Sea Salt

     Salt and pepper are the master spices.  Salt is one of the four basic tastes along with sweet, sour, and bitter.  It has been used for thousands of years to preserve meat and fish by removing moisture.  It is also used to tenderize meat.  Soaking meat and fish in a salt brine before cooking enhances the juice content.  A salt crust helps fish and meat retain moisture during cooking.  It is used in bread making to slow down the fermentation process and develop flavor in the wheat.  And, of course, it is used to bring out the flavor of almost any food, including chocolate.

      The most common source of salt today is deposits left by the retreat of glaciers ages ago.  There are salt licks, dry lakes, and massive salt deposits underground.   In the Polish salt mines of Wieliczka, entire chapels are carved in salt.

      Table salt is usually obtained from underground deposits.  A more difficult and time consuming process of getting salt is through the evaporation of water, particularly sea water.  However, the salt is a lot more flavorful.

     The most common source of salt gleaned from the sea is the Mediterranean .  However, there are other sea salt sources such as Maldon in England and Trapani in Sicily.  Probably the most famous location is the marshlands of Brittany in France.

     Brittany is on the west coast of France.  Even though washed by the Atlantic Ocean, the coast and islands have a Mediterranean-like climate, which facilitates evaporation.  In addition, the waters are some of the cleanest in the world.  It is the main source of France's fabulous shellfish.

     The harvesting of salt from the Atlantic goes back to the 7th century.  Supposedly, monks on the island of Noirmoutier were the first and their techniques are still used today.   Noirmoutier, by the way, means "black monastery," a name derived from the black garb of the monks.  Ocean water that enters the marshes on Noirmoutier is directed by trenches into square beds or fields with naturally hard clay bottoms.  The sun warms and evaporates the water from the shallow beds leaving the salt, which forms large crystals.   During the summer and fall, an artisan "saunier" or salt harvester rakes the crystals into small piles at the edge of each bed.  The salt is regularly moved from the piles into a larger huge pile, and then transported to town where it is stored for a year to thoroughly dry.  The salt procured by raking has a gray tint because of the clay beds.  It is called "gros sel" (thick salt) due to the large crystal size or "sel gris" (gray salt) due to its color.

     Following World War II, when cheap industrial salt became available, the art of raking started to disappear.  During the 80's, however, French young people, interested in preserving French traditions, began to revive the practice.

     In the 80's, a second kind of natural sea salt from the marshes came into demand.  It is the thin white fragile film that forms on top of the water in the salt beds on still summer days.  Sauniers gather it by carefully skimming it off the surface.  When piled up, the salt blooms and develops a pink tinge and the aroma of violets.  This rare and uniquely flavorful salt is called "fleur de sel," which means the flower of salt.  It has become the most prized salt in France.

     The salt owes its unique, complex flavor to its chemical make up derived from its origin.  Unlike most sea salts, they are not washed.  The crystals contain not only sodium chloride, but also iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc, and iodine.

     The fleur de sel is sprinkled on already cooked foods.  Cooking with it would destroy its delicate aroma and organic components.  Use it on all fish, meat, vegetables, and salad greens.  Gray salt is used to flavor water for cooking, on foods both before and after cooking, and on raw vegetables and salad.  Both are intense and delicious.  The grilling blend is superb.  You can find the gray salt and fleur de sel on a new Sea Salt Web Page.

    Our sea salt comes from the Island of Ré, which is south of Noirmoutier, just west of La Rochelle.  It is gathered in the classic manner by salt harvesters, as has been the practice on the island for 1,300 years.   The saltmarshes on the Island of Ré have the designation of "Remarkable" Site of Taste awarded by 4 Ministries and by the National Center of Culinary Art.