Take with a grain of salt
June 30, 2015 12:21 PM   Subscribe

Are you ready to start using/buying "Artisan Salt"? You can also buy over 100 different kinds of salt at The Meadow.
posted by growabrain (86 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
I like the Maldon flake but it's half the price on amazon. although the meadow does give you a nice glass jar.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:24 PM on June 30, 2015


I am actually fond of this little store in Portsmouth, NH. My friend who used to live there would send me and Shepherd some fun salts!
posted by Kitteh at 12:24 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


✊ ↔️
posted by Jon_Evil at 12:29 PM on June 30, 2015 [9 favorites]


Pink salt is a revelation on desserts
posted by The Whelk at 12:33 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


I have become that horrible kind of person who has gotten used to using Himalayan pink salt in my salt cellar for everyday use. I am so sorry.

(Maldon is best for finishing, tho.)
posted by Kitteh at 12:38 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


Artisan salt's a good start for those of you in short pants.

Artisan water is better if you're looking to begin training your palate.

But when you're ready to be a true connoisseur, you let me know.
posted by leotrotsky at 12:40 PM on June 30, 2015 [5 favorites]


Jesus.

I really can't wait for the weird hyper intense food fethishization age we live in to end. The most avid cook only needs three salts, Maldon (or any fluer de sel) coarse kosher and iodized table salt. That's it, any more and you are hiding lack of technique behind supposed rare and premium ingredients.

And making your own salt is sooooo easy. And fun. And best suited for a weekend when camping near the sea. Collect 20 L. pristine clean seawater in a bucket, put it in a pot, put the pot on the fire leave to boil until water is gone. Probably filter first through a towel. Seawater is 3.5% salt, so 20 L. yields approx 700 grams of fancy assed homemade artisanal local sea salt, maybe 50 grams is super fancy fleur de sel that you carefully scrape off the congealed solids when the water is gone.

Don'y buy hyper expensive salt, please. It only encourages them.
posted by Keith Talent at 12:42 PM on June 30, 2015 [12 favorites]


Artisan = overpriced
posted by jonmc at 12:45 PM on June 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


I live in (near) Chicago and would like to make my own salt, but Lake Michigan is freshwater. Does anyone have a recipe for making my own seawater?
posted by Novus at 12:45 PM on June 30, 2015 [15 favorites]


I only buy organic salt
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 12:45 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


That's it, any more and you are hiding lack of technique behind supposed rare and premium ingredients.

This is literally the backbone of my cooking strategy.
posted by griphus at 12:49 PM on June 30, 2015 [15 favorites]


I only buy organic salt
posted by griphus at 12:50 PM on June 30, 2015 [6 favorites]


griphus: "This is literally the backbone of my cooking strategy."

It's all I have, to be honest. If I didn't have fancy salts to put on it, I don't think anybody would eat my canned lettuce.
posted by boo_radley at 12:51 PM on June 30, 2015 [9 favorites]


I don't really understand this post...there has been artisan salt for ages now?
posted by agregoli at 12:53 PM on June 30, 2015


And making your own salt is sooooo easy. And fun. And best suited for a weekend when camping near the sea. Collect 20 L. pristine clean seawater in a bucket, put it in a pot, put the pot on the fire leave to boil until water is gone. Probably filter first through a towel. Seawater is 3.5% salt, so 20 L. yields approx 700 grams of fancy assed homemade artisanal local sea salt, maybe 50 grams is super fancy fleur de sel that you carefully scrape off the congealed solids when the water is gone.

This...this is a joke, right? Shit, that one-ups any food hipster any day.
posted by Kitteh at 12:53 PM on June 30, 2015 [12 favorites]


Yet another example of where it pays me to have a tin palette...
posted by jim in austin at 12:55 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


I only use salt extracted the Waterworld way, from my own urine. This does introduce a chicken and egg problem, I admit, but we all have to start somewhere.
posted by dis_integration at 12:55 PM on June 30, 2015 [7 favorites]


"It'll be a while before you see this on the shelf of your local grocery store" says the narrator, and I'm thinking that this guy does not live in Austin.
posted by immlass at 12:58 PM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


Artisan = wallet chain.
posted by bonobothegreat at 1:00 PM on June 30, 2015


I prefer salt harvested from the tears of Antonin Scalia.
posted by TedW at 1:04 PM on June 30, 2015 [31 favorites]


Yeah, the snark on artisan is perpetual.

The thing is though, if we continue to have advances in our manufacturing processes, two things emerge: most things will become very affordable (ala walmart), and most people will not have the ability to get manufacturing jobs.

People becoming artisans seems like a natural evolution... The workforce increases again; goods are created that are differentiated from factory goods.

It's good for the buyers in our economy, it's good for the sellers of our economy, it's good for the workers (artisans).

And frankly, I think most people would find higher satisfaction being an artisan than they would working in a factory.

So hate on the artisan trends all you want, but I for one embrace our locally sourced, organically grown artisan masters.
posted by el io at 1:06 PM on June 30, 2015 [20 favorites]


Pshaw, fancy salt is for chumps, used oysters are way cooler now.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 1:08 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


Eh, I love that damn store, both the original Portland incarnation and the NYC one, too. They also have fancy chocolate, and bitters. And flowers, in the PDX store (can't remember if the NYC store had flowers or not, I don't think so). Basically that store is Treat Yo Self Central.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 1:09 PM on June 30, 2015 [5 favorites]


I have this one super narrow cupboard to the right of my vent hood above the range, between that and the wall. It's not particularly useful since it's barely wide enough for a bottle of olive oil and kind of deep, so you don't want to fill it with anything you'd have to access constantly or you'd end up taking everything out and putting it back constantly. It's a pretty dumb cupboard, to be honest and when I bought this house I was pretty resentful of the food-hating idiot who designed such a stupid kitchen.

Until I realized that it is perfect for salt. The big box of kosher salt that gets decanted into a smaller countertop cellar. The giant container of Himalayan pink salt that refills the little grinder. The packets of Hawaiian red and black salt, the smoked salt, the truffle salt, the lavender fleur de sel, the big giant sea salt and the super fine grained sea salt...I don't mind having to rearrange it every time I want a fancy salt, because then I get to be reminded of all my fancy salts!

Also I hide chocolate bars on one of the higher shelves.

Now I am grateful for the genius who designed such a magical kitchen.
posted by padraigin at 1:09 PM on June 30, 2015 [11 favorites]


Pshaw, fancy salt is for chumps, used oysters are way cooler now.

Okay someone needs to actually explain this one to me.
posted by griphus at 1:09 PM on June 30, 2015


Griphus, they're pretty awesome as soap dishes (doesn't rot or get funky in a high-moisture bathroom). Plus shells are pretty.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 1:12 PM on June 30, 2015


Oh wait so the "made ready for a pile of salt, a handful of lemon wedges, or a serving of fried oysters" part means you just buy them to put that stuff on instead of a plate I guess? I couldn't tell if they were being sold as food or something.
posted by griphus at 1:14 PM on June 30, 2015


Does anyone have a recipe for making my own seawater?
If you're talking about salt without added flavours or colours then the vast majority of any taste difference is down to crystal size. And you're only going to taste that texture difference if you're eating it undissolved, so in many cooking applications there is no difference between table salt and kosher salt or whatever. When you see someone telling you to add kosher salt to your pan of boiling potatoes because it'll somehow result in a better mash then you can safely ignore everything else they've said too.

By and large you can dissolve any cheap salt you have to hand and then crystallise it according to desire. Difference sizes and shapes will taste differently. If the salt has iodine or anti-caking agents then that may not help, so I guess pure Sodium Chloride would be a good place to start experimenting.

In the event that you're able to (or think you're able to) taste the other minerals present in sea water then I suggest a local aquarium supply store. They sell dehydrated sea water for next to nothing, although in an attempt to differentiate themselves some brands actually make their own blends with extra minerals and snake-oils so ymmv. By a big bag, dissolve it, add some rose water, add some pink food colouring, crystallise it, go to a artisan market, become a god among men.
posted by samworm at 1:16 PM on June 30, 2015 [7 favorites]


Pah. Conspicious consumption given the lifestyle treatment to make vaguely liberal people feel superior rather than guilty.

(Unless you really are into your salts and have been for years, then you're just a nerd.)
posted by MartinWisse at 1:16 PM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


I suggest a local aquarium supply store. They sell dehydrated sea water for next to nothing,

I know this is just a case of me not being familiar with a legitimate thing people need for their legitimate hobbies, but the fact that dehydrated sea water is a product is hilarious.
posted by skewed at 1:20 PM on June 30, 2015 [6 favorites]


It's good for the buyers in our economy, it's good for the sellers of our economy, it's good for the workers (artisans)

More seriously, I have sincere doubts that this is actually true. A lot of all this artisan crap is just the upper middle classes being able to afford more expensive hobbies than the rest of us, bankers sinking their bonuses in a really great home brew set rather than a new house and the moment anything threatens to get vaguely popular, it's co-opted by the same big brands that manufacture everything else.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:21 PM on June 30, 2015


This...this is a joke, right? Shit, that one-ups any food hipster any day.
posted by Kitteh


Self link.
posted by Keith Talent at 1:21 PM on June 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


Stonestock Relentless: "Pshaw, fancy salt is for chumps, used oysters are way cooler now."

Holy shit, $14 for an oyster shell?
posted by boo_radley at 1:21 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


dehydrated sea water is a product

NaCl, surely?
posted by MartinWisse at 1:22 PM on June 30, 2015


Wouldn't it be cheaper to order oysters at some beachside seafood shack and then just pocket the shells?
posted by poffin boffin at 1:22 PM on June 30, 2015


really though i think paying for vile cold sea snot is ridiculous but whatevs.
posted by poffin boffin at 1:23 PM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


But where can I get some of that Shire salt that Sam took to Mordor and back?
posted by Brocktoon at 1:29 PM on June 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


The Meadow has always been a mystery to me. A store that sells only salt, chocolate, bitters, and flowers, located on one of the most gentrified streets in NE Portland. And it's been there for ages. (At one point it was just salt and flowers, if memory serves, they've expanded their offerings in recent years.)
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:31 PM on June 30, 2015


NaCl, surely?
No, some marine animals are reliant upon the trace salts (magnesium, calcium, and strontium mainly?) for their metabolism. I think invertebrates are particularly picky about the water but I just know its a thing rather than knowing much about it. I just thought it'd be cheaper for Novus to buy seawater that'd been shipped to Chicago without the weight of the water.

But the whole train of thought was fairly tongue-in-cheek.... as I suspect is much of this thread. Its all getting a bit Audiophile-Power-Cable ;)
posted by samworm at 1:31 PM on June 30, 2015 [4 favorites]


Gold-plated salt does sound better, though.
posted by teponaztli at 1:35 PM on June 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


you're only going to taste that texture difference if you're eating it undissolved, so in many cooking applications there is no difference between table salt and kosher salt or whatever

Well if you're measuring by volume, it takes 2x as much kosher salt as table salt. But otherwise yeah.

And when you aren't dissolving the salt, the difference between different sized salts can be pretty different. The big but thin crystals of Welsh Halen Môn salt is particularly good when you're making chocolate covered caramels for instance. I don't have any illusions that differently sourced like-sized crystals would taste different, but hey, I was on Anglesey Island and salt is a cheap, fun, and delicious souvenir.

Also I like two things about Himalayan salt: 1) big pieces of it are pretty 2) licking it
posted by aubilenon at 1:35 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


different salts taste different. yes it's gotten a bit ridiculous. like all things American - if it's good enough to do, it's good enough to over do.
posted by TMezz at 1:37 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


I am landlocked. Can I make artisan winter parking lot salt?

Salt du Nord?
posted by ian1977 at 1:55 PM on June 30, 2015 [7 favorites]


Whenever I travel, I always bring back local salt. Love that Hawaiian pink.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:59 PM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


I really can't wait for the weird hyper intense food fethishization age we live in to end. The most avid cook only needs three salts, Maldon (or any fluer de sel) coarse kosher and iodized table salt. That's it, any more and you are hiding lack of technique behind supposed rare and premium ingredients.

And making your own salt is sooooo easy. And fun.


This is the most metafiltery comment ever. I love it.
posted by Think_Long at 1:59 PM on June 30, 2015 [10 favorites]


Walmart is ahead of the curve!

(I think its for artisinal deer)
posted by ian1977 at 2:30 PM on June 30, 2015


The most avid cook only needs three salts, Maldon (or any fluer de sel) coarse kosher and iodized table salt

OK, I'm curious. Since there appear to be a variety of salt aficionados on this thread (although I too have trouble discerning the level of seriousness of various comments) --- what is actually different about different salts?

I mean, I get that you could have flavored salt (which is presumably salt + other stuff?). But isn't salt.... salt? If it tastes different, wouldn't that be because of something added to the salt? It seems like such a simple chemical, I don't quite get how it can have different kinds.

(I don't cook and know very little about food, this is one of those things I've always been vaguely curious about --- but I'm always somewhat suspicious of the stuff I tend to find about it --- I mean, I can certainly find plenty of people who will claim those "audiophile quality" digital cables will produce a different sound, too -- but in that case I know enough engineering to be able to dismiss them).
posted by thefoxgod at 2:39 PM on June 30, 2015


I drive by Saltworks three times a week.

They've had a sign out front seeking job applicants for a full year. They must be doing something right.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:49 PM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


what is actually different about different salts?

Kosher salt is flaked, less dense (e.g. a tablespoon of kosher actually has less overall bulk and overall saltiness than granular salt) and dissolves differently than granular salt, the latter of which is often iodized and therefore tastes a little differently. Fluer de sel usually comes in big, thick grains that also taste and act different from the first two.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:52 PM on June 30, 2015


jonmc: "Artisan = overpriced"

Preach it brother. I have often said that the word artisan or artisanal has just become so much noise, bereft of any meaning. But your definition will do quite well.
posted by Splunge at 2:52 PM on June 30, 2015


the difference between pure salts is from different textures, size of the crystals, etc. So that only matters when the salt is undissolved, which generally means it only matters when you're adding salt to the surface of food soon before eating it. A lot of people like bigger crystals and flakes which provide crunch or something. Back in the day, the boring old super consistent table salt we all take for granted was a huge deal, the consistency and uniformity of the salt was the selling point, because up until then it was very difficult and expensive to produce salt that way. Now we want those idiosyncratic salt crystals.

In conclusion, everyone should read Salt: A World History.
posted by skewed at 2:53 PM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


The big but thin crystals of Welsh Halen Môn salt is particularly good when you're making chocolate covered caramels for instance.

Oh, nom. I love the Halen Môn oak smoked sea salt. So delicious. We have 3 or 4 different smoked salts, plus pink Himalayan, black Hawaiian, and a gorgeous fleur de sel.

Elder Monster and I love playing with them, neither of us mind people getting wound up about that.
posted by MissySedai at 2:57 PM on June 30, 2015


Ah, I see. Yeah I guess I can remember having different texture, that makes sense.
Looks like most of the salts on this website are just salt + flavoring, though.
posted by thefoxgod at 2:59 PM on June 30, 2015


Salt. The audiophile speaker cable of the foodie world.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:03 PM on June 30, 2015


Salt du Nord?

It'll be calcium chloride.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:21 PM on June 30, 2015


I've got a bunch of ammonium chloride, but I'm not sure what to do with it other than make licorices
posted by aubilenon at 3:22 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


I don't see taro salt anywhere on that list, so it looks like I still have to fly to tokyo to buy salt.
posted by yeolcoatl at 3:24 PM on June 30, 2015


I've got a bunch of ammonium chloride, but I'm not sure what to do with it other than make licorices

Mmm. Salmiakki.

There's a lot of Do Not Want for people, but some of us want.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:30 PM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


I like to think of The Meadow as a salt museum. It's a fun place to take out-of-town guests. At The Meadow, they encourage you to taste as many salts as you want, and they tell you everything you could possibly want to know about the salts. I have been known to buy a salt "pebble" (a salt rock, a salt lick. a stone to put in the bike bag for emergency salt) for a dollar as a "thanks for your time"/optional museum entry fee. My favorite is the kala namak.
posted by aniola at 3:35 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


I have another story about salt. Once upon a time, I was leaving a deserted tropical island whose waters were MetaFilter Blue. We had extra coconut meat that we were bringing with us, fresh from the nut. I packed it in a ziplock bag, and when we reached the open waters, I paused to fill the bag of coconut meat with ocean.

Salty coconut meat is a delicious snack, as it turns out.
posted by aniola at 3:41 PM on June 30, 2015


I live in (near) Chicago and would like to make my own salt, but Lake Michigan is freshwater. Does anyone have a recipe for making my own seawater?

There may be sufficient urine in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to allow you to make your own salt from locally sourced water. Best of luck to you.
posted by MikeMc at 3:55 PM on June 30, 2015 [4 favorites]


The most avid cook only needs three salts

Maybe four, if you live in a place that gets snow.
posted by box at 3:55 PM on June 30, 2015


The most avid cook only needs three salts

Or four if you make Ice Cream at home...and what box said.
posted by Benway at 4:21 PM on June 30, 2015


Holy shit, $14 for an oyster shell?

"For $14 + shipping, you can buy our garbage!"

It's a hell of a pitch. Apparently.
posted by indubitable at 4:26 PM on June 30, 2015


The most avid cook only needs three salts, Maldon (or any fluer de sel) coarse kosher and iodized table salt

Bunk. Different salts taste different. Maldon isn't fleur de sel; That is grey from the other minerals present and has a very different flavour. Iodized salt has no place in any decent kitchen, it tastes like ass.

I am sick to fucking death of this reverse food snobbery around here. Fun fact: different things do actually taste different, and some of us care about that! And it's totally okay if you don't. What's not okay is this ridiculous notion that just because some people don't care for fine grained distinctions in food--or music, or television--that they are somehow superior.

And, frankly, if you're going to go there, kosher salt is perfect both for cooking and finishing. Perhaps on a caramel it's not as nice or as visually arresting as Hawaiian volcanic salt, and that's okay.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:55 PM on June 30, 2015 [14 favorites]


Kosher Salt: "I'm good enough, I'm salty enough, and gosh darn it, people like me! And that's...okay."
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:59 PM on June 30, 2015 [7 favorites]


In general you use a larger, coarser salt when you want to draw attention to the salt as discrete things, not just melted into the dish, and different mineral salts have different flavors. salt flakes are great visually and good in things that are layered, like salads.

And I once held open a bag of super coarse grey salt for someone and absentmindly started eating it like popcorn.
posted by The Whelk at 5:01 PM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


Metafilter: It tastes like ass.
posted by Faintdreams at 5:25 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


I love the Meadow store. It has the feeling of a store that could easily exist on Diagon Alley. For Xmas last year, I bought the Mr. a set of fancy salts - they've been so much fun to play around with and they do taste different. They elevate the food into something pretty damn magical. It's a total cheat. But I can see these small samples lasting a really long time so I don't know how it stays in business.
posted by amanda at 5:36 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


I would also attend that cocktail party, Whelk, as child-version bitter-girl.com used to happily eat bouillon cubes and would probably have loved having her own salt lick in the backyard, like a deer.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 5:50 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


I prefer to source my salt from the ball-sweat of 62% Yanomami and 38% Australian Aborigine with the water boiled off with a wood-burning stove fueled by Redwood
posted by aydeejones at 6:03 PM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


So hate on the artisan trends all you want, but I for one embrace our locally sourced, organically grown artisan masters.

I prefer to gently mock them to myself, then appreciate their existence when I splurge on the good stuff at the farmer's market or what have you, and then envy the artisans for seeming to love what they do so much and being able to devote their attention to mastering a specific thing, like making homemade flippin' corn puffs sauteed in brown butter or whateverthefuck.
posted by aydeejones at 6:17 PM on June 30, 2015


I've got only the vaguest idea what text I'm reading here is sarcasm, what's satire, and what's dead-on for real.

I subscribed to Reddit's /r/shittyadvice subreddit recently and it's had a similar effect. "Peed in my house plant, now it's dying." Actual post from another subreddit. A guy peed in his houseplant thinking it would be a good nitrogen burst and now the plant is dying, but the overall effect--because I keep seeing these posts from /r/shittyadvice: "Just had my first major stroke. What should I do now? " is that I feel increasingly unanchored from what's serious and what isn't, which is making me feel totally ancient and like I've fastened an onion to my belt.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 6:23 PM on June 30, 2015 [3 favorites]


4th salt would be kala namak, black volcanic salt. A south Asian staple used in chicken and seafood dishes and the divine ingredient in fruit chaat.
posted by nikitabot at 6:38 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


I prefer to source my salt from the ball-sweat of 62% Yanomami and 38% Australian Aborigine with the water boiled off with a wood-burning stove fueled by Redwood

The tricky part is, you have to do your boiling at an altitude above 11,000 ft, since (a) salt raises the boiling point of water, and (b) like coffee, if the water temperature goes over 185°F you lose the subtle flavors and bouquet that make the whole process worthwhile in the first place.

Personally, I import sherpas from Nepal to schlep seawater from a secret spot off the coast of northern Chile (it must be from a specific location and depth over volcanic vents in the Atacama Trench) up to the Bolivian salt flats, where it gets boiled over a mesquite fire at a closely-monitored temperature. The extracted salts are then blended with the local product plus some Amazonian herbs and spices using a formula I was given by the shaman of a little-known rainforest tribe - he uses it for inducing vision quests. Unfortunately I've been sworn to secrecy under threat of a dire curse, so I'm afraid I can't pass along the details.

It's wonderful sprinkled on a slice of chocolate cheesecake made using instructions I bought for a song from a down-on-his-luck French vagabond who swears it's an authentic Escoffier recipe ("Uncle Augie" he called him, which I thought was simply charming) that had never been printed anywhere but was kept strictly within the family. It tastes like angels.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:47 PM on June 30, 2015 [2 favorites]


Greg_Ace: We should swap notes on how to trap, clean, and butcher angels at some point.
posted by Grimgrin at 7:05 PM on June 30, 2015 [5 favorites]


A Terrible Llama I've got only the vaguest idea what text I'm reading here is sarcasm, what's satire, and what's dead-on for real.

Sorry about that. My comment was all of the above.
posted by yeolcoatl at 7:20 PM on June 30, 2015


A Terrible Llama I've got only the vaguest idea what text I'm reading here is sarcasm, what's satire, and what's dead-on for real.

Me too, but I have the same problem sometimes when talking with people who are really into some specific aspect of food culture.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:24 PM on June 30, 2015


We should swap notes on how to trap, clean, and butcher angels at some point.

Ehh, you go on ahead. I'm not into that anymore; frankly, that process I just described is simpler, tastes just as good, and doesn't involve the peril of Eternal Damnation.

...That said, I have a set of custom-made Yanagiba knives and matching 8,000-18,000 grit waterstones for sale that, as intimated above, I will no longer be needing. I'd be willing to part with them for - oh, let's say, at least mid-five figures. Memail me if you're serious.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:25 PM on June 30, 2015




Incidentally, "Sea Salt from Immaterial Oceans" is the name of my band's new prog-rock album.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:45 PM on June 30, 2015 [1 favorite]


I married in 1979. I had a cylinder box of Morton salt, then, which I finished up on the driveway last winter. My friend gave me some Himalayan this weekend. I usually do not cook with salt, but with soy sauce, or parmesan. I frankly cheat the devil of this statement with Spike, I love that stuff. I worry that Himalayan is stolen from the Tibetan's sacred lake.

Oh well.
posted by Oyéah at 8:46 PM on June 30, 2015


If the salt is going to be mixed with liquid in any way, rather than sprinkled on top as a crust or something, then always use low-sodium salt.

The potassium/sodium balance is important for your neurons, and honestly it's just going to become a free-floating solution of sodium and chlorine and potassium and a bit of magnesium. The cool flake structures will be gone, but so will the sodium/chlorine bond.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:49 AM on July 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


"I drive by Saltworks three times a week."

Hah! So do I. Well, maybe three times a month.

Making smoked salt is not easy. I have tried. I don't know how they make the smoke stick so well.
posted by bz at 3:48 AM on July 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Dried Liquid Smoke?
posted by sammyo at 9:14 AM on July 1, 2015


If the salt is going to be mixed with liquid in any way, rather than sprinkled on top as a crust or something, then always use low-sodium salt.

Nonsense. Use kosher or sea, be mindful of your sodium intake, eat something high in potassium if you're concerned.

Easiest way to make smoked salt is to add just enough water to form a paste, then smoke.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:54 AM on July 1, 2015


« Older Male and female mice process pain differently...   |   Brighton's probably still pretty expensive. Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments