Salt Cures All Ills
Sea salt, harvested from all over the world, comes in many different tastes, textures and shapes. Clockwise from Top left: Kosher Salt, Australian Pink Salt Flakes with Brush Tomatoes, Kilauea Black Finishing Salt, Sel Marin de Guerande, Mongolian Rock Salt, Bolivian Rock Salt.
I’m a little late to the party but I just picked up Mark Kurlansky’s excellent book, Salt: A World History. I am typically not partial to books that don’t come straight from an author’s wild imagination but this 450-pager was the piece of non-fiction in quite some time I haven’t used as a sleep aide. It’s fascinating!
While we certainly acknowledge salt’s indispensible properties, we take it for granted as a necessary seasoning for cooking, often focusing on sexier, more exotic seasonings to punctuate our dishes. Yet as early as 150 years ago, salt was such a sought-after commodity that it served as currency. Homer called it a divine substance and Plato claimed it was especially dear to the gods. Demand for salt established the earliest trade routes; the city of Jericho was founded nearly 10,000 years ago as a salt trading center and, because of its worth, salt has provoked and financed wars and has been central to debates on the rights of government to tax and control economies.
All that so we can boil a perfect pot of pasta!
It’s pretty cool to think that salt is the only rock we eat (hopefully). From China to South Africa and France to the sinking salt towns in Cheshire, England, the great salt mine in Avery Island, Louisiana and the salt roads of the remote Caribbean, there is not a landmass that does not produce salt. There is even a Bolivian hotel, Playa Blanca, made entirely of salt surrounded by 10 billion tons of salt high in the Andes. This has definitely made my 100 places to visit before I die.
All salts that we consume are made from sea salt or mine from inland salt deposits. There are four common varieties:
1. Iodized Table Salt is made by sending water into salt deposits and then evaporating the mixture until only salt crystals remain. The Morton Salt Company began adding iodine to salt in 1924 to help prevent goiters, which, at that time, were typically caused by iodine deficiency.
2. Kosher Salt gets its name because of its integral role in making meat kosher. Jewish law dictates that blood must be extracted from meat prior to consumption. Although kosher salt is harvested like table salt, it is raked during evaporation to give the grains a block-like structure that allows the crystals to better absorb blood from animal carcasses.
3. Sea Salt is produced by evaporating seawater until just the salt remains. It is generally less dense than table salt, meaning it is coarser and slightly less salty than table salt.
4. Fleur de sel is a type of sea salt obtained by hand harvesting the “young” crystals that form on the surface of salt evaporation ponds. Harvesting always takes place in the summer months when the sun is strongest. Most fleurs de sel claim to have higher mineral contents than table salts and often smell deliciously like an ocean breeze.
Black Sea Salt from Hawaii has a smooth texture that works perfectly as a finishing garnish to grilled fish.
Never a big fan of iodized table salt, I’ve been substituting sea salt in my recipes and on my table for years. Unlike table salt, sea salts are unrefined, 100 percent natural and hand harvested. They retain healthy minerals and, because sea salts are harvested from all over the world, they have diverse tastes and textures that elevate and enhance any meal. A few years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Nirmala Narine, an effusive and passionate chef, world traveler, cookbook author and founder of Nirmala’s Kitchen – an excellent online source of spices from around the world. Nirmala not only turned me on the flavored sea salts like the yummy Australian Pink Salt Flakes with Bush Tomatoes but also very rare rock salts from Bolivia and Mongolia that are presented in their beautiful, raw form and grated in the kitchen or at tableside with a hand-made copper Japanese grater. While the taste is sublime, I think my favorite part is the conversations these gems generate at a dinner party. They also make excellent hostess gifts.
While I take special care to add the perfect sea salt flavoring to every dish – Sel Marin de Guerande for eggs, Kilauea Black Sea Salt for a dramatic finish to a white fish and my rock salt for soups and anything delicate, I’ve been obsessing over cooking and curing with Kosher salt. The salt-crusted fish I prepared for the Feast of the Seven Fish was one of the tastiest ever and, lately, I’ve been obsessed with the age-old tradition of preserving meat by curing it in salt. I will get around to salt cod this summer but, in the meantime, try this very simple yet flavorful recipe for Cured Beef Tenderloin. I paired it with goat cheese I infused with a red wine reduction. The result was pure goodness. Serve it on crostini or a sandwich or roll it up with a dollop of goat cheese garnished with thyme for a more elegant presentation.
Salt Works has an excellent reference guide to the different varieties, flavors and uses for gourmet sea salt.
Cured Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Infused Goat Cheese.
Recipe: Cured Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Infused Goat Cheese
Servings
Serves 6
Ingredients
Cured beef tenderloin
3/4 cup salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon toasted, coarsely ground fennel seed
1 teaspoon toasted, coarsely ground coriander seed
1/4 cup cracked black peppercorns
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh herbs (a combination of tarragon, sage, mint, thyme, rosemary)
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1 pound choice center-cut beef tenderloin, trimmed
Red-Wine Goat Cheese
3 cups good red wine
Herb bouquet (wrap a bay leaf and sprigs of sage, thyme, and parsley around a carrot and tie with string)
1⁄2 teaspoon black peppercorns
5 juniper berries
6 oz. fresh goat cheese (at room temperature)
Prepare Cured beef
In a bowl, mix together the salt, sugar, spices, herbs, and lemon zest. Add beef and rub all over with curing mix. Transfer to a plastic bag, ensuring the beef is coated with the mix, and allow to cure for 2 days minimum in the refrigerator, turning occasionally. Remove the meat from the cure, quickly rinse to remove the salt and spices, and pat dry with a paper towel. Slice thinly. *
*Note: To make it easier to finely slice the cured beef, use a slicing machine or freeze the beef overnight, or until firm and then slice.
Prepare Goat Cheese
Place the wine, herb bouquet, peppercorns, and juniper berries in a small saucepan, set over medium-high heat, and reduce until 2 tablespoons remain—about 20 minutes. Take care toward the end of the reduction so the wine does not burn. Strain through a fine sieve, and set aside to cool. Slowly stir the wine into the goat cheese taking care not to let it get runny.
Perfect for an elegant party but hearty enough for your hungriest guest. Cured Beef Tenderloin Rolls garnished with Red Wine Infused Goat Cheese.
Serving Suggestions:
Crostini or Panini
Cut Italian bread into ½” slices and rub the grilled bread with the olive oil, bake or grill until golden brown. Spread with red wine infused goat cheese, and top with a thin slice of beef and shaved Parmesan cheese and/or arugula. For Panini, use two pieces of Italian bread and cook on a grill press.
Rolls
Roll up thin slices of beef and trim the bottom of the rolls so they sit flat on a serving plate. Top with a dollop of red wine infused goat cheese and garnish with thyme.
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