Salt News

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 »