Salted_ A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes - Mark Bitterman [49]
Fleur de sel de Guérande is fresh and mineral, with a slight sun-warmed brininess. The salt is marketed by cooperatives owned and operated by a group of producers and also directly by independent producers. While production can vary from salt maker to salt maker, it tends to be slightly more mineral-rich to the tongue than fleur de sel from Guérande’s sister regions Ile de Ré and Noirmoutier. The salt it is most likely to be compared to—fleur de sel de Camargue, hailing from the sun-scorched salt flats of Aigues-Mortes—is much whiter, brighter tasting, and generally finer-grained than its Guérandais cousin. Fleur de sel de Guérande emerges from the salt pan a pale pink color, and shifts to its trademark silvery hue as it dries in the sun. Its moist crystals come in a wonderful range of sizes and colors, so that every pinch bears within it all the unpredictable diversity of the natural world.
Fleur de sel de Guérande is one of the most versatile and bulletproof artisan salts. If you are going to have one artisan salt in your life, this is a good choice. Start simple: spread some good unsalted butter on toast and sprinkle with a pinch of fleur de sel de Guérande. Suddenly the butter comes alive, infused with richer, headier dairy flavors than you ever thought possible. The bread reveals a hazelnutty sweetness. With every bite, a fresh, mineral resonance reflects an ever more satisfying spectrum of flavors. This fleur de sel also enhances broiled fish dishes, roasted game birds, and simply prepared vegetables, like blanched carrots, cauliflower, or broccoli with butter or olive oil.
My dream meal for fleur de sel de Guérande would start with a small asparagus and crab tart topped with fleur de sel, then move on to roasted sole on a bed of leeks, and then a small salad of thick slices of mozzarella and tomato. For the finish, I’d have a plate of assorted burnt caramels, some with the fleur de sel mixed in, some with it sprinkled on top, and some with no salt at all but served with a salt dish on the side.
Spread some out in the palm of your hand and observe the jumble of crystals ranging from nearly microscopic flecks to granules the size of sesame seeds. While many contrast with it, and more yet emulate it, fleur de sel de Guérande is the standard for fleur de sel the world around.
Fleur de Sel de l’Ile de Noirmoutier
ALTERNATE NAME(S): none MAKER(S): cooperative; independent TYPE: fleur de sel CRYSTAL: fine; highly irregular grains and clumps COLOR: oyster shell FLAVOR: mild brine; lean minerals; hints of grape skin MOISTURE: high ORIGIN: France SUBSTITUTE(S): other French fleurs de sel from the Atlantic BEST WITH: potatoes fried in duck fat; baguette slathered in butter with a thin slice of ham
The potato takes us a long way toward understanding fleur de sel de l’Ile de Noirmoutier. In fact, it’s difficult to talk about fleur de sel from Ile de Noirmoutier without a discussion of potatoes. Pommes de terre primeurs from Noirmoutier are harvested before their maturity, at less than ninety days of age, and must be eaten immediately. Aromatic, beautifully sweet, with a firm texture that nonetheless melts in the mouth, even the sound of their names make you hungry: la Sirtema, la Bonnotte, la Lady Christl, la Charlotte. (Perhaps salt makers will someday bestow upon their prize salts such charming and weirdly timeless names.)
Sprinkled on steamed potatoes cracked open and topped with a little sweet cream butter, the minute granular crystals of Noirmoutier’s fleur de sel glimmer with the utmost subtlety against the flaking potato flesh. Atop the same potatoes fried crunchy-rich in duck fat, their flavor somehow exhibit a more pronounced mineral note in proportion to the increased richness of the potato. Now roast the potatoes with olive oil or a beef rib roast, and the salt takes a step back, allowing you to enjoy the caramelized crust of