You may be wondering why my first blog of the year is on a very weird topic, salt…what does she really want to talk about on this.
Yea I wondered same too but I haven’t been able to keep calm on salts and I had a lot of thoughts on it, which was inspired by some or let me say an event.
I would dive right into it without wasting time, my family home or parents gave me this inspiration. Any time I am home with my parents, wait…the truth is that I have always noticed my parents buying sea salt over the years sometimes, but it never really got me curious, the only thing was that it doesn’t dissolve into the food easily and fast to make it tasty like a normal salt would. It wasn’t till after I left home and moved to another city that, whenever I visit and there is sea salt, I just get so curious. I noticed they buy a particular type of sea salt that is quite crunchy and coarse and way expensive.
Now sea salt doesn’t taste out in a meal just like the ordinary table salt, it hardly dissolves and my mum had to derive a tactic to melt it in water first, but regardless if you want your food to capture the taste of salt you would have to put a lot more and sometimes if not careful, when it finally melts then your food would be so salty.
My parents were told or its been believed generally that the salt called sea salt, is very healthy and better for the health than the normal table salts especially for the elderly. no that about that and I would get into that in a bit because I for some reasons took a bit of interest in it and recently after my last visit, I started a deep research on gourmet salts especially sea salts. And also because let’s not forget, I loveeeeeeeeeee researching lolzzzzz...
So it is important for me to say that I did my excerpt for this write up from 2 websites, but most especially, www.seasalt.com/salt-101 and just a bit from www.draxe.com/10-benefits-celtic-sea-salt-himalayan-salt.
You could follow those links to learn more on sea salts if you want to learn more.
I got a lot of new knowledge that was born from mere curiosity which I learnt about salts and what we call the sea salt, That were new to me and I hope you guys can also learn a little too.
I am also very opened for corrections on this to and more knowledge on this, this is just my own perspective and idea from a long research of a curious mind to my blog.
I discovered that there are quite a lot of salts, but like its obvious here, I am referring to gourmet salts which means salts for cooking.
There are quite a lot of sea gourmet salts, but first let me really differentiate what we really mean by sea salt and ordinary table salt.
The term sea salt means that this is the salt gotten from the evaporation of the sea water through several local means mostly, which I would hint a bit on too. Some sea salts can also be gotten from the water bed too.
While when you here table salt as the name goes (because sea salts can be used as a table salt in other parts of the world). But based on vast knowledge of us and what we know as table cooking salts are just salts gotten naturally underground but research has also said that every salt underground of any kind are still gotten from sea water one way or the other that may have evaporated decades and decades ago or flowed underground.
So our table salt is gotten underground but some how still sea, the point is this a true sea salt is done by immediate evaporation and its best accepted as an original sea salt when extraction is done with local wooden instruments and not contaminated by any form of aluminum or factory metals.
I would explain more on the above better but the focus of this article is to really analyze the sea salt sold around that is termed healthier than an ordinary table salt and why? Then we would look at the ordinary table salt itself. Why has the ordinary salt especially been tagged unhealthy and asked to be cut down from our diet for the sake of our hearts and health in general.
So let’s begin by looking deeply into sea salt;
SEA SALT
Sea salt has been vouched to be as better and healthier than an ordinary underground salt or what is called ordinary common or table salt.
Sea salt is the kind of salt that is referred to an unrefined type of salt gotten from the sea or ocean and is gotten by transferring the water through a channel into a traditional tool and then leaving it to evaporate naturally.
When manufacturing sea salts most times there is no much refinement which makes it retain most of its trace minerals like iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc and iodine. Why it is also called sea salt is that it should not only be traditionally processed but It shouldn’t be heavily processed, even though the challenge is getting the ones that are naturally and traditional processed.
Sea salt can be refined and also unrefined, refined in the sense that it goes through a heavy processing style than the unrefined, and it is processed with iron or metal tools that could be found normally in factories and not traditional tools. Additives are also added in this process which makes it lose all or most of its trace minerals.
Unrefined means it’s mostly done by an open air sun fueled evaporation and with traditional tools like wood, clay and non-steel or metal. Also a true sea salt has no additional chemical or mineral additives. These are where the costs come in, in this part of Africa to get a proper sun fueled evaporated sea salt is costly and so it comes back to the consumers, which is you and I, costly and even difficult to get. Through this method every nutrient is intact and there are no additives, Let’s just put it this way, the more traditional the extraction of a salt from the sea, the more nutrient and healthy a sea salt can be.
But most of the sea salts we sea around are sometimes less traditionally processed meaning, they go through more rigorous, steel and metal way, from evaporation to extraction and the rest, you can only be lucky to see the ones with all of its nutrient intact.
There are different types of sea salts made and evaporated in different styles , and so it is important to determine the type of sea salt you buy and decide to use when changing your choice of salts, and also which one works well with your dishes, they can come in;
· Finishing grains - a bit smaller than the coarse
· Coarse grains- large-grained crystals
· Extra fine grains - like your table salt
Hence me saying, our tag of this sea salt as healthier than the table salt is highly relative and also overrated, not to be a spoiler but it just goes to say if you are going to spend lots of money buying a sea salt as your gourmet salt in this part of the world either because you are going strict on a strict healthy living diet or maybe your doctor advised you to. Then you could as well take the pain to make sure you are getting a true traditionally made sea salt that still has its nutrient intact.
Now to the reasons why most of them that are sold as very coarse instead of finely grounded, When it is strong it is coarse and big grained it makes it hard for it to dissolve inside your food or blend well by adding a good flavor to your food like normal table salt does. But regardless of it been sea salt it can still exist as finely grounded too and also there are those that blend well with your food easily.
Now there are different types of sea salt, I am not going to go deep into them but would show you what I discovered from my research and also to give you a glimpse into the difference in sea salts as a whole.
I would also do my best to show pictures which I got from http://www.seasalt.com and not mine. Like I said earlier if you want to know more about different salts as a whole, not just gourmet salt even to bathing salts and maybe you want to order traditional sea salts that are genuinely and well made because they also sell too, you place your order on that site too.
I am just going to list the types of sea salts, and give us some ideas about them. So the types of sea salts we have are:
1) Flake sea salt -
This sea salt is gotten through natural processes of sun and wind that is fed into an open evaporating pan, its then heated until it forms pyramid-shaped crystals.
2) Flavored sea salt-
It’s just the combination of natural ingredients or spices to a sea salt, given you a lovely flavor in your meal. Some chefs use it for special foods.
3) Fleur de Sel (Flower of salt) sea salt-
· Its called the caviar of salts by chefs in the world (like an extra special kind of salt in this context ), while caviar is a delicacy of its own.
· It comes from the Guerande ( in French diction) town in france.
· It is formed naturally on the surface of salt evaporated ponds.
· It is carefully raked using wooden tools, to follow the traditional methods.
· It is best used for fresh vegetables, grilled meats e.t.c.
4) French grey sea salt (Sel Gris)-
· Its gotten by the hand harvesting.
· It is gotten from the pristine Atlantic sea water.
· They are unrefined so that they can retain more of its minerals that are found in sea water.
· All the methods of processing are done by hand using only wooden tools.
· The hand method makes its taste pure and gives it a moist texture.
· It is slightly lower in sodium chloride compared to the other sea salt.
· French sea salt can be finely crushed and serve as an ordinary table salt and also in more crystalline grey forms.
5) Grey sea salt ( Sel Gris)-
It is an unrefined sea salt, usually found in the Brittany region of the France Atlantic ocean, it is also collected by hand using wooden tools. It comes in grainy and also finely grounded for table salt.
6) Grinder Sea Salt-
They have large dry crystals, its low in content which allows the salt to flow through easily. It is Used better to flavor foods on the table and really not best during cooking because of its low moisture and large crystals.
It may take a while for it to dissolve into your cooking, thereby causing your food not to be as tasty as you want. It could be grounded finely too if you want to make use of it still.
One way to get it melted is by melting it with little water before adding it to your food.
If you want to grind it finely its better with ceramic or plastic grinder.
Stainless steel or metal grinder’s will corrode or rust after constant contact with salt.
7) Hawaiian sea salts –
They are Alaea sea salt and Black Hawaiian sea salt
· The first is added with volcanic red clay to enrich it with iron oxide which gives it a red color and gives it a subtle flavor that tastes earthy than normal sea salt.
· The second has added activated charcoal, given it a dark color and an enhanced flavor.
8) Smoked sea salt-
They add unique flavors to dishes especially those that need to be grilled or oven roasted.
They are called smoked because they are smoked through natural processes; they are smoked over real woods with fire to give the salt a pure natural smoke flavor.
This flavor gives a special taste to dishes, it can be gotten in finely grounded form or coarse grains.
I would like to stop here but I would name some other types and show their pictures too, also gotten from www.seasalt.com/salt-101. You could visit the website once again yourself to read on gourmet salts, its quite an interesting, graphical website to read up about salts.
Some others are;
1) Italian sea salt
2) Kala Namak ( black salt); gotten from Inda-
Let's talk about some other type of salts;
TABLE SALTS-
These are the common salts found all around us and used for cooking. They are gotten from salt mines. When they are refined most of their natural minerals are removed.
I believe what gives table salts its harsh and slightly bitter taste is because of its strong processing method, which removes its natural minerals. Hence this is why it is tagged unhealthy compared to sea salt.
Most table salts are iodized, fun fact is that iodizing salts started in the US in 1920’s during the great depression after some people were discovered to be suffering from Goiter, which is form iodine deficiency. Iodizing a salt is a chemical process of spraying iodine on it during refinement. Natural sources of iodine are sea salt, sea foods and vegetables etc.
KOSHER SALTS-
Let me talk briefly on the popular salt called Kosher salt; Its important to know that not all Kosher salts are sea salts i.e., directly evaporated from the sea. But most of them are from underground salt mines.
There are 2 types; flaky shaped that is named kosher because it is used to prepare meat according to the requirement of the Jewish dietary guidelines. It contains less amount of additives and has a better and less pungent taste than ordinary table salt.
The other type is called kosher because it has been handled and processed according to high standards of the Jewish faith for those following a kosher diet. And it is certified by a prestigious body as kosher.
Now Kosher, just to give you some brief and not to in depth details and definition, Wikipedia just simply puts it as foods that conform to the Jewish dietary regulations of Kashrut, primarily derived from the laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
Jewish faith/religion or Jewish people are strict followers of the mosaic laws, these are laws that were passed to the children of Israel by God in the old testament, hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born. So from that, they have diet guidelines on how foods should be processed or cooked, they take it pretty serious. And so every food item must pass these guidelines before they can be consumed.
Kosher foods are the foods that have passed the Jewish guidelines, so why most people that aren’t Jewish go for kosher foods or like we all know kosher salts is because, they are less processed with additives/chemicals. Most times they use tools that are traditional to process or cook those kind of foods.
For Kosher sea salt, why its called that name is because from its evaporating and extraction of it from the sea, to its processing, all are done as natural as possible with less additives. This also applies to the underground gotten salt, it also contains less additives and still has some bit of its minerals and not just sodium chloride alone.
You can read more on kosher dietary rules and guidelines on www.koshercertification.org.uk, to see what really makes a Kosher food or diet.
ORGANIC SALT-
Salt from research may not be what you can fully call organic because it doesn’t have carbon compounds that can make it organic. But certain standards have been placed by certain organizations that could make you call a salt organic. And this is just in the sense that it followed those standards and guidelines in processing and production, which now makes it certified as “organic”.
These standards go from the packaging of the salt, techniques used for harvesting, purity of the water etc….to read more on some organizations that give these guidelines and certifications for organic salts from http://www.seasalts.com, you can follow this direct link http://www.seasalt.com/about-salt/organic-salt to read the full article on that.
Now with all this, I think it’s safe to say in finally summarized by saying:
· Sea salts are great and are actually high in minerals that are necessary for living healthy and are less refined if you can get the real and original, traditionally produce one.
· They have specific uses and what food or meal they suit better with and can enhance the flavor best.
· It’s not going to be easy in this part of our world to know each type and also maybe try to get it in smaller finer grains that may make it easy for you to handle or make it easy to dissolve down in your food quickly.
This would easily give your food its lovely taste, but you could try by not just buying any sea salt that you see or presented to you to buy.
· It is important to note that not all sea salts whether they are finely grinded or not would dissolve easily and quickly into your food, because those kinds of sea salts are not meant for regular cooking but for special dishes, garnishing and sometimes just to be set on the table with the food for additional garnishing.
· Because of how expensive they are, please take your time to get the right type for yourself or whoever you are buying for e.g parents or the elderly, so that you and them don’t end up making them pour a lot in their foods just to make their foods taste out and this would mean wasting it.
· Make sure also that, it is traditionally produced to the extent that its as natural as possible and less or no addition of additives are present, this means all the minerals are intact.
Because the reason for getting sea salt in quote, is because you are trying to switch to a healthier salt and that means all its trace minerals from the sea are there, not just sodium chloride. And iodine isn’t just sprayed into it but is naturally present.
· Remember the main thing about salts is not the type, but the level you use or put into your system and consume. the main thing is to cut down your on your intake of salts. Sea or underground, so much salt is what affects our health and system.
I mentioned at the beginning, but would like to mention again that, if you would like to read more on salts in general and also gourmet/cooking salts, if you decide to do more research on this from the sources of this little article, because these are just my thought and findings from my own personal research.
You can read about them in full from these two websites www.seasalt.com and www.draxe.com/10-benefits-celtic-sea-salt-himalayan-salt. I excerpted most of this write up from these two websites but most especially www.seasalt.com, you could follow this direct link if you want to go straight to know all about salts from American salt company http://www.seasalt/salt-101.
I haven’t come in contact with all the salts written here myself. These were my findings, and I decided to shorten them briefly because of my curiosity about sea salts in general.
And this curiosity was inspired from a special place which is my family, because as much as I am loving it and its health benefits, I also I’m curious about the fuss of it.
I want people to know more about it and not abuse it, spending the money buying it and not enjoying it, because of buying the wrong one or something else that may not work well for them and their cooking, is something I want people to avoid.
One more thing if you know some other ways one can melt up a sea salt easily for easy dissolving and taste, I would love to know and hear what you think too
Let us take our time to select and investigate, and not just be carried away when we hear the word SEA SALT.
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