3 Kinds Of Salt To Shake Up Your Cooking

Salt might be the least exciting thing in your kitchen, but does it really have to be that way? From sapphire-blue crystals to smoky alderwood varieties, here are three salts that are anything but ordinary.

Of all the ingredients in your kitchen, salt might just be the least exciting. It’s true, you grab the same container every time you cook, give it a few shakes over whatever you’ve just made, and that’s that. But salt, much like fine wine or a spirit, can actually have a sense of place, in that where it comes from, how it’s made, and what minerals it contains can all have a pretty noticeable effect on how it tastes. With that said, here are some salts that’ll definitely shoot up the excitement hierarchy in your kitchen cabinet.

Hawaiian Black Lava Salt

First up, we have Hawaiian black lava salt, also known as Kona salt, which is a salt that looks almost unnecessarily dramatic for what’s supposed to be just a condiment. Harvested from the waters around the Hawaiian Islands, it’s mixed with activated coconut shell charcoal, which is what gives the crystals their ominous pitch-black appearance.

While the charcoal doesn’t quite overhaul the flavour, it does impart an earthy quality together with a subtle smokiness that lurks underneath. It’s not something you want to use while you’re cooking, but more something you want to sprinkle over it at the very end, where those darkened crystals can glisten atop and properly be appreciated. Seared ahi tuna or grilled white fish are ideal candidates to dress it up in, or you could see it on the rim of a spicy mezcal cocktail, which will undoubtedly add about 20 ringgit to the price you’ll pay for it.

Persian Blue Salt

Persian blue salt might look like somebody’s gotten a little bit naughty with the food colouring, but the striking sapphire-blue veins you see running through it are, in fact, entirely natural. Mined from ancient salt deposits in Iran’s Semnan province, it derives its cerulean shade from a mineral called sylvite.

The flavour also lives up to the appearance. It hits you with a surprisingly sharp burst of saltiness before quickly dissolving into something considerably milder, with an almost sweet finish to it. It’s a particularly good finishing salt for things like beef carpaccio or fresh melon, although you could also just leave some in a little glass dish on the dining table and have your guests wondering longer than they should about what exactly it is that they’re looking at.

Smoked Alderwood Salt

Then we have smoked alderwood salt, which starts life as perfectly ordinary salt before undergoing a treatment usually reserved for the likes of brisket and salmon. Made by cold-smoking salt over red alderwood in the Pacific Northwest, sometimes for several days, it takes on a golden-brown colour and a deeply smoky character.

The smoke is sweet and campfire-like rather than harsh or bitter, which makes it a particularly useful addition to vegetarian dishes and vegan cooking. Sprinkle it over roasted root vegetables, mushrooms, or even mac and cheese, and you’ll get a smoky, almost bacon-like quality without needing to involve any bacon. It’s also excellent on burgers, grilled vegetables, or pretty much anything else that could benefit from a little time around a campfire.

And that’s the thing about salt: maybe we need to accord it more respect than simply something we reach for when our food tastes a bit flat. Like many things of appreciable quality, it can carry the character of where it came from, how it was produced, and what happened to it along the way. But that doesn’t mean you need to go dump your regular everyday salt in the garbage either. Just pick one of these up the next time you’re feeling adventurous and see what it does to an otherwise ordinary Tuesday night dinner. You might be surprised by how much difference a little pinch can make.

Opening image: Quang Nguyen Vinh | Pexels