Comments on: Creative Use of Salts

By: Kristen

Kristen — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:48:23 +0000

I would also love to hear about cooking with and caring for a salt plate!

By: octopuscarwash

octopuscarwash — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:46:55 +0000

i love these videos! poached eggs and matcha salt sounds like…. i don't even know what it sounds like, but my taste buds have to find out.
what about coffee salt? We recently made bison burgers with espresso-chili rub (also had a lot of paprika in it) and that slight bitterness you were talking about made the meal.

By: @breakawaycook

@breakawaycook — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:20:11 +0000

Thank you Darcy, let me know where to send that bribe!

By: Darcy Self

Darcy Self — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:13:58 +0000

Eric,
As always your happy personality shines. It's hard to notice much else except what your creating and the lit shelves behind you.
As for the tee shirts and comments from others on this, like most men you have your comfortable favorite kind. I see they are clean and not ripped or stained. Big deal they are not new. Your comfortable style is laid back and your happiness is powerful.
I have made some of the salt's and also purchased Black Lava salt from the World Spice Co. I bought an old fashioned relish dish, you know the kind for the picnic table that has 2 glass bottoms and a flip top metal lids for the salt. Dates from the 60's I think. You can reach in with your fingers to take a pinch and then flip the top down to keep hair and dust out. Works great.

By: Crystalvine

Crystalvine — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:04:00 +0000

They look uniform because of the Kosher salt base used which is uniform in size. Some of the salts like wine salt, which uses Cabernet Sauvignon really require a different method of preparation to retain actual wine characteristics. It is difficult to prepare that at home. In addition, wine has many organic components that react with certain sea salt resulting in a black product. I started making the salts in my kitchen the way you have done and then moved to a more reproducible method to create a more predictable, uniform and stable product. But it is all organic and only 2 ingredients are used. I make 200 lbs at a time, vs 2 tbs, and use a standard salt base that has less unpredictables than harvested sea salt which may have many minerals some of which may react with delicate ogranics such as wine. But thanks though. Great stuff!

By: Crystalvine

Crystalvine — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:15:13 +0000

I am going to the store right now and look for the lime leaves. I have been looking for ways to perfect a lime offering. For retail shelf sale, the salts have to look good and pass certain characteristics, and usually a completely dry product is ideal. I also make a Lavender salt, but I start out with a wet process so as not to change the coarse salt shape as I cannot grind it. When I initially thought of these salts, which was before 2000, people thought I was nuts.

By: Crystalvine

Crystalvine — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:56:45 +0000

The products actually have only 2 ingredients. The differecne is that I need to make these in larger scale.

By: @breakawaycook

@breakawaycook — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:57:17 +0000

Thanks! Those salts are beautiful, but they look a bit … processed to me. Whenever something related to food relies on a patent, I guess I get a little, I dunno, uninterested. I think it might work well for large industrial food companies looking for an edge, but I'm not seeing it in end-user kitchens. It's also very, very expensive at nearly $70/pound! Sheesh.

By: Crystalvine

Crystalvine — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:39:04 +0000

Eric, thank you so much for writing about this. I had the idea for flavored salts (and sugars) a long time ago and actually was given a patent in 2003. A full line of flavored salts is offered by Crystavine.com. Saffron salt, Matcha salt, Lavender, Coffee, Wine salt etc. The company also offers a line of similarly flavored sugars and there is nothing on the market like them. The sugars are of a larger size than regular sugar and so can actually be used to frost a cake or sit on top of desserts or fruit and provide a light, pleasant crunch, visual appeal and flavor of course. The products are all natural. Saffron sugar is unexpectendly and suprisingly declicious, although Indian cusisine makes yogurt desserts with saffron. The wine sugar is really delicious and a surprise product. Many salts on the market are not necessarily visually appealing or might be clumpy. The Crystalvine.com salts are visual stunners, free flowing and uniform in size.

By: Dee

Dee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:36:12 +0000

Oh piffle. I waited and waited to allow plenty of time for loading before I posted that comment. But of course, then the video loaded. Great fun I'm not a fan of green tea / grassy flavors, but I will HAVE to try the matcha salt. THANKS!