Salt News

No matter how you approach it, saltmaking seems miraculous. Some salts are exotic because of the places they come from, or appealing because of people who made them, or amazing because of the techniques used to make them. Some salts are intrinsically beautiful, or especially delicious, or just plain cool. On the opposite side of things, some salts–often of the industrial sort–are ugly to look at, and their origins are repugnant. You can see the intrinsic qualities of all the salt you want by visiting our shop (we stock over 100 now). But unless you enjoy vast wealth and plenty of leisure time for travel, you’ll have a heck of a time seeing even a fraction of the places where salt is made.

For the next few months I’ll post favorite videos of saltmaking around the world. Some salt manufacturing facilities are filthy affairs where bulldozers groan amidst the thunder of dynamite. Others are tranquil places where all you hear is birdsong and the rustle of marsh grasses over the occasional laugh or murmur of an artisan practicing thousand year old saltmaking traditions. While the two extremes are related through the universal human need for salt, salt from the former finds its way to our tables only as a refined byproduct of a far vaster industrial need for salt. Salt from the latter makes you want to travel, talk, learn, cook, and eat.

This is one of the best videos I know describing artisan saltmaking at Malta. The Gozo salt pans located on Xwieni Bay have been been producing salt at least since Phoenician times. (The megalithic structures of Gozo date from 3600-3000 BC and there is every likelihood that salt was part of the economy that thrived there) The use of some modern equipment doesn’t diminish the charm and weird beauty of Gozo salt.

Mark Bitterman :: Feb.14.2010 :: News & Musings, Salt Appreciation :: 1 Comment »

My friend Michael Ruhlman has shared his thoughts on salt.  He suggests using Kosher, a fine grind of so-called fine Sea Salt, and a finishing salt of choice.

I have a thought that speaks to both of our perspectives on salt.  Ruhlman ’s book, Soul of the Chef, is a brilliant account of what’s involved in the technical mastery of cooking.  But implicit in the story (and sometimes explicit) is the importance of the ingredient.  Thomas Keller is a technical master, but he is also the consummate curator of ingredients.

The tension between technique and ingredient is age-old.  In the history of food there has always been a fight between technique and ingredient.  Cultures tend to come out on one side or the other: French, the technique; Italian, the ingredient.  This tension also plays out through trends and influences:  molecular gastronomy is about technique; Alice Waters is about ingredient.  As he describes so well, Keller is not only a master technician, he also emblematizes the age-old concept “honor the animal” and “honor the vegetable,” meaning use your ingredients fully and respectfully.

Keller also honors the mineral.

Keller’s strategic, creative, mindful use of natural, unique salts has been a major inspiration for me in my life and work.  If fact, I can think of no other person (outside Japan) who has so fully grasped the essential link between the technical perfection of cooking and the elemental imperative of good salt.  Several of the over 100 salts we carry in our store I discovered through Keller.

But, in conclusion, I will say that I totally agree three salts are enough for any household.  But they should be salts that reflect your values as a chef no less than the grade of meat or freshness of vegetable.  Coarse, moist Sel Gris for all around cooking and hearty foods like grilled and roasted meats and roots.  Delicate, irregular crystals of Fleur de Sel for subtler, moist foods like fish, sauced foods, and cooked vegetables.  Parchment fine Flake Salts for fresh vegetables and wherever you want a dramatic salty snap.  We have the Foundations Set at The Meadow to help with this.

The technical skill required for using salt masterfully is easy as pie (or easier: crust is a bear).  And finding good salts is easier now than ever.  My book will be coming out this fall in an effort to help matters along.  Honor the mineral!

Mark Bitterman :: Feb.02.2010 :: Cooking with Salt, Finishing Salts, In the Press, News & Musings :: No Comments »

Popcorn is serious food for most of us.  It’s one of those snacks–the more fun you have making it, the more serious the result.  A dance of fluffy crunch, butter, and salt, there is probably no food better suited to stuffing with child-like abandon into your mouth.  But getting back to the serious part.  Making great popcorn means using great salt.  Indulging in alternative popcorn face-stuffing experiences means exploring different salts.  The Meadow’s Popcorn Salt Set is the ultimate popcorn eater’s companion.

Papohaku Opal Sea Salt – This is the “beautiful, super fruity, buttery salt from Hawaii” we raved about in The Oregonian. This is hand harvested sea salt from Molokai Hawaii, one of the more beautiful salts you are likely to find anywhere. We recommend that you grind this salt onto your popcorn, for a flavor combination of “super-buttered movie theater popcorn, amusement park caramel corn and something you might nibble on in the plush shadows of the Ritz bar in Paris.”

Amabito No Moshio Sea Salt – Adapted from a 2,000-year-old method for salt making in Japan, this is probably the first salt ever regularly made on the island. Salt was made by dragging seaweed from the ocean onto the rocks on the shore, letting the brine dry off, and then repeatedly sprinkling water on again and letting it dry, until a thick crust of salt built up. On the seaweed.  Water was then gingerly rinsed off to make a concentrated brine that was then evaporated over fire to yield salt. The resulting superfine, almost moussey crystals have a savory flavor called Umami, which the Japanese have for centuries distinguished as a flavor category of its own. Sprinkled on popcorn, Amabito No Moshio provides a hearty, savory flavor almost like pasta speckled with Parmesan cheese minus the pasta Parmesan: it’s only the intensity of the flavors that you experience.

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Mark Bitterman :: Dec.17.2009 :: Cooking with Salt, Finishing Salts, Flavored Salts :: 1 Comment »

Without visiting a museum, it’s virtually impossible to appreciate the unbridled passion for salt held by virtually society since the dawn of human civilization, and probably before.

Reverence for the universally loved mineral was such that enthusiastic eaters would commission the greatest artists of the time to create repositories for the prized salts.

Goldsmith Joe Gentry Haemer has visited our store on a more or less daily basis since we opened in 2006.  When she proposed to make a salt cellar, we didn’t hesitate to encourage her. That was… back, maybe, in 2007.

After more than a year in the works, her masterpiece is finished.   A solid sterling silver salt cellar with accompanying silver and gold scallion salt spoon.  The lid of the cellar opens up to to reveal a 24 karat gold inlay bowl and lid. The entire thing was molded and hand chased by hand, and is wonderfully unique in this world.

We immediately gave it a test drive, filling it with an exotic beauty, the magnificent new Hana Flake salt from Japan.  We featured both in a zany dinner that finished with cubes of dark chocolate and fresh strawberries served on a block of Himalayan Salt, served with a nice Muscat de Rivesaltes dessert wine from the beautiful southwest of France. Jo’s beautiful salt cellar elevating the dining experience, bringing a dearly missed sense of the table’s precious and pivotal role in our lives and our shared history.

If only we could keep it!  The one and only Salt Cellar by Joe Gentry Haemer is for sale at The Meadow.  Inquiries should be directed to Jennifer Bitterman at 888-388-4633.

Mark Bitterman :: Dec.14.2009 :: Grinders & Accessories :: No Comments »

Poultry loves a brine.  The major advantage to brining is that it adds moisture to lean low moisture meats – turkey is a prime candidate.  In addition to more moisture brined turkey has more tender flesh and a plumper texture.

A brine is a salt solution that denatures protein. This means the salt in the brine unravels the spiral formation of the protein molecules resulting in many more places for water to bond onto the meat. For some lean turkey meat or low-moisture pork (especially ribs), brining can add up to 10% moisture.  But not all brines are created equal.

Most brine recipes call for an industrially-refined salt such as kosher or table salt.  Such salts lack the beautiful magnesium, potassium, and calcium salts that occur naturally, and make for a flatter, duller salt sensation—to say nothing of the 80 other sundry minerals that are found in unrefined salt.  Many salts marketed as “sea salt,” manufactured in huge industrial salt evaporators optimized for yield and global industrial purity standards are stripped of their natural minerals, as well,  Brines are straight forward – a solution of salt, water, sugar and spices – and whatever you put in them gets absorbed in the meat, so you should take care with what you use.  Please use natural salt in your brine.  It makes a huge difference.

I recommend any natural sel gris (aka gray salt, or gros sel) for brining.  A 2 pound 6 ounce bag of excellent sel gris costs $12, and it will leave you with plenty left over for sprinkling on candied yams as a finishing salt, not to mention on buttered crusty Thanksgiving dinner rolls.  In fact, the bag will easily take you through the holidays and into the new year.  Sel gris is just about as old-school beautiful as any salt made.  Plus, all sel gris are especially rich in trace minerals, insuring a flavor that is balanced and full. Actually, there’s another plus: minerals in the salt are absorbed into the turkey along with the water, so you get more of all the good things salt has to offer.

Ingredients and recipe for a 16 lb bird.

• 1 1/2 cup sel gris (gray salt) or natural traditional sea salt
• 2 gallons of cold water. Like the salt, the water should be good. (I err on the safe side and avoid tap water, which contains lots of chlorine. Instead, buy a few jugs of spring water of some sort, and your turkey will not smell like a swimming pool.)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 medium-sized branches rosemary
• 6 sprigs thyme
• 6 leaves sage
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and gently crushed
• 9 fat peppercorns, preferably, Parameswaran’s pepper, with it’s succulent lemon-zesty-eucalyptusy-cardamom spice flavors

Bring 2 cups of the water to a boil, mixing in all the above ingredients, mixing to dissolve the salt as much as possible. Let the water cool for half an hour, then combine back with remaining water to make your brine. Put turkey in double layer food grade plastic bag breast down, pour cold brine solution over bird, get all excess air of out of bag and tie off. Place bagged brined bird in fridge and let soak for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Remove bird from fridge, pat dry very thoroughly, and rub with a thin film of olive oil.  Stuff with the stuffing of your choice, truss to hold stuffing in place, and roast. Cook until the internal temperature of the bird (at the inner thick part of the thigh) is 165°F, about 2 1/2 hours. I know this doneness temperature might be lower than what you are used to.  Many older cookbooks call for roasting turkey to 180°F.  This is excessive.  Bacteria (including salmonella bacteria) is killed at 145°F and roasting poultry much beyond 165°F dries it out.  In the case of a brined bird roasting to too high a temperature can drain out all the moisture you took so much time to get in there.  You’ll get much better results be stopping roasting at 165°F.

Allow the roasted turkey to sit for 20 minutes before carving (you can cover it loosely with foil or a clean towel if you want); a rest period will help the bird retain its juices and firm the meat for easier carving.

Scoop the stuffing into a serving bowl; carve and serve.

Mark Bitterman :: Nov.19.2009 :: Brining, Cooking with Salt, Recipes :: 5 Comments »