Salted_ A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes - Mark Bitterman [83]
The salt is made by introducing a powder of fine moist sea salt into a drum and then rotating the drum, sending avalanches of salt down the sides so that bits of salt coalesce and roll, forming little white balls in much the same way you might roll up snow to make a snowman. The result is white pellets that make formidable projectiles. It would be unwise to leave this salt unattended in the presence of children familiar with the fine art of shooting spitballs.
MODIFIED SALT
Amethyst Bamboo Salt 9x
ALTERNATE NAME(S): 9x bamboo salt; juk-yom; jook-yeom; ja-jook-yeom MAKER(S): n/a TYPE: sel gris; roasted CRYSTAL: shattered gemstone COLOR: amethyst FLAVOR: soft-boiled quail egg MOISTURE: none ORIGIN: Korea SUBSTITUTE(S): 9x bamboo salt; in a pinch, kala namak BEST WITH: braised pork belly with green onions (dwejigogi pyeonyook); bread dipped in olive oil; spicy fried or grilled fish
Amethyst Bamboo Salt 9x smells like something dragons must use to season their victims before eating them. The salt belongs to the crowded and opinionated family of East Asian foods that are prized not just for their flavor, but also for their efficacy. In other words, they are expected to do something beyond just taste good. The salt is recognized for its antioxidant qualities and is highly prized in Taoist medicine: it is believed to inhibit the growth of cancer cells, cure fevers, relieve edema, disinfect, promote antibacterial activity (bamboo salt water washes are used as a cure for acne), and to detoxify by counteracting poisons, particularly heavy metals. Its anti-inflammatory effects have been studied scientifically. Amethyst Bamboo Salt 9x also stimulates qi, which translates as both mental and physical vigor. But what is most intriguing to a Western practitioner is that the salt tastes totally crazy.
Savory, sweet, smoky, seaweed, and a myriad of weird, hard-to-identify flavors are gobbled up by a ravenous, intensely sulfuric volcanic egginess. If your mouth has a hard time of it, that’s nothing compared to what the salt has been through. Bamboo salt is made by putting gray sea salt in cylinders of three-year-old bamboo, capping them with special yellow clay, and roasting them in a furnace fired by pine firewood and resin at above 1000°F for eight hours. This process is repeated eight times. At a final ninth firing, the salt is heated to 1500°F, at which point it melts and pours forth like a breath of liquid fire, then cools into amber, red, black, blue, and (the most treasured) amethyst colored crystals.
The 9x salts are often consumed dissolved in water as a tonic, but can also be pulvarized and eaten on food or mixed with regular sea salt or a lesser bamboo salt to attenuate their intensity in daily culinary use. A little goes a long way. Spicy sauces, pickled and fermented foods, and dumplings are its natural compatriots. Try it on chicken breast, broccoli, and bamboo shoots stir-fried with some sesame oil.
Black Truffle
ALTERNATE NAME(S): truffle salt; sale al tartufo; sel aux truffes MAKER(S): various TYPE: traditional; infused/blended CRYSTAL: fine; slightly varied COLOR: speckled beach FLAVOR: truffle MOISTURE: very low ORIGINS: Italy; France SUBSTITUTE(S): none BEST WITH: eggs; mushrooms; steak; French fries; popcorn
Men and women wise in the ways of animals contend that pigs are highly intelligent. If the acuity of the nose is any indication of the perspicacity of the mind, pigs are surely geniuses. They are expert at scenting, unearthing, and wolfing down the finest things in life, from tubers and berries to eggs and birds, but the truffle is the pièce de résistance of the porcine probiscus. Truffles are found in Oregon and Washington, though the best—aromatic on a level unequalled by any other food—live in France and Italy.
Wild boar are not native to North America, no doubt because of the lack of great truffles. Humans love truffles, too. While the boar