Rob Cabreros was shopping casually at a store in Ft. Bragg when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He couldn”t believe what he found.
A bag of Himalayan salt perched on the shelf. And on its label were two familiar words: Lower Lake.
For the chef and instructor at Yuba College Clearlake”s Culinary Program, the discovery of a fine salt available at—curiously enough—a candle and import company named Aloha Bay just steps from his kitchen was exciting.
“Himalayan salt is smooth,” he explained. “It”s less astringent, more mellow.”
Cabreros routinely holds salt tastings for his students. Yes, salt tastings, for there is more to the world”s most important seasoning than the iodized stuff flowing from a brand name carton.
To Tom Closser of Aloha Bay, the idea makes perfect sense. The pink shaded salt they import, he pointed out, “is one of the purest salts in the world—it”s been sitting in a mountain away from industrial pollution.”
While Himalayan carries a clean, calm salinity, many of the world”s great salts showcase the terroir (to borrow from winemaking parlance) and craft of a region. For example, fleur de sel—”flower of salt”—results from ocean water evaporated in pans. The crystals are an ethereal expression of the sea, delicate with airy traces of the fundamental elements carried in the waves. Those harvesting sel gris wait for the same crystals to wallow, so the coarse grains emerge from pans with a gray pallor and murky, fallow flavor.
Both are French favorites, but one can also find Maldon in England and other examples from around the world. In Hawaii, the best examples draw either a red hue from volcanic clay or deep grey from charcoal.
Many of these are considered finishing salts, sprinkled over meats or side dishes at the end to complement flavors rather than subduing them with a tacky shriek of iodine. Sel gris, for example, is heavy with moisture and less likely to lure precious liquid from items as they wrap up cooking or settle on the plate. Kosher salt is preferred by chefs for mixing, as it presents a stark, clean burst of saline with little acidic backlash. And then there are flavored salts—slowly smoked over old wine barrels or simply shaken with dried spices.
“I try to impress on students the importance of salt,” Cabreros said. “They see the salinity is different, the coarseness is different, the flavor is different. When a student leaves the program, they”ll never use Morton”s iodized again.”
Yet there is a reason for the addition of iodine.
Since ancient times, people have panned salt from the ocean or mined it from deposits left by seas lost to time. Rome paid its legions in part with the white crystals, supposedly the origins of the word “salary.” Trade routes developed as our ancestors sought the stuff. Homer ridiculed cultures that failed to pour it on their meals.
Its very pervasiveness—and the fact that iodine is naturally found in sea water—made salt perfect to combat iodine deficiency, which may lead to cognitive issues, hearing loss, developmental issues, thyroid problems and dreaded goiters. Indeed, a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, David Marine, claimed shortly after the end of the Great War that goiters were “one of the most important causes of physical and mental degeneracy with which society has had and still has to deal.”
Makes you wonder about the good old days. All that degeneracy, you know.
So in the early 1920s American scientists recommended adding iodine to salt. By the 1950s, iodized salt was common. Today, Salt Institute estimates suggest that 70 percent of all product sold in this country contains iodine. Meanwhile, goiters are practically extinct.
The hardly lamentable death of the goiter leaves us with a salt renaissance of sorts—a slow one, admittedly, for Morton”s and other name brands still rule American kitchens. Yet from the rustic crackle of sel gris to the sunset beauty of Himalayan, salts with character are more common.
“It”s cost, education and just not knowing any better,” Cabreros said of America”s prolonged reawakening to the beauties of good salt. But, he added, when they make the discovery, “it”s amazing.”
Dave Faries can be reached at 900-2016
