Some Corti Brothers customers now find that they cannot get by without Vignalta Herbed Salt. I must admit that I find myself reaching for this salt every time I cook a piece of meat. It is a wonderful blend of Sicilian sea salt and hand plucked wild rosemary and sage growing on the Vignalta estate in the Colli Euganei, in Italy’s Veneto region. Herbed salts have long been a tradition in Venice and here the tradition is continued.
Since the herbs are used fresh, not dried, it differs from many of the flavored salts on the market. This salt would have been much favored by Elizabeth David, the noted British food writer, who could not abide a strong rosemary flavor. In Vignalta Herbed Salt , the rosemary character is present, but not intrusive. But it really highlights grilled meats such as lamb, chicken, Wagyu steaks, quail, and oily fish like salmon. Try salting some good pork with it overnight.
During the summer, it seems that most food needs just a touch more salt to bring out its flavor. Vignalta Sale Alle Erbe Herbed Salt is the best flavored cooking salt I can think of.
Kona Deep Sea Salt is produced
by solar evaporation of deep sea water from 2,000 feet beneath the
ocean surface. I first tasted it at the opening in 2003 of Honolulu’s
first Farmer’s Market created by Joan Namkoong, former Honolulu
Advertiser food editor, and cookbook author. I was in Honolulu as
a judge for the U.S. National Sake Appraisal. (More about this later.)
I was struck by Kona Deep Sea Salt’s flavor:
a clean, slightly sweet taste without any acrid finish. Made
using the same glass hot house, shallow basin dehydration, of
Japan’s famous Oshima
Island Blue Label Salt, it has irregular granules. The sea
water from which Kona Deep Sea Salt has been concentrated is bacteria
and pollution free, coming from a depth at which no light penetrates
for bacteria to grow, and run-off is not found as it is in ocean
surface water. Packed with trace minerals, this salt is remarkably
unique. A new product from Hawai’i, Kona Deep Sea salt may
well become a necessity at your table.
By now you are thinking “Corti’s gone salt mad.” No, but the variations in salt are fascinating. Here is another of my travel finds: Murray River Pink Salt. The very northern part of Victoria state and the southwestern part of New South Wales in Australia is “watered” by the Murray and Darling rivers. This agricultural area--a warm one--is where underground saline water has been trapped beneath an impermeable clay base for millennia.
In fact, agriculture causes a problem by pulling up to ground level a lot of this saline water which then contaminates the soil. Evaporation of this saline underground water by producing salt in a small part reduces the area’s level of salinity and improves the local environment. Here is an inland salt production, made from brine twice as salty as sea water.
Sun salt in Mildura, Victoria, produces this distinctive flake crystal salt, colored pinkish apricot by the amount of minerals it contains, namely, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. Once the proper degree of salinity is achieved with the dehydration of the underground salt water, the distinctive crystal formed is re-hydrated to make flakes, somewhat like the famous British Maldon salt.
Crystallization has much to do with the attraction of salt. Literally, how it feels on your tongue is important when salt is added to a dish just before serving or salted by the diner. There are salts which are so highly distinctive that they have “off” characters, like the “rotten egg” character of some. However, I think that you will find the Murray River Pink Salt very attractive, both visually and on the palate.
Oshima Island Salt from Japan - Blue and Red Labels
This salt is the counterpart of the Vignalta Salt. This is NOT cooking salt, but finishing salt. This is the salt to use on wonderful fresh tomatoes, either just sliced or as a bruschetta topping. I can think of nothing better than the Oshima Blue Label Salt on sun warmed, fragrant, ripe tomatoes just sliced, sprinkled with some fresh basil and drizzled with excellent oil like the Mancianti Affiorato.
Adding some very fresh mozzarella to make this a Caprese salad is up to you. But Oshima Blue Label Salt, made by shallow pan dehydration in a glass hot house using Pacific Ocean water, is truly remarkable. Arguments continue over salt. Is it just salt? Try Oshima Blue Label Salt and you will quickly see that not all salts are the same. Make the most of your summer vegetables and treat yourself to Oshima Blue Label Salt. You deserve it!
Oshima Red Label Salt 500 grams
Oshima Island Red Label Salt is a fine textured, almost fluffy, salt produced from the concentration of clean seawater by an institute responsible to the Japanese Government. It is pan dried and is salt celler type salt. This is a salt to be used for flavoring. It is imported exclusively by Corti Brothers.
$13.29
