Recipes of the week: Salt: Rediscovering the delicious diversity of a tabletop staple

Artisanal salts are “latecomers” to our current food renaissance, said Mark Bitterman in Salted.

Artisanal salts are “latecomers” to our current food renaissance, said Mark Bitterman in Salted. But it’s no surprise to see that a market is now growing for hundreds of salt styles—from versatile sel gris (gray salt) to brick-like Himalayan salt stones. Cuisines across the world “evolved in concert with the availability and character of regionally made salts.”

Until relatively recently, salt was difficult to make and considered a treasure. Industrialized production methods changed that, but most supermarket shoppers now know only overprocessed versions, even if they buy only kosher or sea salts. Look beyond them: The type of salt and how you use it can transform food, whether you’re adding the “crackling crunch” of a Halen Môn to a well-presented steak tartare or using Cyprus flake salt to give a blanched pea “its own electricity.”

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