Everything about Sea Salt totally explained
Sea salt, obtained by evaporating
seawater, is used in
cooking and
cosmetics. Historically called bay salt, its mineral content gives it a different taste from
table salt, which is pure
sodium chloride, usually refined from mined rock salt (
halite) or from sea salt. Areas that produce specialized sea salt include the
Cayman Islands;
Greece;
France;
Ireland;
Colombia;
Sicily;
Apulia in
Italy; and
Hawaii,
Maine, Utah, the San Francisco Bay, and
Cape Cod in the
United States. Generally more expensive than table salt, it's commonly used in gourmet cooking and premium
potato chips.
History
Where
mineral salt has been readily obtainable it has long been
mined. The salt mines of
Hallstatt go back at least to the
Iron Age. However, it hasn't been readily obtainable everywhere and the alternative coastal source has also been exploited for thousands of years. The principle of the production is the evaporation of the water from the
brine of the sea. In warm and dry climates this may be done entirely by solar energy, but in other climates fuel must be used. For this reason, sea salt production is now almost entirely an industry of
Mediterranean and other warm, dry climates.
Such places are today called salt works, instead than the older English word
saltern. An ancient or medieval saltern could be established where there was:
- Access to a market for the salt.
- A gently-shelving coast, protected from exposure to the open sea.
- A cheap and easily worked fuel supply; preferably, the sun.
- Preferably, another trade such as pastoral farming and tanning so that it and the salt could each add value to the other in the form of leather or salted meat.
In this way,
salt marsh,
pasture (salting), and salt works (saltern) enhanced each other economically. This was the economic pattern in the Roman and Medieval periods around
The Wash, in eastern
England. There, the
tide brought the brine, the extensive saltings provided the pasture, the
fens and
moors provided the
peat fuel, and the sun sometimes shone.
The dilute brine of the sea was largely evaporated by the sun, and the concentrated slurry of salt and mud was scraped up. The slurry was washed with clean sea water so that the impurities settled out of the now concentrated brine. This was poured into shallow pans lightly baked from the local marine
clay, which were set on fist-sized clay pillars over a peat fire for the final evaporation. The dried salt was then scraped out and sold.
Taste and health
Gourmets often believe sea salt to be better than ordinary table salt in taste and texture, though one can't always taste the difference when dissolved. In applications where sea salt's coarser texture is retained, it can provide different
mouthfeel and changes in flavor due to its different rate of
dissolution. The mineral content also affects the taste. It may be difficult to distinguish sea salt from other salts with a high mineral content, such as pink
Himalayan salt, or grey colored
rock salt.
Because sea salt generally lacks high concentrations of
iodine, an element
essential for human health, it isn't necessarily a healthful substitute for regular iodized table salt, which is usually supplemented with the element, unless another source of dietary iodine is available. Iodized forms of sea salt are now marketed to address this concern. However, unrefined sea salt contains many minerals that regular iodized table salt doesn't contain, such as
calcium,
potassium,
magnesium,
sulfate, and traces of others (including heavy metals such as
mercury,
lead, and
cadmium, as well as
strontium).
Other uses
Aside from
cosmetic and
gourmet use, sea salts are also used as a main ingredient in the production of
bath salts. These are used as bathing additives and are believed by some to possess therapeutic and healing properties.
Sea salts that are used in the production of
bath salts are not just taken from any body of water. Some of the common properties of the location in which they're extracted are age, seclusion from human intervention, and
mineral content. Common bodies of water in which these salts are extracted include the waters of the
Himalayas, the
Dead Sea,
Pacific Ocean,
Mediterranean Sea, and Utah's
Great Salt Lake.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sea Salt'.
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