRENCE MARKETstall vendor was pushing me away from all the other salt options and towards sea salt flakes.

Lava Sea Salt and Friends at La Tomate

I wasn’t entirely sure this was a good idea, as freshly ground salt had already grabbed ahold of me thanks to my sister’s job at Williams-Sonoma and her purchase of salt grinders for the cooks in the family. At any rate, he vacuum-packed the flakes for me so I could transport them…at the time they weren’t selling them in the nice and tidy labelled box. I felt like I was transporting cocaine back into the states.

Since then, I mean for reals, it’s hell getting me out of covered markets and stores that specialize in salts and spices. I cannot explain any more than my opening paragraph: it’s like coin collecting. Just try getting me out ofKALUSTYAN’S IN CURRY HILL (the Empire State Building-area of Manhattan) without a lengthy trip through each packet of salt.

But recently, after returning to my trusty William-Sonoma salt grinder, I realized that for a grilled steak hot off the coals, I don’t want anything to touch that seared flesh except the freshly ground zing of salt. Maybe some freshly ground pepper too. So, like I was saying…I was online the other day and wanted to know: why all these new, fancy-ass salts?

ALL ABOUT SALT called out to me:

“Let’s start with a short quiz. Please answer these questions to the best of your ability, and no peeking at your neighbor’s answers.

1. Salt is…

A. The only mineral commonly consumed by humans

B. Also known as halite

C. An ionic compound of poisonous gas and a volatile metal

D. All of the above

Kalustyan's Salt

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2. The only difference between ordinary table salt and gourmet sea salt is…

A. Flavor

B. Chemical composition

C. Nutritional value

D. Price

3. Choose the statements that are true:

A. Excess salt may be removed from a soup or stew by boiling a potato in the liquid

B. Salted water takes longer to boil than unsalted water

C. Only salt labeled “sea salt” actually comes from the sea

D. None of the above statements are true”

Kalustyan's Even More Salt

The answers to these questions are more complicated than they appear. And  all answers most of which will surprise you are in this blogpost HERE.

What’s remarkable about salt is how on earth it ever came to be a premium, high-end product. What used to be something you steal from diners when it’s three in the morning (because you’re a college student cramming for finals) has become something adults crave like fine wine.

Honestly, I never really started salting anything until that damned TOM COLICCHIO said during one of the first seasons of “Top Chef:”

“This is good, but it doesn’t have enough salt.” This blurt was how he condemned one young chef’s creation and sent him to the bottom of the pack.

I cannot recall a time as a child or a twentysomething that food needed to be salted. I think as we age, food gets bland because we torment our palettes with binge drinking and smoking and other tastebud killers. Drink red wine and see what glass three tastes like in comparison to glass one. Not so much.

So salt, lowly salt, has had to take on such importance on the shelves of cooking stores around the country–probably the world–because adults cannot control themselves. Aristotilian restraint has gone the way of the dodo.

Jean Talon Marché

I was in Montreal, Québec, (Oh! and get ready, I’m going back in July/August, so there’ll be a week of posts from there in early/mid August!) and went on a whirlwind tour of the farmers markets there in search of the almighty salt. JEAN TALON and ATWATER had simply exquisite salts options and entire stores devoted to the fine grain and other fine foods. I left having dropped a pretty penny on the stuff.

But in the end…it’s best sprinkled on a fresh quail egg laid gracefully over spring asparagus. Sometimes the minerals make it seem more exceptional, but in fact, my palette is probably just shot and all it really does is to drive taste for me. Salt makes the taste of the things we eat a little more pronounced. More eggy in the case of a fresh quail egg over asparagus. A little more asparagussy for asparagus.

In fact, there really isn’t a flavor per se that sets the gourmet salts apart.

I wonder, how did so many get so hoodwinked into purchasing so much for so little bang. How can you gain control over your fetish?

My recommendations:

• Buy a salt grinder (I did, it was a cool gadget!), they release the zing of salt much more profoundly than powdered salt, and maintain the zing with every use. They also cut down on your overall use of salt.
• Eschew fancy powdered salts from the Himalayas and such. Haleakala in Maui is a great place to visit–even bike down at dawn–but for salt…give you souvenir salt to your mother when you return.
• If you must use pre-ground salt, just pinch fleur de sel on your food very lightly. The zip will remain as the food heats the salt and dissolves.
• Oh, and that guy in St. Lawrence Market was totally right: those sea salt flakes are terrific. Grab some of those when all else fails.

- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/salt/?preview=true&preview_id=3298&preview_nonce=c4ab080b06#sthash.74O4IJUo.dpuf