When sodium met chloride: Humble salt's vast kingdom only elevates flavours

When the food at the New York outpost of Indian Accent failed to meet the benchmark, it didn't take chef Manish Mehrotra long to identify the culprit. He immediately changed the salt in the restaurant's kitchen, which sits between Central Park and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). The acclaimed chef switched from a local variant to the one he has been using in Delhi for years, to dish out his brand of "inventive Indian cuisine."

This was in February 2016. Over a year and half later, the man behind India's only restaurant to feature in the World's 50 Best Restaurants 2017 list by S Pellegrino, finds himself at the same crossroads, albeit in London. He switched from the local variety to Tata salt again. "The local brands in London and New York aren't salty enough," says Mehrotra, days before Indian Accent opens in Mayfair for reservations. "The balance of flavours I am striving for doesn't come with the local salt. We've either had to use a little bit more or less. When we did, during trials, it affected other flavours in the dish."

Mehrotra admits candidly that salt wasn't something he paid much attention to before becoming a chef, but now considers the crystalline compound to be "the most important" ingredient in food. And while Indian Accent's menu largely consumes table salt, he sticks to using "kala namak (black salt) for chutneys and chaats, sea salt for paos" and occasionally digs into containers of truffle salt to complement some dishes and lavendar salt for a salted-caramel flavour.

If these salts sound alien, blame it on the sheer edible variety that exists. In his book 'Salted: A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes', selmelier Mark Bitterman covers over 150 salt varieties, including naturally derived ones – traditional or table salt, rock salt and smoked salt – that are distinct from infused salts, using herbs and spices. Full of aroma and flavour, infused salts are gaining currency among chefs and connoisseurs as 'finishing' salts to be used at the end of preparations; yet, branding and marketing by large FMCGs has, over the years, led to the popularity of just one variety — iodised table salt at the expense of traditionally used ones such as kala namak and sendha namak (rock salt); both of which are rarely, if ever, branded and marketed. Add to this the fact that the health-conscious are beginning to purge salt from their diet, and it's easy to see why we've lost our appetite for various salts. 

"Too much of anything is bad for you, but a little bit of iodised sea salt can go a long way. It helps regulate blood pressure and prevent diseases," says Rachel Goenka, founder and CEO of The Chocolate Spoon Company that runs The Sassy Spoon and The Sassy Teaspoon chains, among others. The young confectioner swears by salted butter. "A lot of recipes in baking call for unsalted butter. So unless I'm making a ganache or buttercream frosting, I always find that a little salt enhances any flavour," says Goenka. Her refrigerator is always stocked with Amul butter and while she regularly uses sea salt, fleur de sel, pink Himalayan salt, pepper salt and black salt, her current favourite is truffle salt. "It's yum even over something as simple as eggs," adds Goenka. She has experimented with salts even in traditional Indian sweets like "kala jamun in bread and butter pudding with a salted bourbon sauce" and salty "Krack-jack biscuits with motichoor laddoos. The sweet and salty flavours go really well together."

Shelly Duggal, in charge of Foodhall (western region), says the store's salt bar sees an equal amount of interest from home chefs and the health conscious. Nearly 70 per cent customers are drawn to the salt bar, retailing natural and spice-blended salts, salt bowls and salt slabs. "A lot of our blended salts are developed based on inputs and consumer feedback," says Duggal. "One of the most popular is the urtesalt, from the Netherlands. A sea salt blended with herbs, it's fantastic for salads, soups, dips and on yoghurt. The smoked paprika basil salt is also popular, and the one that retails the most despite being the priciest at `6800/kg is the feur de sel."

THERE'S SALT, AND THEN THERE ARE SALTS

Salt, a naturally occurring compound of sodium and chloride, has many applications. As a food ingredient, salt is mainly derived from natural resources by evaporating sea water, mining from caves and caverns or even from volcanoes. Locally available, branded salts are mostly derived from seawater and enriched with iodine. A variety of other salts can also be used daily in cooking, pickling or curing. Sample these:

SHIO SALT: Mark Bitterman, a selmelier i.e. a salt expert, documents that this Japanese salt is obtained after seawater is evaporated over fire, either in a greenhouse or elsewhere, and then crystallised over a fire; the latter technique is what renders Shio salt its fine, granular crystals. Shio salt is said to be strong and rich in minerals.

BALINESE SALT: The distinct, sweetish flavour of Balinese salt arises thanks to its unique harvesting process. Mineral-rich seawater is poured in the beds of black volcanic sands on Kusamba beach in southern Bali and once the water evaporates, the distilled brine is left in vessels made from coconut tree logs to crystallise.

ROCK SALT: Rock salt is found in sedimentary material in dried up lakes and seas. Himalayan pink salt is a common example of rock salt. Characterised by hard crystals, it lacks moisture and can be as a finishing salt and for curing.

BLACK SALT: Also called kaala namak and sulemani namak, black salt is an Indian volcanic rock salt that starts out as Himalayan pink salt. It is heated to high temperatures and mixed with spices and its distinct smell comes from the addition of sulphur. It is widely used in Indian sub-continent's cuisines, especially for chutneys and chaats.

FLEUR DE SEL: Bitterman notes on his website that "fleur de sel is a solar-evaporated sea, lake, or spring salt with fine, irregular, moist, mineral-rich crystals made by raking the crystals that blossom on the surface of a crystallising pan". Originally from France, and now made in many other countries, this is best used as a finishing salt.