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I like sea salt because I can use less because it has a stronger taste. At the same time, I use kelp to make sure I get idione. I sprinkle kelp on my food, then salt to taste. In this way, I get the idione I need and the salty taste I want. I use less sodium, yet still get the taste I want.
I buy kosher salt and keep it in an antique yellowware salt cellar on my counter. I love the feeling of pinching a bit and adding it to foods. It is cheap and available. Come on, let's face it, the qourmet salt thing is about perception.
I admit that I take delight in experimenting with various salts. There is a new store in town which sells these salts. Once, I went to a restaurant that offered a variety and I loved it.
Don't be a hater.
I never said anything about the evil of trace minerals. I was clearly indicating that there may be industrial contaminants in sea salt produced along the coast, coming from the runoff during our industrial age.
You like to make little wise attacking comments but try to read and understand and realize I know I do not know all there is too know. I am just trying to present my views and information which are open to debate. Actually, I have learn much from other posters about ideas of salt and products I did not know existed. It has given me much to think about and as added to my knowledge.
So I thank you and others,
Livecontent
If you're going to be snotty, at least direct your remarks to the correct person. I wasn't talking to you.
Sea salt has become a common overpriced ingredients that is championed by some people. It is more expensive and many times overly priced. I would also suspect from my years of buying experience that perhaps a little is just mixed with more common salt and and fraud is in the deception for a higher cost.
You may suspect as much, but my experience is the opposite... that purveyors of the traditional artisinal sea salts that have become so popular with chefs today are heavily invested in protecting the integrity of their products. In addition, part of the appeal lies in the various textures available in sea salt, which are completely unlike the textures of ordinary refined table salt.
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I think it adds questionable and dubious flavor to many recipes and I think in most recipes, no flavor. It is strange to see sea salt on all these prepared products, like potato chips, where it would add no value other than the perception of the value for the eyes of the naive.
It seems to me that sea salt may be a more valid differentiator on potato chips than in many other prepared products, because the texture contributes more to the total taste experience and "mouth feel" of chips than when it is dissolved in a sauce.
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I went to The Culinary Institute of America, about 40 years ago. I do not have any memories or recollections or anything in my notes that indicate the use of Sea Salt.
What can I say?... things change. I would guess that probably 50% of what is taught today at a CIA school is different than what you were taught back then. Tastes are different, sauces have changed, techniques have evolved. One of the drivers for this change is that a lot more is known about how cooking actually works today, and much more is known about nutrition, due to all the research that has been done in recent years by the likes of Ferran Adrià and Nathan Meyervohld and many others, so there is less voodoo and more actual knowledge.
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I was aware of the product as it was a salt that was available to an indigenous people of an area; So was salt in the Sahara. Salt was used that was easily and more cheaply available. When trade increased and salt was more readily mined and purity of salt was more easily fabricating, the more purified salt of the mines was preferred, used and easier to obtain. So why bother with Sea Salt
I believe history shows the main reason mined and refined salt became dominant in the US market is that it is much cheaper to produce, and thus sells for a lower price. But many today believe the natural product to be healthier than the manufactured one.
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I do not believe that sea salt is better than common mined salt or any salt that has been purified.
It all depends on what you're looking for. Ordinary refined table salt is 98-99% sodium chloride and the balance is anti-caking chemicals and added iodine, a public health measure dating back to the Depression. Typical sea salts are 86-88% sodium chloride, and the balance is trace minerals that are considered nutritionally valuable by many natural health experts.
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Sea Salt that is obtained by the reduction of brines along the coast can be a very dangerous product. What comes with this sea salt is all the contaminants of an industrial society and the age of pollutants from these manufacturing processes that has washed off the land and settle along the shores and the shelf of the continents.
If that were the actual case I could understand your concern, but without factual data to back up your concerns, it's just an unsupported suspicion. The most highly prized sea salts, in fact, tend to be from more remote places that have more pristine water supplies. And the ones recommended by natural food experts frequently have regular monitoring for pollutants and publish assays of their contents.
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I would not buy or use these products and certainly would not pay the outrageous price to show off.
Neither would I. I don't spend money showing off. I use food products that have specific characteristics that I want, be they taste or texture or aroma or visual appeal. Each has its place in cooking. And sometimes just a pinch of a special ingredient, like an artisinal salt, can subtly transform a whole dish.
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In many recipes, more purified forms of salt as canning or kosher salt is necessary.
Canning salt (or pickling salt) is merely finely ground salt that has not had anticaking chemicals or iodine added. The fine grind enables a lot of it to dissolve quickly, and the absence of adulterants means the brine does not get cloudy. Sea salt can replace refined canning salt, but because it is not as dense it requires slight adjustments in the quantity used.
"Kosher" salt is coarse grained salt. Kosher-certified salt, in addition, is free of additives and has been certified by a rabbi or certifying organization. Coarse sea salt can be used in place of "kosher" salt if kosher certification is not required.
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Originally Posted by livecontent
I have found that that the texture of the salt in seasoning and presentation of food is very important. So, that the fine salt give a much different taste than a coarse salt.
Yes, precisely. And that is part of the appeal of the various different sea salts, each of which has a unique texture, as well as taste, and thus each provides a unique finish when added to food just before serving.
This came to my attention about a dozen years ago when I attended a "salt tasting" in NYC which featured artisinal salts from all over the world. Then several years later I had the point driven home by an impromptu and incredibly generous lesson by a celebrated chef (he had just won his third James Beard award). He had assistants bring out 4 different salts, and a selection of foods to try... steamed vegetables, sauced savory bites, and a sweet dessert. He invited me to try each food with each salt, and it was quite surprising how much different each taste experience was.
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You added a line about the Himalaya salts--yes, I agree that is most probable that it has little or no industrial pollutants. However, are we assured that all the natural occurring minerals that lie with these salts do no harm. I just do not know. I do know in the earlier days of food preservation the naturally minerals with the unpurified salt of those days did cause some unintended consequences.
But that was in an age when the amount of salt commonly used in everyday food preservation, and ingested by the average consumer was many, many times what it is today. And of course virtually every aspect of food preservation has been refined since then.
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Originally Posted by livecontent
What is next on the agenda of the health food craze? Is some entrepreneur going to now bottle sea water and sell it at a high price for a healthy drink.
Actually, that's already been going on for years. There is a firm that pumps up seawater from very deep in the sea off Hawai'i, where it's very pure and the mineral content is higher than at the surface. This seawater is then bottled and shipped in container loads to Japan, where it sells for the equivalent of $15-20/liter in health food stores. People there drink it as a health tonic.
I like sea salt because I can use less because it has a stronger taste. At the same time, I use kelp to make sure I get idione. I sprinkle kelp on my food, then salt to taste. In this way, I get the idione I need and the salty taste I want. I use less sodium, yet still get the taste I want.
This is an important point to underline... natural sea salt alone does NOT supply enough dietary iodine to maintain proper thyroid health, the way artificially iodized table salt does.
As counterintuitive as that may seem, it is the consumption of seafood, not sea salt, which provides the most reliable natural source of iodine, because both fish and seaweed concentrate iodine. But during the Depression, when diets were poor and seafood was not available in many inland areas, iodine shortages caused goiter and other thyroid illnesses to skyrocket, so the Public Health decision was made to artificially add iodine to table salt because "everybody uses salt."
Today iodine is also added to various fortified foods like cereals and bread, is present in many dairy products due to iodine additives in the cattle feed, and is available in many vitamin and mineral supplements.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
10,471 posts, read 15,847,149 times
Reputation: 6438
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Originally Posted by livecontent
I would not buy or use these products and certainly would not pay the outrageous price to show off.
Livecontent
I've never thought of using salt to show off. That's a new one. Does this work in bars? I bet its a lot cheaper to walk up to a girl holding a shaker of delicious Sea Salt than say, driving up in a Maserati and flashing some major bank.
I like Kosher salt in everyday cooking. I prefer the mild taste. I keep a bit of sea salt on hand and use it when a recipe calls for it......but I probably use it a few times each year.
I think the rant about sea salt being overpriced is somewhat valid but my foodie friends that sometimes use it do so because of the taste. There are subtle differences in the way different varieties of salt taste and different salts lend different undertones to various dishes. I too have tasted some of the various types of sea salt and there is a difference in undertones.
Since I am vegan and eat few processed foods, I do sometimes add iodized salt to my cooking but my multiple vitamin does contain a small amount also.
I recently bought the Makai Pure® Sea Salt. I find it to be very tasty when sprinkled on top of veggies with a light drizzling of olive oil. And I really like the Flower of the Ocean® (or Fleur De Sel)...but both of these are more expensive than the Celtic Sea Salt® Brand Light Grey Celtic®...which is my standard.
Another thing... during the summer when I'm working out in the heat, taking a pinch of the Celtic Sea Salt® with water helps muscle cramping significantly more than when I used to use table salt, or take a sodium chloride-potassium pill.
Last edited by caligirlz; 01-14-2013 at 11:17 PM..
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