Comparing our homemade salts

The food department was busy cooking last week for our latest One-Block feast, which was another tasty success. We used our own salt throughout the process as well as putting little dishes on the table for guests. Margo True, food editor at Sunset, had a few containers of salt that I’d given her over the last year and I had a bag or two as well. When I got them together, I noticed how different they were.

Here are 3 samples of our salt. The one on the left is from our new and improved Pyrex method. You’ll notice it’s the whitest and has the biggest crystals. I made this salt about a month ago and the water came from Sea Ranch, which technically isn’t as “local” as we prefer, but that’s where I was diving that day.

The middle sample was made a few months ago. At first, I couldn’t figure out why it’s so yellow. Then I remembered that I had one batch that went a little long in the oven. It tastes fine, it’s just toasted.

The one on the right is a batch from last year before I switched to Pyrex and you can see it has flecks of gray in it from the aluminum pans I was using. Note: We didn’t cook or eat this salt. I just put it in the mix so you could see the difference.