Salt. normal, common, plain, boring....or is it?

[slowSSer]

Albeit a simple thing. Sodium chloride. Required for mostly everything cooking. Required for us to stay alive. It can even make some of the sweetest things better (chocolate mousse). Try throwing a pinch of good sea salt in your fresh brewed coffee. Amazing. Absolutely required as a tool in making hand-churned home made ice cream. Also used as a tool on roads.

The next step: finishing salt. The final topper to some of the finer things in life- topping a rare Filet Mignon with a pinch of Himalayan pink can be amazing. My new favorite: Truffle sea salt. for those of you with Trader Joe's, find this little tin of amazing. thank me later.

in the spice cupboard:
Himalayan Pink (amazingly sweet)
Hawaiian Red (mildly earthy)
Hawaiian Black (earthy)
Coarse Sea Salt (daily usage)
Fine Sea Salt (also, daily)
Celtic Salt (grey in color. amazing flavor- very sea like with a sweet aftertaste)
Truffle Salt (as mentioned above)

So, what has salt done for you lately? Or, on contrary, what have you done with salt lately?

[Too Tall]

I keep course salt nearby a large stone mortar and grind to the texture I'm after. My genius rockstar sister taught me that habit.

next

[zetroc]

I'm a Morton's Kosher guy, or Diamond if I can't find Morton's. Got some Hawaiian black salt from a friend but haven't done much with it. Also have some sel gris that is incredible on the right dish.

[Tom]

The local Indian food market has some interesting ones, I have recipes specifying red or black salt. I tried the black salt, it has a lot of sulfur in it is all I can guess. I haven't had a reason to get the red but I guess I'm going to have to and report back.

[spopepro]

Salt is the best. One of the more important skills I learned was that where you added salt in the cooking process changed the flavor.

My favorite use: pesce crudo. Get a whole sea bream or grouper, break down and block, and slice slightly more cube like than what you would do for sashimi. Drizzle with your best olive oil (oh hai next thread), and sprinkle with your best salt, or do a different salt on each piece. I typically use fleur de sel, hawaiian black, or lemon salt.

[robin3mj]

Finely ground, sprinkled on a Lexus.

morton.jpg

[Noteddy]

I'd have to check, but I can think of pink Himalayan salt, applewood smoked salt, truffle salt, grey sea salt, french salt-cream (mild, mineraly,) kosher, pickling salt (dissolves in cold water . use it for brines of all kinds), and a couple I'm forgetting.

My kids also gave me an 8"x8"x2" pink salt block to cook on. The idea is to heat the thing to hotter than hot and sear food on it. I've tried it once with some slivers of beef tenderloin. It was interesting, but I need to experiment more.

Although, it's pretty cool to do the opposite. Chill it and present slices of watermelon on it. Salty watermelon doesn't require experimentation.

There is a whole world of salt and learning to use it.

[Too Tall]

Same here Nick. I got a block of Pink salt as well and am not getting this business of cooking on it.

[slowSSer]

Same here Nick. I got a block of Pink salt as well and am not getting this business of cooking on it.

its definitely an interesting thought. do you heat it in the oven?

[Noteddy]

its definitely an interesting thought. do you heat it in the oven?

Yes. They are prone to shattering if heated unevenly or too fast. So, while you can put them over a grill or on a stove burner, you wouldn't do that until you have heated them pretty hot first. The general idea is to get it ripping hot and then pull it out and quickly sear small amounts of food using the heat stored in the block. A very small amount of salt dissolves in the surface moisture of the food.

But, for me the sear has been unimpressive, compared to something with a very high specific heat and conductivity like the pizza steel. Or even a stainless pan. TT has a BGE. Maybe if you heat that sucker to about 800F something interesting would happen.

Still interested in playing with it, but like Delta brakes, this might be better in concept than reality.

Oh, and Ghost chile infused salt is my new favorite on all foods.

[slowSSer]

Yes. They are prone to shattering if heated unevenly or too fast. So, while you can put them over a grill or on a stove burner, you wouldn't do that until you have heated them pretty hot first. The general idea is to get it ripping hot and then pull it out and quickly sear small amounts of food using the heat stored in the block. A very small amount of salt dissolves in the surface moisture of the food.

But, for me the sear has been unimpressive, compared to something with a very high specific heat and conductivity like the pizza steel. Or even a stainless pan. TT has a BGE. Maybe if you heat that sucker to about 800F something interesting would happen.

Still interested in playing with it, but like Delta brakes, this might be better in concept than reality.

Oh, and Ghost chile infused salt is my new favorite on all foods.

i had some ghost chile salt on some watermelon not to long ago. amazing flavor.

i wonder if the salt block, when heated, could be used to cook something as thin as shabu shabu meat?

[Noteddy]

...i wonder if the salt block, when heated, could be used to cook something as thin as shabu shabu meat?

Yup. That's worth a try soon. Good idea.

[GonaSovereign]

Buddy game me some of his woodsmoked salt. Smokesaltgoodness. Think I need to go taste some of that now...

[Noteddy]

Buddy game me some of his woodsmoked salt. Smokesaltgoodness. Think I need to go taste some of that now...

Nice. Add some to your guacamole. Or, just sprinkle it on an avocado and grab a spoon.