Salted_ A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes - Mark Bitterman [68]
Cornish sea salt is made in Cornwall by Tony Fraser, founder of the Cornish Sea Salt Company, located at the extreme southwest of England, on the heel of the small boot of land that projects into the northern fringe of the North Atlantic at the mouth of the English Channel. Salt was made in this area, called The Lizard, possibly as far back as 3,000 years ago, in the Iron Age, using the traditional briquetage method, with seawater evaporated in clay pots over a fire of gorse and other shrubs. Today, seawater is drawn from Cornwall’s desolate coast, then filtered and heated to condense the brine until salt crystallizes. The resulting salt is then hand-harvested from the evaporation pans, rinsed, and dried.
Cyprus Black Flake
ALTERNATE NAME(S): Cyprus Black Lava; Turkish Black Pyramid MAKER(S): n/a TYPE: flake CRYSTAL: heavily built hollow pyramids COLOR: flinty gray to charcoal black (see What Makes Black Salt Black) FLAVOR: earth-and tannin-enrobed electricity MOISTURE: none ORIGIN: Cyprus SUBSTITUTE(S): Cyprus flake; Molokai Black Lava BEST WITH: fresh chèvre; grilled asparagus
Cyprus black is intensely earthy, tannic, and bold, and is best used judiciously. It is also the opposite, and is best used freely. Or it is both.
Perhaps that needs some explanation.
Different people taste Cyprus black on different foods in different ways, on different days. Some call it subtle one year and intense the next. For others, it depends on what food the salt accompanies. As in quantum mechanics, the experience of Cyprus black changes the experience of Cyprus black. This is a difficult notion to wrap the mind around, but it doesn’t matter. Regardless of our understanding, the salt is good—if unpredictable.
The color of the crystals ranges from flinty black to rain cloud gray, depending on manufacturing variations from batch to batch. The salt can also be classified as a modified salt, as it takes its characteristic color from activated charcoal added after crystallization. An especially saturated, obsidian black version of this salt is available under the name Black Diamond flake sea salt. The translucency of the tremendous pyramidal crystals lets lighter, brighter colors pass through. The flavor is relatively consistent when tasted alone, but highly responsive to other ingredients, or different people’s tongues.
Cyprus black delivers a satisfying snappy crunch, and resists dissolving even on very moist foods. Massive pyramids of Cyprus black on a rich pumpkin soup topped with guacamole, cilantro, and toasted pumpkins seeds invite you to delve into the divine pleasures of Mayan cuisine. The salt’s subtle tannic notes lend wonderful balance and structure to grilled asparagus and Brussels sprouts. On pasta, it mimics the pungent snap of fried garlic; on baked potatoes, or Cobb salad, it adds the crunchy contrast of bacon bits. My favorite is potato latkes topped with smoked salmon and tarragon crème fraîche, and a neat pinch of Cyprus black on top, a sort of poor man’s caviar.
WHAT MAKES BLACK SALT BLACK?
Some salts are traditionally evaporated from waters that have filtered through or evaporated over volcanic sands, which suggests the term “volcanic” or “lava” salt. But the presence or absence of volcanic soils in the salt-making process has no bearing on the color of a salt. All these salts emerge from the salt pans in varying shades of brilliant white. During or after drying, they are combined with activated charcoal (also called active charcoal), which is highly porous (a single gram can have 1,640 square yards of surface area), making it incredibly