Party Planner Discovers The Many Varieties Of Salt. Who Knew?

I mentioned in a recent blog that I like really tiny and then very large and now I have a new thing to add: really strange colors. Purple potatoes, striped beets and yellow carrots all fall into this category. (All are available in seed form through one of my favorite online/catalog vendors, Seed Savers – www.seedsavers.com . This isn’t a gardening blog though, I’ll do one of those later.) I was attracted to a photo of a mound of rust colored SALT (of all things) that I saw from The Meadow ( www.atthemeadow.com ). I should’ve left it at that because as we know my Friday night is now consumed with conversations at (I say at because he’s really not listening) my weary husband about “Did you know SALT came in all of these colors and flavors and textures and everything?” He is of course COMPLETELY disinterested in this entire thing, I am annoyed that he can’t appreciate the small things in life and basically I am also challenged because I should know better. I have, after all, been to cooking school, worked in a kitchen and currently am a party planner. You’d think I have the salt market covered.

I mean I know different salts exist but did you know that ALL of these salts exist? Swear on your life that you did not because you know it’s the truth.

Himalayan Pink Salt: Ranges in color from sheer white to varying shades of pink to deep reds which indicates a beneficial amount of 84 trace elements and iron. (Special note: I am blatantly plaguerizing here but heads up to English teachers everywhere, I am at least giving credit to the authors, although not in the proper format.)

Amabito No Moshio: A finishing and cooking salt that happens to be white. Umami is somehow involved in this salt but I can’t figure that out right now. More plaguerizing: Umami means “savory” or “meaty,” and results from glutamates especially common in protein-rich foods such as meats and cheeses.

Sugar Maple Smoked Finishing Salt: This sea salt is created from a labor-intensive solar evaporation technique developed and perfected by our passionate salt maker on the Maine coast. Temperature and smoking time are carefully controlled to produce a medium-dense smoky flavor perfect for meats, cheeses, and salads.

I am going to stop this now because there are about 10,000 more kinds of salt available. I just love the names: they look like poetry (I can’t say they sound like poetry because I can’t pronounce a lot of them – Iburi Cherry, Taha’a Vanilla Flake Finishing Salt, Saffron Salt and a new fav, Tartufo Nero (Italian Black Summer Truffle) Finishing Salt

All of my cooking friends are going to get salt for their next gift. I think you have to be really cool (or really stupid) to send someone salt but I think it’s a great idea and I’m sticking with it. I’m logging off now before I get to their special pepper. Visit www.atthemeadow.com so you too can be a culinary rock star.