Specialty Sea Salts: do you use them?

[Jenise]

This weekend, for my lobsterfest, one of the appetizers I served was sticks of English cucumber tossed with Hawaiian black lava salt. It's jet black and shiny, jewel-like--the most beautiful salt I've ever seen. And not all that salty, so a liberal toss adds only a mild salt flavor. The green and white cucumbers, crusted with these black diamonds and lined up back to back like road blocks on a jet black Asian plate, looked stunning. Never have I served a plain vegetable that got so much attention.

Except for one couple, none of my guests even knew this kind of salt existed, and so the container had to be shown as well as some of the other salts that I own and use. Like the smoked Salish salt from here in Washington state that I love to toss with boiled Edamame pods, and the truffle salt I'd sprinkled over the cayenne crab toasts for this same party.

These aren't salts just for seasoning. You wouldn't throw a handful into your chili con carne. They're showy salts for condiment purposes to be sprinkled on just at the point of service. It's amazing how much being able to see the salt makes one aware of the salt flavor. Too, the texture is usually spectacular and adds a whole 'nother dimension to simple foods, as my cuke-munchers were so surprised to realize on Saturday.

The black lava and Salish salts I have came from a company called Artisan Salts. If I were to totally give in to my slutty side I'd no doubt have to have the pale pink salt from Australia's Murray River, the lavendar salt from Cypress and the other Hawaiian salt that's a lovely shade of tomato soup red. It's probably only a matter of time before I succomb.

I also have some mixed sea salts. A truffle sea salt I bought at a little cheese shop in Skagit Valley, and a mixed herb sea salt that I use as a roasted meat rub came from Italy. Funny, when I got it two years ago the name meant nothing to me, but now I recognize 'Vignalta' as a very fine winery in the Veneto.

I love these salts. Any other fans?

[Robin Garr]

Guilty!

We've been using Murray River pink flake salt (also from Artisan Salts) for quite a while, since a nice little local wine shop (Gemelli) started selling them. I view it, frankly, as pricey but not truly extravagant. It's $11 for a four-ounce bottle, which might sound crazy when you compare it to Morton's, but it's not like I'm using it to salt pasta water or something. A shaker devoted to table use lasts two or three months, and at that rate it's not that much of an indulgence - three months of salt ... three tall skim lattes. <shrug>

I love the way it looks, its mild, sweet, mellow taste, and best of all, I love the way the sharp-edged flakes cling to food.

And yes, recently I got a supply of Hawaiian black lava salt. About the same price, but it will last much, much longer, as I only use it sparingly in special applications where the color or texture is important. I don't think you mentioned its fun crunchy texture with a little explosion of salt flavor in each crunch. (I don't think this will work for you, but I love to sprinkle a little starburst of it over a sunnyside-up fried egg ... )

I've also looked at a couple of high-end smoked salts and a truffle salt, but frankly, I think I'd rather get those flavors in other ways, so I haven't succumbed. Yet.

But I do think that for the serious cook - assuming you're not on a strict budget - extreme salts like this are well worth what's really a trivial price, if you don't make the mistake of comparing it to Morton's. It's NOT Morton's, after all.

Maldon Sea Salt has won several taste tests and is about 65 cents an ounce. Check it out. Cook's Illustrated recommends it as well.

Yep. We use about 4 different specialty salts, including a smoked salt. I tend not to cook with salt for health reasons, so these all get used as finishing salts.

We have a small ceramic flat dish about 4 inches by 2 inches that we keep filled with Maldon Sea Salt on the table. By far the most popular salt we use.

We carry just about every salt under the sun at Central Market. I recently did baked halibut topped with the Hawaiian black salt and diced yellow tomatoes. It was very cool looking.

Sauteed scallops topped with pink salt is very cool, too.

rwj

[Jenise]

Maldon Sea Salt has won several taste tests and is about 65 cents an ounce. Check it out. Cook's Illustrated recommends it as well.

Maldon's my basic everyday finishing salt, Bucko. Love the stuff. Has the best texture of any salt I've ever used. But I go to the others when a different color or flavor will add something special.

Me!

I love 'em.

That truffle sea salt is awesome stuff.

But I like them all. Hawaian red. Grey. Lavender. On and on.

Jenise: try some of the salts on grapefruit. Or some ripe sliced tomatoes arrayed on a plate, with a different salt on each slice.

Hey, I just had some cocktail peanuts in a hotel bar in Jacksonville last week. Wondered why they tasted so extra crunchy and tasty. Checked the can: sea salt.

I've also looked at a couple of high-end smoked salts and a truffle salt, but frankly, I think I'd rather get those flavors in other ways, so I haven't succumbed. Yet.

Succumb already.

[Jenise]

Hoke, grapefruit? Never thought of salting grapefruit, I'll have to try it. I adore salted canteloupe, so it's not as if salting fruit is foreign to me.

Robin, did too mention the texture! It's really the most important thing about these salts and fleur de sels, more important than the flavor as long as it's not overly salty--I have had some gray salts that I thought were way too salty. And I agree, they're not expensive at all, not for added exquisiteness. It only gets pricey when you decide that you need to have one of every color, as I tend to do.

Cynthia, wish I could keep a dish like that on the table. Unfortunately, my felines would stomp in it.

i have the Murray River pink flakes...I am all about salt, but I am SOOOO about texture. I don't use it to cook with, just to finish with...those flakes, the crunch, the flavor...I just love it.

I used black salt from India in the past (Robin were you at my indian dinner? When we all wore sulwar (well, the women, anyway)--)...but don't know the hawaiian...gotta have it.

b

Cynthia, wish I could keep a dish like that on the table. Unfortunately, my felines would stomp in it.

You "let" your cats dance on the table?

[James Roscoe]

Cynthia, wish I could keep a dish like that on the table. Unfortunately, my felines would stomp in it.

You "let" your cats dance on the table?

Do I have to say who dances on the tables at your house Cynthia?

IMHO, these so-called specialty salts are often better described as salt mixtures. Salts like Red Hawaiian Sea Salt is a mixture of sea salt and red clay in a proportion of about 2 to 1, if I remember correctly. A quick search of the Internet turns up all sorts of combinations of herbs, dried fruits, inorganic objects, etc., mixed with salt. They are, in a sense, modern versions of the celery salt, garlic salt, and Lawry's seasoning salt that our parents used. I haven’t tasted most of the salt mixtures available—I did taste the Red Hawaiian Sea Salt and it tasted like dirt to me—but I’ve seen a lot of them pushed in the high end stores, like the Sur la Table I work in occasionally. I dread the thought receiving a selection for Christmas. (I will taste any mixture I get, but my wife refuses to let me throw away condiments that we don’t like if we received them as a gift, and my shelves are full of bottles of flavored oils and syrups that just won’t go bad.)

OK, guilty here, too. Mostly Malden, but a reasonably broad selection of others. The Other Stupid (whom I will start referring to as "Guy Montag") and I did a dinner yesterday for a lady from the mountains. She loved it, but after Guy and I had a brief consultation on which salt to use to finish a particular dish, she immediately pronounced us "snobs" and did the usual speculation about our sexual orientation. "Well, c'mon, would straight guys use somethin' like that?"

[James Roscoe]

OK, guilty here, too. Mostly Malden, but a reasonably broad selection of others. The Other Stupid (whom I will start referring to as "Guy Montag") and I did a dinner yesterday for a lady from the mountains. She loved it, but after Guy and I had a brief consultation on which salt to use to finish a particular dish, she immediately pronounced us "snobs" and did the usual speculation about our sexual orientation. "Well, c'mon, would straight guys use somethin' like that?"

Why would anyone speculate on YOUR sexual orientation?

She took it back after I groped her.

Kitchen Safety Rule: Make sure your breasts are a minimum of two meters from Stuart's hands at all times.

So what was the argument, and which salt finish won?

We ended up using the black salt. It was a focaccia with a particularly toejam-like Taleggio with the rind removed. The black just looked nicer. No argument, just about 5 seconds of rapid-fire back and forth incomprehensible to others. After almost 15 years of cooking together, one would expect that...

We ended up using the black salt. It was a focaccia with a particularly toejam-like Taleggio with the rind removed. The black just looked nicer. No argument, just about 5 seconds of rapid-fire back and forth incomprehensible to others. After almost 15 years of cooking together, one would expect that...

And her breasts? Were they nice?

(I've seen you and Guy working together. I know your routine.)

I'll break the sex topic by saying that I use the black truffle salt in mashed potatoes. They make beautiful mounds scented of sex.

I also used it in my cassoulet this year. I seasoned the sausage with truffle salt. I thought that it would get lost but you could taste it ever so faintly.

rwj

Robert:

Interesting.

I'll confess I was so intrigued with the truffled salt that I sprinkled it on one of several halibut steaks after I pulled them off the grill.

I was impressed; added a great earthy/funky perfume to the fish, and the flavor was fine. (preferred the halibut with my homemade fresh mango/papaya/pepper 'chutney' though)

Maldon is my everyday salt. I have a Grey Sea Salt with Herbes de Provence that is great on veggies, salads as a finish. I have a a grey sea salt, smoked with chardonnay oak wine barrels. It has a gentle smoke flavor with a hint of wine. Hawaiian Red Sea Salt is so pretty and I have put it on a cucumber appetizer, on grilled asparagus.....still experimenting with this one. I have to find the Hawaiian Black Salt.

I'll break the sex topic

Thank you!!!!!! No sex involved (well, not for me), just a matter of asserting territory.

Karen, a couple years ago, we got a salt that was supposedly dried out in the presence of a type of seaweed. It was gray in color, but the smell was totally unexpected- far more like thyme than seaweed. I'd love to find that one again.

Peter, that seems like a reasonable analogy. In the case of the red salt, I'd rather they used clay than Red Dye Number 40. It's a big contributor to the appearance of some of our dishes.

just a matter of asserting territory

I thought you did that by throwing your Depends in a pentagram pattern around your abode.