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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.
I do something similar. Living in Florida, it is hot here much of the time and I work out outside riding my bike and gardening. To replenish electrolytes, I will take a spoonful of blackstrap molasses (for potassium and trace minerals) and then squeeze the juice of a lemon into a glass of spring water to which I add a pinch of my pink sea salt. It's great, and far healthier than any "Power-Ade" type junk!
There is a store in Savannah Ga. All it sells are flavored salts.
The one I went to in charlotte, NC, sold herbs, as well. I originally went there to buy some juniper berries to use with my sauerkraut. I had been using a little gin which works pretty well.....LOL.
You can't find juniper berries in the regular grocery stores anymore. While there, I tried a lot of different salts and chose a few to take home for fun. At the most, I bought an ounce or two bag.
Last edited by AnnieA; 01-15-2013 at 07:33 PM..
Reason: awkward sentence
Some people have contacted me about this post and asked if I disagreed, why did I not list those disagreement, especially when I saw some ideas that were wrong.
First, I did not want to engage in an extended discussion where people are so entrenched in ideas that it is not worth effort. Second, I recognized the poster as intelligent and polite and he should have his say and all I wanted from my original post was a dialogue. I realize that, being a ex New Yorker, my original post was hard to the point and would have evoked some sharp replies, so I wanted to bring the discussion down to a more polite level, which this poster did. However, I will answer some points.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenD
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.
From my years of experience in purchasing food products, I have found that there are no saints in this business and when money is to made, deceptions are very common, especially when it cannot be tested or affirmed what you are buying. Also, they are protecting their interest and would tend to turn a blind eye. Artisan and Natural labels on a producer does not guarantee honesty--you want it to be, but many of these marketers know it.
The texture is yes different from much table salts but textured and coarse salt have been available for years from standard salt suppliers.
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.
Not in all cases, the mention of sea salt on some of these products are just to catch your eye and make you buy. I had the potato chips with sea salt and there was no different texture apparent on the label.
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.
My mention of the CIA had to do with the idea that if sea salt was so embedded in French Culture and cuisine and then these Old French Chefs would have mentioned it or used it at the CIA when I went. I hear often that we are using Sea Salts because historically and traditionally that what was used all the time. People think if they go back to the past they are going back some pure form. I was just noting that it appeared it was not the case at the most celebrated cooking school in the world.
I know much what has changed in instructions and techniques, as I have not been divorced from the industry over 40 years. To go into the discussion of these changes with a non-professional, about the curriculum would be harder as you did not attend the school and would not change my the main idea that I presented.
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.
It does not necessarily follow that when one just reduces a brine in a sea that it is more costly than mined purified salt. It is just a perception to charge more with the word natural which many times means nothing other than than higher price. Natural does not mean always healthier.
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.
These minerals are available from many sources and there is no assurance that all of them are valuable or necessary. There is no such animal as a natural food expert. There is just food experts in different disciplines of food technology and nutrition but natural food is not a discipline of food science. It is many times a overused label to convey a dubious distinction.
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.
You have supported my first post because I was saying that salts, just off the shores, would possibly contain pollutants from the industrial age where suspect. I never said anything about salts from a remote location but I tend to believe that salt from more pristine waters would avoid much contamination. I have never seen any assays or any evidence of monitoring. I would be interested in seeing what you say exist. However, one most know what one is looking for to test a product and use the proper tests to have the reactions to view the what is composite of the sample. Many of pollutants would be unknown and it would not be tested.
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.
Yes, that is sometimes true but sometimes the perception an expectation is all that is needed for what to think there is a difference. I expect as an intelligent person you would not spend money to show off as you are secure in yourself but many consumers are not and use food purchasing to fortify their status.
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.
This is not true and a dangerously wrong statement. Canning Salt is not just regular salt without the anticaking agent or iodine--It is further purified. Sea salt cannot be ascertain what it contains and should never be used in home canning or commercial canning, unless it can be fully ascertain what it contains. These sea salts can cause many problems with quality and stability of the product because you have to keep in mind that preservation and safety of the product over a long term is what we are talking about in canning.
"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.
Respectively, this shows lack of knowledge of the whole kosher idea. Kosher salt as I said is salt that is used for Koshering products, such the name. There are many different rabbinical councils that compete in this industry of kosher certification and they disagree much but that is another story. I have worked in NYC, I have had formal training in preparing kosher foods. As you know NYC has the largest Jewish population in the world and of orthodox Jews. I have had much contact with these rabbis and organizations in producing meals and foods for this specific market. It is nonsense to indicated that Coarse Sea Salt can used in place of Kosher salt, as it is a pure salt-the same as canning 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.
I am glad that you have had that experience and found it it valuable and I agree that many of these salts can differentiate flavor. That does not change my initial contention that we must be careful about the selections of some of these salts and to be aware that they may be contaminated.
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.
Not totally true. Consumers still have the choice of the same products and will consume what they want to consume. Today, there is movement to go back to the products and the techniques of food preservation of the past, especially cured meats. I think it is ridiculous as that what was done in the past was necessary and we should not be consuming these products, in mass, today because of the high salts, regardless if they are called artisan.
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.
This last statements supports all that I have said, Thank You. For if you are saying that seawater in order to be very pure, one much pump from very deep, than the seawater on the surface near the continents must not be that pure. Therefore we must question the sea salt from these waters. Again, thanks for your input.
Livecontent
Last edited by livecontent; 01-16-2013 at 09:43 AM..
I'm just trying to imagine who out there would be green with envy at your salt. Pepper, sure. Ketchup? Absolutely. Salt? Not seeeing it. That's like being impressed with someone's water. "DUDE HE"S GOT PERRIER OMG I"M FALLIN OVER IN DISBELIEF!!!>"
I'm just trying to imagine who out there would be green with envy at your salt. Pepper, sure. Ketchup? Absolutely. Salt? Not seeeing it. That's like being impressed with someone's water. "DUDE HE"S GOT PERRIER OMG I"M FALLIN OVER IN DISBELIEF!!!>"
Very Funny but the truth is some people buy food for status. Not all, as some buy because that is their desire for taste, enjoyment and the perception that the food is better and healthier (some times they are right). I addressed this issue in a previous comment on this thread:
"I have found that people use the foods they purchase to establish their social status and consequently when you attack these symbols of status they become defensive and offended. This is seen in the comments by some on this thread.
Many times consumers will not buy a food because it is too cheap and as such does not elevate their social status. If the food is priced more expensively, then they believe that due to the high price, it establishes exclusivity and places them in a better class separate from the masses. It is a well known hazard of restaurant pricing and marketing of restaurants. If the restaurant prices becomes too cheap or the concept becomes too common and it attracts more of the masses, patrons are lost who value exclusivity. It is same problem if a chain expands too much and becomes too ubiquitous with many units, it looses the appeal to those who need to feel special.
Of course all that I have said about food, applies to clothes, cars, housing and any item that is purchased and consumed and when people have a need to be considered more important and separate from others..."
The status can only be given if there are viewing people who are wowed by conspicuous consumption. You are obviously too intelligent to be taken in by fakery and just laugh at it. I have worked at the best some of the best restaurants and hotels and I would watch the people prancing around in their desire to feel
important and better by their status of what they can purchase. I would, silently, just pocket the money and be grateful for people who spend and spend. It is the way of the world.
"Salt Snobs"? I have never had "Sel Gris", grey sea salt from France, or Pink Himalayan salt. I will agree, that I like "Real Salt", but I am partial to supporting local businesses.
I prefer to grind my own salt, and use a salt grinder, so I can decide if I want fine granules, or thick flakes, on a steak.
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
During the time Pittsburgh was the smoky city with steel making right in the downtown, the EPA put out a warning about eating veggies grow on porches, gardens in the city for heavy metal contamination. Coal companies used cat tails grown in wet lands to remove metals from mine water before returning it to streams.
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