Longing for the perfect Salt...

[LaydeeBug]

Salt is soooooo super important. A fleur de sal, or grey sea salt, any of the dozens of varieties there are.

A few years ago, I went to an organic festival at our town's convention center. I had heard about it on Air America. While there, this women, who had been doubting the decision to attend with her salt, overheard me tell someone how I heard of the event and she hugged me and told me it restored her faith in her decision to travel all the way from California. She insisted on giving me a bag of her salt, and refused to take payment because she was so elated and looking for a "sign". :) Well, it was the BEST SALT IN THE WORLD, and *of *COURSE* the other half threw away the bag so I can't order more (aside: I wished she would have charged me because I would have had a record on my credit card)

So until I find my "California Perfect", what are you favorite kinds of salt? Brand names are appreciated?

Where do you order other spices from?

[grasswire]

1. A few years ago I had a container of lavender sea salt from France...

...sold by Williams Sonoma. It was just delicious on leg of lamb. I used it all up and never saw any more for sale. Wish I had some.

[Warpy]

5. Check out a big health food store if you have one.

I was looking for regular sea salt and all I could find was that fancy French stuff so I got a box. Well, the stuff cakes even out here in the desert so the box is now sealed in a jar with a couple of packs of dessicant.

To me, sodium chloride is sodium chloride. I stick to sea salt and Kosher mined salts because of the differences in texture and the fact that neither have anticaking ingredients, something you don't need out here in the desert unless the salt is full of lavender clay.

I will use up the lavender salt eventually (it takes me 10 years go through a pound of sea salt), but I won't like it.

[kestrel91316]

2. Well, aside from the box of Morton in the cupboard, and the box of

somebody's kosher salt in the other cupboard, and the jar of Trader Joe's coarse sea salt in a third cupboard, I am pretty much set.

I did have some Fleur de Sel de Camargue that I got in France 10 years ago, but that's long gone.

I enjoy other types when I have them, but am not fussy.

[Callalily]

3. Recently picked up some

Himalayan pink salt. It's great on fish!

[beac]

4. Another vote for pink Himalayan salt.

I get mine from The Spice Lab (http://shop.thespicelab.com) I buy the coarse crystals and grind from my tabletop salt grinder (just like a pepper grinder.)

They have LOTS of other salts for sale and I'm hoping to treat myself to one of their "Sampler" packs if/when car repairs stop sucking up all our disposable income.

[freshwest]

10. Thanks, I see it in the stores and was wondering about any extra mineral content.

[GoCubsGo]

6. I like the Hawaiian black lava salt.

You can buy it, and a lot of other varieties of salt at The Spice House, which is also a great place for spices.

http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/hawaiian-black-and-red-sea-salt#content

[Atman]

7. Himala. Awesome.

http://himalasalt.com/

We buy it in brick form and grate it like Parmesan cheese. There are a few retail outlets for it, or get it online.

[canetoad]

8. Much as I love food

Being particular about the taste of salt takes 'the gluttony of delicacy' a bit too far for my liking.

We discuss method to bring out taste; ingredient selection to ensure freshness but it is simply beyond the realms of my understanding to insist that a certain type of sodium chloride contributes to the overall taste of any dish.

You have either been subjected to the most insidious marketing campaign ever or have the most sensitive tastebuds in the universe to be picky about which variety of salt you use.

[LaydeeBug]

9. I would suggest that you try a variety before you decide that...

There is a HUGE difference.

Promise.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. If you've got the time and an ocean nearby, here's a suggestion...

This guy's back home down the road here, and he does not believe in shorcuts.

http://suffolktimes.timesreview.com/2011/11/24380/luce-hawkins-owner-boils-seawater-to-create-his-own-salt/




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Mr. Luce, who grew up on a Jamesport farm before a whirlwind culinary career took him around the world and into the kitchen at the Clinton White House, is a master at using local ingredients. He grows many of the vegetables he serves in an on-site garden, and he’s always on the lookout for new ways to keep his food sources as local as possible.

While employed as executive chef at The Herbfarm in Washington State in 2008, he often held 100-mile dinners, meaning that all the food served came from within 100 miles of the restaurant.

Everything at those dinners, from sweeteners to leavening to main ingredients, was local. He decided that salt should be no exception and set out to boil down Pacific Ocean seawater to season his dishes.
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