Salt News

At The Meadow we spend a lot of time talking with people in the shop about how to achieve the best flavor, texture, beauty, and nutrition in food.  Our mission is to help people find the salts and salting techniques that provide the best results for their tastes.  What we do not talk about is restricting sodium intake.  More on that later.

A new study, “Can Dietary Sodium Intake Be Modified by Public Policy?” published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology asserts that public health policy is neither a justified nor a productive way to regulate individual sodium intake:

As the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are currently under development and regulations surrounding sodium consumption are being considered, an analysis of evidence to be released online Thursday, Oct. 15, in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) questions the scientific logic and feasibility of the decades-long effort to limit salt intake in humans.

After examining data from sodium intake studies worldwide and a critical body of neuroscience research on sodium appetite (innate behaviors that drive us to consume salt), researchers from the Department of Nutrition at the University of California, Davis, and the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Washington University found compelling evidence indicating that humans naturally regulate their salt intake within a narrowly defined physiologic range.

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Mark Bitterman :: Oct.18.2009 :: News & Musings :: 3 Comments »

For two years now the saltmakers of Brittany, France, have watched the summer come and go without the appearance of so much as a grain of fleur de sel.  The fleur de sels from Guérande and the neighboring saltmaking villages of Ile de Ré and Ile de Noirmoutier have suffered the same plight.  And then this, as highlighted in “Le Telegramme”:

After two disastrous years, the salt fields of Guérande have reason to smile. The season was long and good. The 190 members of the cooperative of producers, «Les salines de Guérande», have harvested 14,000 tons of sel gris, which about or two thirds of the total production on the Guérande salt fields.  The remainder is produced by independent producers.  Add to this 650 tons of fleur de sel, their premium product.  This harvest is sufficient to provide the cooperative with three and a half years of reserves.

There have been rumors that fleur de sel has fallen into such short supply that the French have actually been forced to buy fleur de sel from Portugal and Mexico.  I’ve visited a number of the producers and cooperatives in Brittany and never found one that didn’t claim to still have reserves of their salt on hand, though none of them seemed terribly smug about it.  Now, 650 tons of fine fleur de sel, 14,000 tons coarse sel gris…  I can sleep at night again.

Mark Bitterman :: Oct.16.2009 :: News & Musings :: No Comments »

One of the best tasting flavors in Japanese cuisine is paradoxically one of the least appreciated in American cooking.  Maboroshi Plum Salt captures the flavor and delivers it to you as a psychedelic flamingo purple-pink powderized salt form: a miracle of sorts.  But how to use it?  Rice balls, white fish sashimi, a salted olive martini flight like the one at Alu, a great new bar in town?  Blake Van Roekel an instructor at the Robert Reynolds Chefs Studio sent me a recipe the other day that takes things in yet another direction.  Blake runs Keuken, an “eating by design” dinner series that brings together artist, chef, and diner in a collaborative evening feast.  Thanks Blake!

Asian Pear & Pomegranate Salad with Marboroshi Plum Finishing Salt
I used a very simple dressing as to not mask the salt, and the fruits themselves have juice and flavor. Also I just drizzled the lemon and olive oil on the salad after plating so that the salt would not dissolve immediately upon hitting a liquid (however, the salt looks beautiful upon the white flesh of the pear as it dissolves). It is a very clean and simple salad. Components of the menu for the entire meal fold in aspects of Asian cuisine or preparation, similar to the construes of the salad. Part of the inspiration of this course comes from how raw fruit is sometimes eaten in parts of Asia – dipped in salt.

Serves 6
1 Asian pear
1 pomegranate
young salad greens
1/4 lb aged chevre (Jasper Hill, Constant Bliss – it was excellent!)
mild, high-quality olive oil (Sylver Leaf, Foothills blend was perfect)
juice from 1/2 lemon
Marboroshi Plum finishing salt

To prepare, slice the pear into 1/8″ slices. Remove the pomegranate seeds and place in a bowl. Slice the cheese into 1/4″ slices and cut in half on the diagonal. To compose the salad, weave the pear slices amongst the salad greens, sprinkle the pomegranate seeds on top, and place the cheese to one end of the salad. Drizzle with olive
oil and a squeeze of lemon. To finish, sprinkle the salt around the edge of the plate and the salad itself. Enjoy!

Mark Bitterman :: Oct.09.2009 :: Gourmet Salt, Uncategorized :: No Comments »