History of Sea Salt

Salt has always been an extremely important part of the human diet and culture, so much so that some ancient civilizations used coins minted from salt as a basic form of currency used in trading. There are even more than 30 references to salt in the bible, and Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting, The Last Supper depicts a container of salt being spilled over by Judas, a signal of bad luck. It was used in the ancient Egyptian mummification process and has been a part of Chinese culture and medicine since before 2700 BCE.

Some of the earliest records of salt production in the United States dates back to 1654 when the Onondaga Native Americans living in what is now New York state, would make salt by boiling brine from local salt springs. Colonial Americans were known to make salt by boiling brine in iron kettles during the mid to late 1700s, a method they probably learned from the Native peoples.

Solar salt production first occurred in 1770 in San Francisco Bay, California. California was an ideal location for solar salt production, as it has a combination of a shallow shoreline, relatively even temperatures, long sunny days, and coastal winds that are gentle and help with evaporation. Commercial salt production began here in 1854, when Captain John Johnson settled at Mount Eden in San Francisco marshland and began producing sea salt. By 1868, other settlers in the area had created almost 20 other salt companies on the bay.

By the 1830s, Cape Cod in Massachusetts, was home to more than 440 salt works. Solar salt form this region was produced in less than optimal climates by building movable, covered sheds over the evaporating pans which protected the salt and brine from precipitation. Solar salt production in Salt Lake City, Utah began in the 1940s.

How is it Made?

Harvesting Coarse Sea Salt commercially is a bigger scale version of the same small-scale practice of harvesting sea salt that has been in use for hundreds of years. Harvesters create a chain of interlocking shallow ponds that are exposed to the sun and wind for natural evaporation to take place. As the water evaporated, the salt concentrates and the remaining water is pushed further down a series of ponds that are located closer to the final harvesting spot. The water in the first pans is a sea water with a salinity of about 3% and by the time it reaches its final destination has a salinity of closer to 25% salinity. At this stage, the salt begins to crystalize and can be harvested. The whole process can take upwards of five years, depending entirely on the evaporation process.

Once harvested, the sea salt is moved to huge outdoor mounts and a crust will form on the mounds of salt, protecting the interior. When the salt is needed to meet demand, it is moved onto large conveyor belts to transport the salt inside the processing facility where it is cleaned and packaged.

Sea salt obtained directly though the evaporation of seawater is not typically processed, or undergoes minimal processing, so it retains levels of trace minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and other nutrients.

Where is it from?

Our coarse sea salt is harvested in California and we were excited to pick this one up, as it is the only commercially produced sea salt in the US. Solar evaporated from the clean waters of the Pacific Ocean, this is pure, natural and unadulterated sea salt that contains no additives.

Types of Sea Salt

Depending on where it is harvested, your sea salt may vary in color, shape, and wetness. Salts like Fleur de Sel or Sel Gris are harvested from different types of sea water in France. Fine Sea Salt is harvested in a manner similar to coarse, but the crystals are ground down to be smaller. Japanese sea salt is a fine grain sea salt that is harvested by hand and processed by hand. Sea salts tend to retain their trace minerals thanks to their minimal processing, so many people find that they taste different than your average table salt. There is a great deal of care that goes into harvesting these specialty sea salts.

Cooking with Coarse Sea Salt

Use this coarse sea salt for topping bread sticks, crackers and pretzels or to flavor pasta, soup and stew. Some of our customers like to use this coarse sea salt in a pepper grinder as a fun way to add some freshly ground sea salt to their meals, but you don’t need to grind it as it doesn’t enhance the taste of the salt at all and in fact makes the salt granules less coarse.

Coarse sea salt is typically not a good substitute for any baking recipe that calls for sea salt, as the larger flakes cause flavor bursts in the baked dishes which distracts from the recipe.

We used this salt in our recipes for Skillet Olive Bread and Chicken and Dumplings.

What Does Sea Salt Taste Like?

Our Coarse Sea Salt tastes salty, and when added at the end of the cooking process will give a bit of crunchy texture to the finished dish.

Meeting Your Business Needs with Our Products

Our Coarse Sea Salt, harvested in California, is one of the best sea salts available for purchase in the United States. It can be used in everything from beer making to sauce manufacturing, but also works well as a staple for our restaurant customers who go through an incredible amount of salt on a regular basis. If you own a restaurant, as many of our bulk customers do, having a high quality coarse sea salt in your kitchen is key to getting customers’ attention and keeping them coming back for more. This Coarse Sea Salt has a unique texture and our customers are quick to insist that it tastes better than regular table salt, citing the trace minerals as the reason why. Try this wonderfully salty salt at your restaurant and buy in bulk for the convenience of having a lot of this delicious salt on hand. It’s also great for customers who run specialty spice shops and who want to incorporate a new salt into their rotation that doesn’t stray too far from the norm, but is unique enough to become a customer favorite.

Substitutions and Conversions

You can use Coarse Sea Salt in place of any other salt, with some experimentation. Coarse Sea Salt has bigger salt crystals, and some trial and error might be needed to figure out what amounts work best for a particular recipe. Coarse Sea Salt is not recommended in baking however, as the larger crystals don’t break down as easily as the crystals of table salt do and it may create pockets of salt in your food, which would create an unpleasant juxtaposition of an extremely salty bite in your extremely sweet chocolate cake, for example.

Read More

The Salt Life
Making the Most of your Gourmet Salts
A Brief History of Salt