Sunday, February 1, 2009
Salt of the Sea: The way salt has always been harvested . . .
When my daughter Hannah shlepped home several kilos of salt from Britanny, after experiencing real salt with her French family on a foreign study program, she triggered a minor obsession for me: I can never again cook with, or even eat, processed "salt." The stuff that pours when it rains is just as refined as white sugar or white flour and equally destructive to health (and taste!). I love the damp graininess of my coarse Celtic salt and I crave the deep flavors it brings out in my food.
This NYT article describes a current revival of the traditional Portuguese ways harvesting one of our most essential food elements:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/world/europe/27salt.html
thenewhuntergatherer.blogspot.com
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6 comments:
I agree. There is a huge diff in regular table salt and real salt. I like grey salt best myself. We can actually taste it if we eat a food that has regular salt in it now, our bodies feel it too. This is an obsession of mine as well.
Compared to Morton salt, sea salt is exorbitantly priced, at least at the retail level. If you go to Whole Foods, skip the seasoning isle and go to the bins near produce--there sea salt is much cheaper.
In addition, if you save your dollars to buy in quantity, sea salt is real inexpensive online. Check out this site (looks like real high stuff at some of the lowest prices around--I've looked):
http://www.saltworks.us/
Real cheap in bulk.
I'll look at that link, thank you. I used to buy my salt from Annie, which was reasonable.
Unfortunately, the stuff in the bulk bins is highly refined. I buy Celtic Salt, and there are some other brands that are also unrefined, including Redmond Real Salt, which is mined, and Himalayan salt.
I don't mind paying for the real thing anymore than I mind paying for real food. Real Food isn't subsidized by government programs, so it looks more expensive--only because we pay the whole cost, instead of some of it being paid by all of the other taxpayers. Or through our medical bills. Any way you look at it, real food costs more up front but ends up cheaper in the end.
Wow, I didn't realize there were so many different types of salt! I never thought that it was as stripped as white sugar & flour, things that I try to avoid. Thanks for the heads up.
I really enjoy reading your posts, and I've linked to TNHG on my blog; feel free to check it out. Thanks!
I LOVE Realsalt. I am almost unwilling to try any other brand, but maybe I will. =) I cannot use regular salt now without thinking how the corn dextrose is going to affect me.
Ohhh I love "real" salt. I stretched my little tub of Fleur de Sel from the Camarague for sooooooooooooooo long. Need to get some real salt again.
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