Containers of prepared sea salt by Jordan Winery Executive Chef Todd Knoll

Homemade Sea Salt Recipe: How to Make Your Ain Sea Salt Travel Souvenirs

Preserve your travel memories with a homemade sea salt souvenir

I grew up in Hawaii, on the south shore of Oahu, where sea water collects amid lava rocks and heats in the sunday. Walking among the pools as a kid, I could see the salt forming as the water evaporated. I'd scoop it up and take information technology abode to dry earlier tasting the snowflake-like crystals. Though I never learned how to brand sea table salt, the simplicity of its natural creation ever fascinated me.

Decades later on, when I became a professional chef, I began making homemade salt from the ocean and tried to perfect a sea salt recipe. But, my experiments didn't brainstorm in my kitchen–they happened in hotel rooms and holiday studios. My wife and I started collecting salt water during our vacations–an adventurous exercise that resulted in a gratis notwithstanding delicious travel souvenir. All we needed were a couple jugs, a shallow pan, a pot and a stove–and some time for the aridity to take place. These bootleg sea salts became treasured momentos from Hawaii, Mexico, Greece, Monterey and the Sonoma Coast–living souvenirs of my travels. Every one of my salts has a story. The best role? The shelf life of salt ensures they'll be with us for years to come up. We're still enjoying a Greek common salt from 2007.

My ocean salt recipe appeared in Saveur magazine, and I've included it here. Making salt is easy enough, and if washed properly, it'south safe. The single most critical attribute of making salt is to employ the most pristine water bachelor, avoiding areas of runoff. (As the water dries out, whatever impurities or metals will become concentrated.) How much salt each batch yields depends on the salt level in the water and the dehydration procedure; a slower evaporation of the water leads to larger, natural crystals, which add beautiful texture to dishes. If I'm in a blitz, I eddy out the water on the stove; the crystals terminate up smaller, but the flavour is the same.

You don't have to exist a purist, either. I've fifty-fifty taken to mixing the salts with other ingredients, like dried tomatoes, conifer tips or juniper. I'k also using my latest Sonoma Coast ocean salt to cure the Jordan Chef's Reserve Caviar, a new collaboration with our friends at Tsar Nicoulai.

Recipe: How to Make Bounding main Salt

Ingredients:

  • 1 gallon of seawater

Instructions:

    • Use ane-gallon, plastic h2o bottles to collect the near pristine water available. Plastic bottles are typically easier to manage; especially if you hike or kayak to the spot where yous collect the water.
    • Place the collected water in a big pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for at least half-dozen minutes to kill whatsoever bacteria. Immediately pour the boiled h2o 1-ii inches deep in shallow, non-reactive baking dishes (glass Pyrex dishes are preferable), cover each blistering dish with cheesecloth and ready outside in the sun until the liquid has evaporated. Depending on the weather condition, this could accept a few hours or up seven days. Consolidate the salt into i baking sheet and prepare in an oven with merely the pilot light on. Leave overnight to completely dry out.
    • If your travels take you from your destination earlier your salt is dry, yous can get out a little wet in the salt before returning home, where you can transfer the salt back to baking dishes, covering with cheesecloth and let dry out completely.
    • Transfer the table salt to a decorative bowl or canning jar with an air-tight lid.

Culling Quick Method:

  • After boiling the h2o to remove whatsoever bacteria, reduce the heat to medium and go along boiling, stirring frequently. Larger crystals can be skimmed off the top and prepare aside. Keep to cook until all that remains are crystals and a small amount of moisture. (One quart of water at full boil reduces in about 45 minutes; for larger common salt crystals, slow to a low boil.) End in the oven as directed in a higher place.

Yields approximately i/2-3/4 cups of sea table salt. Instructables published a handy, stride-by-step photograph tutorial for how to make sea salt also.

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Nearly the Writer

Todd Knoll

Growing up in Hawaii, Todd Knoll developed a stiff connexion to the land and the ocean at an early on historic period. As executive chef at Jordan Winery, he grows hundreds of heirloom vegetables, fruits and herbs, cooks hors d'oeuvres and meals for guests, makes olive oil, and tends to the estate'southward honeybees and chickens. A visual artist at heart, Chef Knoll spends his free fourth dimension with his son and married woman, Nitsa Knoll, exploring the diverse terrain of Sonoma County with camera and pencil in hand, capturing moments in nature to inspire his side by side recipe.