Salted_ A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes - Mark Bitterman [60]
Several major brands and varieties of alaea salt are available. The one described here is profiled because it is so commonly available. Despite the name, the salt itself is an industrial sea salt from California blended with premium Hawaiian alaea. Many, perhaps most, of the paler, traditional alaea salts sold in Hawaii are likewise actually California salt, in this instance blended with a paler but also pretty alaea. Virtually all Hawaiian salt makers are now forbidden to sell their salt, and legally can only give it away. As a result, traditional salt making, once a pillar of Hawaiian artisanship, has withdrawn to the fringes of Hawaiian culture.
SIFTING THROUGH THE ALAEAS
There are many kinds of alaea salts. Most come from just a few sources, though they are often rebranded with names that vary slightly from place to place. For example, alaea, alaea volcanic, alaea Hawaiian, Hawaiian Red, and so on can all refer to just one salt. But despite the interchangeability of their names, not all are created equal. Colors of alaea range from pale salmon to rich brick, depending on the grade and quantity of alaea volcanic clay that is combined with the salt. Darker salts are not perforce of higher quality than lighter salts, though they do generally use a higher grade or greater quantity of sacred alaea clay. Regardless of their color, most of the alaea salts sold commonly (and legally) today are actually made using an industrially produced sea salt from California—and the chances are even the stores selling the salt will be unaware of the fact. A handful of traditional saltmakers continue to make alaea using traditional methods. If you don’t have a knowledgeable saltmonger in your neck of the woods, premium brands of alaea such as Haleakala red or other brands bearing the name of the saltmaker on the label are the safest bet. The finest alaea salt from a base salt perspective available now is Haleakala red, evaporated in a greenhouse in open pans. The fullest expression of authentic alaea is found only in the many gray market alaea salts available on the Hawaiian Islands, or more commonly just offered as a gift.
ALAEA QUICK REFERENCE
Without resorting to proprietary names from reputable companies that explicitly state where their salt comes from and where it is made, it is difficult to know the origin of a specific salt.
Alaea Hawaiian (Fine)
ALTERNATE NAME(S): Alaea Volcanic (fine), alaea Hawaiian (fine), Hawaiian red (fine) MAKER(S): various TYPE: traditional and/or industrial CRYSTAL: sand brushed off tops of feet COLOR: terra cotta FLAVOR: seawater drying off iron anchor MOISTURE: none ORIGIN: United States SUBSTITUTE(S): alaea volcanic coarse or other alaea salt in a grinder BEST WITH: Bloody Mary rims; blended with black-colored salts on mozzarella
Saturated with tangy rust, this salt becomes increasingly oceanic, then stalls before taking on water and sinking slowly into the black depths of the sea. Alaea in its finely ground incarnation is not a great salt, but using it at the right time and in the right place can yield great results. Its thin, cubic, somewhat irregular crystals and luminous pink color make it definitive on the rim of a cocktail glass—although one could achieve a subtly different result by rimming a glass with alaea volcanic coarse salt that’s been run through a good salt grinder.
There are a number of fine-grind alaea volcanic salts, and some are better than others. The moister varieties have better flavor, but they are harder to sprinkle, and clumps of salt on food (even beautiful red salt) are rarely ideal. Still, moist or dry, better or worse, I keep coming back to this salt. When you bite into large crystals of coarse alaea volcanic you are hit with a pungent acidic quality, reminiscent of lime juice, but this quality fades when the salt is preground.
Alcochete Sal Grosso
ALTERNATE NAME(S): sal de Alcochete; sal marinho tradicional de