Old Salt

Last week, The Atlantic featured a story rightly discrediting the pink salt fad. Evidently many of us fall for its pink color...and branding. Although it's marketed as Himalayan Pink Salt, it's actually mined in Pakistan but its commercial handlers assiduously avoid mentioning that.  Additionally despite all the bogus wellness claims to which many are now susceptible, it's just essentially rock salt, same as any other rock salt- - just more pink. Which doesn't mean a thing. 

I've been exposed to Himalayan salt for two decades, seeing it all the time in Kathmandu's buzzing Assan spice market. I actually keep three chunks in the pantry: one white, one pink and one black. The black has a nasty sulfurous odor and is rarely used except for a taste effect similar to asafoetida. There are no rightful claims to be made for pink over white, so no Himalayan resident would try --or believe someone who did.

This sad story of marketing manipulation reminds us how little we know about how important salt is. All we hear is it's bad for you...or that it's pretty in pink.   For starters, salt is probably the most vital, must- have nutrient for the human body. You won't live long without it.  For this reason, wars have been fought, ethnicities cleansed and locations mapped. Did you know British towns ending in "wich" (eg. Sandwich, Norwich, Ipswich...) means they're atop salt deposits?  For this reason too, salt was often used as money, especially to pay soldiers defending or attacking for it. Thus the expression: to be worth your salt. And thus the word: salary (sal for salt).  

So salt requires respect. I learned the hard way when I fell for the marketing manipulating us all to abandon the usual blue paper canister from Morton's and buy nothing but sexy sea salt: what's fancifuflly marketed as grey salt, fleur de sel, Irish sea salt, sea flakes, et alia. It's all raked from edges of the tidal ocean and you can even today from the air see the now defunct flats of San Francisco Bay.

Sea salt has larger particles than Salt Lake salt so it looks prettier. I went for it. Not long after, I started having decreased energy then other problems thyroid related. Which led to my Eureka!: sea salt is not "iodized" and the super necessary nutrient in salt is iodide.  (Iodide is the vital core of iodine.) This is why Himalayan people who lived for centuries on that pink--and white and black--rock salt developed goiters. It wasn't until early in this 21st C that Nepal required salt to be iodized. So I raced out to buy that good ole' blue paper canister of iodized salt. Now I mix it up with my fancy sea salts and the Himalayan pink salt somebody gave me and I'm physically fine. The easiest way to do this is to use it copiously in the water for boiling pasta.        

Lack of iodide is also true for what's called "kosher salt." This is in essence coarse crystal salt used in butchering to pull water, blood and other liquids out of slaughtered animals. It's large crystals make it ideal for preserving and pickling. Rely on it to eat and you will suffer the ravages of iodide deficiency.

 But there's some happy news about kosher and other salt. Because any salt magnetizes water and other liquid like blood, it's a great cooking medium.  If you don't have a grill but want your hamburger or steak or lamb chop to taste as if it's been on open fire, just cover the bottom of a cast iron frying pan or any frying pan actually with a layer of salt. Heat it up, then put then meat on it.  Immediately that hot salt will draw out the meat's juices letting the meat cook in them just as it would on an open fire. It is for this same reason that roasting vegetables requires not just a splash of olive oil to conduct the heat into them but a sprinkle of salt to bring the water out so they crisp up.Soaking up water is why salt is the magical ingredient in fermentation and what makes it a preservative. 

Salt's magical ability to magnetize water is why it's urgent to eat salty foods during summer when you sweat. It helps your body retain water. It's also urgent to eat salty foods at high altitudes when you're forced to drink a lot of water; otherwise you'll be constantly peeing that water out. I did that until I ate half a bag of extra salty potato chips which stabilized my body.

And one more thing. I and other experienced cooks always use only unsalted butter, especially in baking, because salted butter has retained some water which it will release into your baked good, ruining it.  So  I advise to buy the best quality unsalted butter for everything. You can add salt when you slather it on your bagel.

Please accept this wisdom with a grain of salt.