Salted_ A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes - Mark Bitterman [0]
Location and salt macro photographs copyright © 2010 by Mark Bitterman
Food photographs copyright © 2010 by Jennifer Martiné
The following material is reprinted with permission:
Stone cutters 1.1 and 1.2 in Pakistan, courtesy of Maqbool Bhatti
Maras salt fields, courtesy of Leslie Trites
Camargue salt works, courtesy of Mathieu Ginod
agehama-shiki salt making, courtesy of Okunoto Endenmura
drawing of Guérande solar salt ponds, courtesy of Jill Davies, adapted from oeilletdeguerande.com
Maldon Salt Company, courtesy of Maldon Salt Company
Salt pan floor 1.1 and 1.2, courtesy of Lennie DiCarlo
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com
Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher.
eISBN: 978-1-607-74088-9
v3.1
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
DISCOVERY: THE SALT ROAD
THE LIFE OF SALT
HISTORY: FIRST BITE SCIENCE: MIND, BODY, SALT, OCEAN CRAFT: ARTISAN SALTMAKING
SALT GUIDE
THE TAXONOMY OF SALT SALT REFERENCE GUIDE
SALTING
SALTING STRATEGICALLY UNCOOKED CURING GRILLING BRINING ROASTING FRYING BOILING BAKING SALT CRUST COOKING ON SALT BLOCKS SAUCING CONFECTIONERY DRINKS
RESOURCES
INDEX
TO MY MOTHER
Acknowledgments
My fantasy of sitting in a garret in Paris, smoking Gitane cigarettes and writing this book in monkish seclusion was not destined to be fulfilled. Instead of self-reliance and solitude, this book was born from the support of a huge network of amazing people. Above all, this book would not have been possible without Jennifer, whose eye for honesty has forced me to live and think more truly, and whose creative genius made a business out of our shared passions. Thanks to my boys Austin (ravenous appetite and gourmet tastes) and Hugo (enthusiastic cook and fiery collaborator) for being such good sports, and for insisting that even when I’m most distracted I can, indeed, wrestle.
Thanks to the rest of my family as well. To my mother, Jill, for not caging me as a child, and for backing me as a writer no matter how unruly that writing often was, and to my father, Howard, for his passion for eating—rivaled only by his passion for talking about it. Thanks to my brother, Aaron, for persisting in the idea that food is the most important thing in the universe; to my sister, Jennifer, for always laughing at my stories; and to my brother Shem for his encouragement and example as a writer.
A debt of gratitude to my dear friend Andy Schloss, who is as tough as he is brilliant, and whose generosity seems always to exceed my ability to abuse it. Loving thanks to my agent and friend Lisa Ekus for her high-octane inspiration and excellent whisky. Special thanks to my preposterously dedicated research assistant Evan Messinger. A very special thanks to the staff of The Meadow, who has tolerated my all-too-frequent absences from the business and my less-than-angelic temperament when I was not absent. Eternal gratitude to the crew at Ten Speed Press, and to my superb editor Melissa Moore and inspired designer Betsy Stromberg in particular.
Discovery: The Salt Road
There may be those who seek not gold, yet there never lived a man who desires not salt. —Secretary to the Ostrogothic King of Italy (528 CE)
At twenty years of age, I made the discovery that would change my life forever. I was somewhere in the middle of a very long, unstructured motorcycle trip across Europe, wandering from Wales to Slovenia, Vatican City to Denmark. My philosophy was that I should ride slowly, soaking up the scenery and stopping to look more closely at whatever caught my eye—a strange-looking tree, or a cow that approached the fence, or a toothless man. I’d maybe open a can of sardines and dump them on the crust of