Types of Salt Used in British Food
Coarse Crystal Sea Salt Produced by evaporating seawater, coarse crystal sea salt are perfect to use in a salt mill or cooking.Fine crystal Sea Salt Fine crystal sea salt is made by evaporating seawater. It has added anti-caking agents to prevent it from drying out and is popular as a table salt in cooking.
Maldon Sea Salt Considered to be the best sea salt available, the flaky crystals from Maldon in Essex has a strong flavour, which makes it ideal if you are trying to reduce your salt intake, as less is needed.
Fleur de Sel or “flower of salt” is a moist salt. It is hand-harvested from salt pans. Fleur de Sel has a wonderful bouquet from the naturally occurring trace elements within it. Famous brands include Sel de Guerande from France.
Rock Salt comes from underground deposits formed over thousands of centuries ago by the gradual drying up of inland lakes and seas. Rock salt crystals are large and hard making them ideal for use in a salt mill.
Table Salt has added anti-caking agents to prevent it from clogging, this is the classic salt used in salt cellars and to add to recipes. Many salts today are bleached to change the yellowish colour to white. If you wish to avoid eating salts messed around with then traditional sea salts will be preferable.
Specialist Salts
Often called ‘Posh Salt’, specialist salts not only add colour and variety, they are stronger in flavour so less is needed. There are many more specialist varieties of salt available, or you can make your own spiced salt by adding your own choice of spice or seeds to the salt mill.Prized for centuries in Hawaii, Alaea Red Salt from Kauai is reputed to have many healing and restorative powers. Tinged from volcanic clay that runs into the sea, this sea salt has a much mellower flavour than many sea salts
Steenbergs Traditional Sea Salt is hand harvested from Algarve, in southern Portugal. This sea salt is unprocessed and unrefined and captures the delicate flavours of the sea and its rich minerals.
Black salt, also known as rock salt or kala namak, is mined in central India. This finely ground, pinkish gray salt is rich in minerals. Its smoky, tangy taste heightens the flavor in foods. Its is recommended for people with high blood pressure and low-salt eating dieters because it does not increase sodium content in the blood
Himalayan Crystal Salt is pristine and natural, the cleanest salt available, and is reported to have remarkable healing properties. It has the perfect geometric structure possible in rock crystals, which is the result of being compressed under the Earth’s surface throughout millions of years.
Flavoured salts are some of the oldest seasoning mixes. Celery salt is the classic of all of these, combining sea salt with the distinctive fresh medicinal flavour of celery. Classic uses for celery salt is with Bloody or Virgin Mary's. Other appealing flavours are cumin, coriander, or any variety of herbs and spices.
