Salted_ A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes - Mark Bitterman [74]
The salt maker Koshin Odo once performed an experiment to explore the value of natural salt to living organisms. He picked up a bunch of crabs off the beach. He put some of them in salt water made from a refined salt manufactured through ion exchange and vacuum evaporation. The crabs died almost right away. Some of the crabs he put in salt water made by combining fresh water and unrefined rock salt. The crabs died within two days. Then he made salt water using some of his own Aguni salt. The crabs lived. Furthermore, the aquarium holding the crabs began to produce more life, presumably from microscopic organisms already living on the crabs. Koshin Odo believes that the same subtle chemistry essential for the very survival of marine animals offers benefits to humans as well.
Amabito no Moshio
ALTERNATE NAME(S): moshio; ancient sea salt MAKER(S): Kamagari Bussan Company TYPE: shio CRYSTAL: brown sugar COLOR: cappuccino sea foam FLAVOR: chicken-fried ocean MOISTURE: low ORIGIN: Japan SUBSTITUTE(S): none BEST WITH: cucumber sandwich; scallop sashimi; popcorn
Cliff-diving off some North Pacific archipelago just before a summer tempest provides the same sudden surge of warmth braced by brine and wind that amabito no moshio does—except amabito no moshio is like cliff-diving while eating a really good tuna fish sandwich. Amabito no Moshio brings to unassertive foods the definition that you would expect from any good salt, but it does so with a prejudice toward the savory. The salt’s unique umami character—deriving from an infusion of seaweed—lends astringent foods richness and rich foods freshness. It is dry, but with a shio’s typical fine, complexly articulated crystals and a luxurious beige patina like the interior of a Ferrari.
Amabito no Moshio is an adaptation of a 2,500-year-old salt-making method. In ancient times, salt would be hauled to shore and allowed to dry, sprayed with saltwater, and dried again, until the salt-encrusted seaweed could be rinsed into a concentrated brine and boiled over a wood fire for a salt that is high in seaweed ash. In 1984, archeological digging revealed a salt-making pot from the third or fourth century CE; that pot inspired the resurrection of this ancient salt-making tradition.
On Kami-Kamagari Island, seawater is collected and allowed to partially evaporate. Hon’dawara seaweed is then added to the brine to impart flavor and minerals. After the seaweed is removed, the brine is heated in an iron kettle and evaporated into a slurry. The slurry is spun in a centrifuge to remove most of the nigari (bittern), and then stirred over an open fire to evaporate off the remaining water and crystallize the remaining magnesium salts. The resulting salt is as supple as brown sugar and as savory as bonito-flavored potato chips.
It’s easy to imagine making amabito no moshio your default salt for all savory dishes. Trout, pike, carp, hen, veal, pork, rice, pasta, potatoes, sunchoke, broccoli rabe, cheeses, yogurt—finding foods that would benefit from its umami minerality basically involves drawing up a shopping list. Sweets benefit from moshio as well—try it on 70 percent dark chocolate, or dusted on a chocolate soufflé.
Okinawa Shima Masu
ALTERNATE NAME(S): n/a MAKER(S): various TYPE: shio CRYSTAL: fine; granular; slightly irregular COLOR: wet paper white FLAVOR: bitter; pickle; dull MOISTURE: moderate ORIGIN: Japan SUBSTITUTE(S): Taiwan Yes Salt, cheap traditional sea salt BEST WITH: soups; stews; braised meats and vegetables
Intense, slightly bitter, with clunky crystals that neither diminish nor heighten perception, this is a salt with no hope for glory. But then …
Oyakodon and Katsudon, two Titans of Japanese cuisine, wade through the early morning mist that mingles with the smoking wreckage of the city. The police commissioner, weary and smudged with grime, struggles to maintain an air of calm, lest the city sink into despair. How