Salt

[never_enough]

Anyone make their own? I made my first batch about a month ago.

Got my water from no mans land in Maine. Will be trying it with water while on Nantucket the next time I'm out there.

I think my next step will be to create infused and finishing salts.

I didn't even know you can make your own salt...? that is interesting... how do you do it?

[never_enough]

Its really simple. Get salt water from a not very populated spot, filter it through a few layers of cheese cloth into a big pot, boil/simmer until its turns into salt. Some people boil it down to a paste consistency then spread it out on a baking sheet to bake the rest of the moisture out of it.

Its time consuming. Took like 4 hours or so to boil down a little less than 2 gallons of water when I did it. Can't remember how much salt i ended up with. Maybe a cup or more? But how much salt you get will vary depending on water source, if its rained recently etc.

I will find my pics and post them.

Did I read on another thread you had just passed your Bar Robert?

Congradulations!!!

Also good to meet a fellow zombie... I just joined about a week ago...

[never_enough]

No, that was not me.

Congrats on becoming a zombie though!

Oh... Opps... guess it was someone with a similar Avatar..

Yea I have to say the Zombies are quite welcoming...

Look forward to your salt pictures...

[never_enough]

Here is the process in pics. Took forever, and at one point I thought I some how managed to screw up and wasn't going to get any salt

Testing my patience in the beginning....




Finally some progress!



Getting there...



Pasty...

[never_enough]

The blob...




Spread out for the final dry





And after many hours, here is the gold of the ocean!

Interesting... I'll have to give it a shot the next time I feel like watching a pot boil... LoL jk

Do you use it as bath salts or do you use it on food like table salt?

Oh... I see on your second set of pics you use it as table salt... that is interesting... Does the taste vary much? Im sure the texture does...

[never_enough]

Yes, it taste a lot different actually. And the salt I made would taste different than you make. Its different depending on location.

I use less of the salt I made than the sea salt I buy at the store. My taste buds aren't great at picking out flavors, but it is definitely different. Plus its not processed with chemicals and what not.

The salt I made will always absorb moisture so its clumpy. The stuff you buy at the store has chemicals in it to keep it so dry.

If you have the time, it can be a fun little hobby. I am going to start attempting infusions and eventually smoking it at some point.

Smoking salt? like to add smoky flavor? that sounds pretty awesome...

and if I have misunderstood you, as I so frequently do with people on these threads, and your going to literally smoke salt... let me know how that goes for you... lol

[never_enough]

Yep, smoke salt like you smoke meat. Get a smokey flavor and a dark color.

That sounds pretty awesome... you can do the same salt with different woods... Cedar vs hickory... ect...

[never_enough]

Yeah and thats where I will need to do some research on the flavors different woods will have on the salt. Never smoked anything before, but now that I have a house and a yard, time to start grilling and smoking!

Originally Posted by never_enough

Yeah and thats where I will need to do some research on the flavors different woods will have on the salt. Never smoked anything before, but now that I have a house and a yard, time to start grilling and smoking!

I have plenty of experience grilling... not so much smoking...

But I did pick up a 35 dollar charcoal smoker from wall- world... I have had some successes with it... I find Hickory "sticks" to the meat easier...

Only down side with my cheap ass smoker is that it takes FOREVER to smoke large birds (turkey chicken ect)

Maybe if I had smoked salt I could get the flavor without the hassle, and for that sir I tip my preverbial cap...

[T.G]

Originally Posted by never_enough

Yeah and thats where I will need to do some research on the flavors different woods will have on the salt. Never smoked anything before, but now that I have a house and a yard, time to start grilling and smoking!

Different smoke woods will cause the salt to make the the food taste as if it were given a small shot of that particular smoke wood.

As for smoking your own, hope you have a lot of patience, it takes a long time (2-3+ days smoke time for one of the commercial guys near me) to go "fully brown-black" because it's so dense. Shorter smoking times might or might not be fully effective, I ran 18+ hours on some mesquite wood for a good friend here as a substitute for Kiawe wood and it barely put a dent in the salt. 72 hours would have been a good start.

[never_enough]

Wow. Even with having a lot smaller crystals than what is usually sold commercially?

[T.G]

I can't say. I'd recommend you just try it. Maximize the surface area and stir often. Just keep smoking it until you get it to where you like it, and remember, you can always do it in multiple sessions, it doesn't really matter if it's a continuous smoke or not.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just kind of let you know that it's going to take some time and not to give up on it too soon.

The mesquite smoked salt that I attempted was with a fine grain sea salt, where the grain was a bit smaller than the typical Morton-esque table salt in the blue can shaped containers. It had It had a nice aroma, and a little bit of flavor, but didn't pack much punch in the smoke flavor department, color had only progressed to a tan.

Then one day I ran into chef Jimmy T (local BBQ sauce producer and caterer to some of the wineries) and we started talking smoking and trading cooking thoughts and I noticed he had some smoked salt. This smoked salt was gorgeous dark brown, almost black, you open the container and the aroma is intense, nothing like the French smoked sea salt you see in the markets where it comes in a fancy spring top jar but the salt is light brown at best with a few token dark crystals here and there. Being that this was after my sorta-failure with the mesquite, I asked him about it and he told me the story of his alderwood smoked salt. He has a huge commercial smoker, I think he said he does 800lbs of salt at a time. First time he tried it, 8 hours smoke, and it was nothing. 12 hours, nothing. 18, eh. 24, a bit. Then he just got pissed off and packed the smoker with wood, lit it and left. Came back three days later and checked on the salt and it was awesome dark and smokey. Now he's running with custom built trays that vibrate so the salt gets evenly coated and this has allowed him to reduce the times to about 48 hours.

While he is making a commercial product on specialized equipment and I don't know the source of his sea salt, the descriptions of his early, shorter runs seemed to mirror my experiences.

[Chainsaw13]

I have some larger smoked salt crystals my sister got for me a few years ago. Jet black in color. I keep them in a tight lidded jar they're so strong in smoke smell/flavor. Just a few in a dish will add a nice smokey flavor. Got too heavy and you can easily overpower it.