Give dishes a burst of flavor with sea salts

A few weeks ago, Jack gave me a set of gourmet sea salts (see photo). It arrived beautifully gift-wrapped from Jefferson's Monticello. Unfortunately, I had no idea which of the tiny jars held which type of salt. The description online promised a guidebook and recipe suggestions, which were nowhere to be found. 

I called customer service and a friendly woman suggested I look at the bottom of the jars for the salt name. I picked up the black one, assuming it would read "Cyprus Onyx," the only black salt specifically mentioned on the website. No luck. She said she'd look into it and call me back. 

When the phone rang a few minutes later, she told me she'd gone to the packing area and pulled out one of the sets. As it turns out, what I thought was a label on the outer box was actually a 4-page booklet with the information I wanted. And, when I looked at the bottom of one of the white salts, I saw its name printed in black (which is why I didn't see the onyx salt's name against its dark color). 

Mystery solved - I was now ready to start experimenting with my tray of salts. But first, a few definitions. As we know, salt has been essential to the human (and animal) diet for thousands of years. All salt comes from evaporating the water in which it is dissolved, but there are essentially three types of salt defined by the processing involved: table salt, kosher salt and sea salt. 

Today, table salt is made by driving water into a salt deposit, typically found in ancient underground seabeds. The resulting brine is then evaporated to leave cube-like crystals that resemble granulated sugar. It's fortified with iodine, bleached and often treated with additives to prevent caking. While table salt is not the healthiest option, the fine grains dissolve quickly when tossed into boiling pasta water. 

Kosher salt is named for the process it's most often used for: preparing the flesh of meat and fowl in accordance with Jewish dietary rules. This entails washing, soaking, salting and then rinsing. The large, flakey texture of kosher salt makes it easy to grip and distribute. 

Kosher salt is produced in much the same way as table salt, except the brine is continually raked during the evaporation phase to create light flakes. This is the salt most often specified in recipes and chosen by chefs. Its texture makes it taste less "salty" than denser table salt, and its size makes it easy to see when sprinkling on foods. 

While all of the salt in the world originated in sea water of some sort, the salts we call "sea salt" are those not produced by large-scale industrial manufacturing, but carefully harvested from specific locations, giving them exotic names like Trapani (from the Mediterranean near Sicily) or Aussie Snow (from the Pacific Ocean off Australia). 

Sea salts with elegant pedigrees such as these have come to be known as "finishing salts" because they're added as a garnish in the final step of preparing a dish. They offer the cook a wide range of flavor, texture and color. Some of these are truly beautiful, in crystal shapes from flat and rugged to the tiny pyramids you can see in the black salt. 

Colored salts are often those with the highest mineral content, absorbing trace elements along with their color. The brick-red salt in the bottom row of the photo is "Pele Red" from the Hawaiian island of Molokai, colored by iron-rich volcanic clay called Alaea. It is delightful on fresh salads and steamed vegetables.

The large pink crystals on the left of the second row are "Tibetan Rose" from the Himalayas, high in mineral content with a bright salt flavor. I use these in a salt grinder as my everyday salt. 

Of the salts that maintain some moisture, one of the most prized is the rather unassuming whitish-grey salt, third from the left in the second row in the photo. "Fleur de Sel" or flower of salt is harvested by carefully skimming the surface of salt evaporation marshes in Guérande, France. This process collects only the delicate young crystals on the uppermost layers. Fleur de Sel is the most costly of finishing salts, with a signature crunch and clean taste, perfect to sprinkle on a grilled steak. 

While you may not want to invest in an array of different salts, here's a quick summary of each type. Kosher salt is handy for everyday salt needs, delivering less saltiness because of its large flakes. Table salt is good if you need the added iodine for health reasons, but it also leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste. 

Sea salts of various sizes and shapes are fun for their color and valuable for their minerals. French Grey sea salt, a less expensive cousin to Fleur de Sel, will give your dishes a burst of bright flavor when used as a finishing salt. For recipes, I've included two cookies, one with coarse sea salt mixed into the batter and one that calls for dusting with Fleur de Sel just before baking.

Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies 

1 C butter 
1/2 C confectioners sugar 
1 1/2 C flour 
1/2 C cornstarch 
1/4 t coarse sea salt 
1/2 C dark chocolate 

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Add flour, cornstarch and salt; beat until smooth. Roughly chop chocolate into one-inch pieces and stir into batter. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto prepared baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart. Place pans in the refrigerator for 25 minutes and allow to chill before baking. Bake until golden, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove to a rack and allow to cool. Yield: 2 dozen cookies.

Sea Salt Shortbread 

1 C sugar 
1 C butter 
1 t cardamom 
1 t ginger 
1 t kosher salt 
3 C flour 
1 egg 
1 T water 
1 t Fleur de Sel 

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with parchment paper; set aside. Combine sugar, butter, spices and kosher salt in a large mixing bowl. Beat until fluffy and smooth. Add flour and continue beating just until combined. Spread batter in an even layer in prepared pan. Whisk together egg and water. Coat the surface of the dough evenly with the egg wash. Sprinkle with Fleur de Sel. Bake until crisp and golden, about 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely in the pan. Cut cookies into triangles and use the parchment to lift them out of the pan. Yield: 2 dozen cookies.