http://www.saltnews.com Exploring the world of gourmet salt Sun, 18 May 2008 15:19:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm not super self-aware, except at times--though even then much of my sense of self-awareness stems from the recognition that I often have no idea what I'm doing or thinking.Jennifer has called my attention, more than once, to a habit I have of cracking my knuckles when approaching someone who ... http://www.saltnews.com/true-love-and-other-fun-things-gourmet-sea-salt-self-awareness/ Interested in Gourmet Salt? Start reading here. No one knows whether the practice of salting food originated with religious rites, as an experiment with flavor, or with some chance observation of its curative properties, but earliest man recognized the culinary and dietary importance of the salt crystals that formed naturally ... http://www.saltnews.com/from-caveman-to-connoisseur-the-history-of-gourmet-salt/ I just returned from an exhilarating trip back east to meet up with a bunch of foodwriters. I hope to have some good written up in the days to come. I gave a presentation on salt at the end of the event and was giddy as a schoolboy ... http://www.saltnews.com/a-memory-of-making-salt-in-guatemala/ I have been meaning to share a link to a good article by a professional chef on his experience with Himalayan salt blocks. IDEAS IN FOOD: Improvisation and experimentation in the kitchen, written by Chefs Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot, has a huge readership, and for good reason: they are ... http://www.saltnews.com/check-out-ideas-in-food/ I don't intend to spill an inordinate amount of ink on Himalayan salt blocks at the expense of other fine saline subjects, but there are enough inquiries from customers these days that a short series on the practical side of working with plates of Himalayan salt seems warranted. There are dozens ... http://www.saltnews.com/heating-cleaning-storing-himalayan-salt-blocks/ The beautiful thing about cooking with a plate of pink Himalayan salt plates is that the material is about as predictable and well-behaved as a shaved cat in an electrical storm. At least that is how it appears when you first start to use them. Salt is hygroscopic, ... http://www.saltnews.com/how-to-talk-to-your-himalayan-salt-plate/ Soy salt is crispy, frothy, mild, savory, and suavely unassuming. Meaty and bready and sea-weedy and saucy at the same time. Soy salt: a salt that walks through a room, like an Asian James Bond (Chow Yun Fat?) approaching the craps table, a man with tigershark eyes ... http://www.saltnews.com/soy-salt/ There was Iburi Jio cherry smoked sea salt from Japan in the cupboard. There was a lone, single, solitary pork loin in the refrigerator. The Iburi-Jio cherry roasted sea salt in our household needs no explanation (think popcorn, think steak, think summer squash, think sashimi, think buttered toast, ... http://www.saltnews.com/the-forgotten-pig-and-the-iburi-jio-cherry-smoked-sea-salt/ Brining your turkey, or salt brining any bird for that matter, is a no brainer. Preparing the brine takes minutes and a brined turkey (or brined chicken or brined game hen or brined pigeon or brined pheasant) has more flavor that is better balanced, and has a firmer, ... http://www.saltnews.com/sea-salt-and-spring-water-brined-turkey-manifestorecipe/ A while back I promised some photos of Maldon's new smoked entry into the salt sphere. Here they are, along with some flavor and usage notes.I am eating some of Freddy Guys' freshly dry-roasted hazelnuts and drinking a glass of Amnesia Brewing's excellent copacetic IPA, which they sell to-go in ... http://www.saltnews.com/maldons-smoked-seasalt-review/