|
Corti Brothers Newsletter for December 2005 Page 5 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.
The Sacramento Cookie – A Souvenir Tradition The Sacramento Cookie is a round wafer cookie made in Sacramento. It is a 7 inch diameter, thin, filled wafer which originated in the Czech Republic’s famed spa town of Carlsbad or Karlóvy Váry. First created in 1856 as a spa souvenir, these wafer cookies or “oplatky” became famous throughout Europe as Karlsbader Oblaten. In 1996, Jiri Knedlik, a Czech refugee in Sacramento, began producing “oplatky” as the Sacramento Cookie. This wafer cookie has now comes in three different flavors: the original Sacramento cookie filled with ground hazelnuts, cinnamon, and vanilla; and two California Wine Wafers: Lemon Vanilla, with ground California almonds, vanilla, and lemon and Mocha Chocolate, with ground espresso coffee beans, cocoa and vanilla. Although called “wine wafers” they do not contain alcohol, but can certainly be eaten with wine. These time consuming cookies are made by very few bakers since they require first the production of the wafer itself, aging of the wafer for about 12 days and then filling the wafer and sealing it in a special press that impresses a design into the wafer. Each box holds eight, 7 inch wafers. Delicious as desserts or snacks in their own right, these cookies can be used to make a wonderful dessert cake, the Pischinger torte, layering each cookie with whipped cream and then allowing the torte to set overnight. It is then cut into wedges and served. For the 2005, tenth anniversary celebration of the EPCOT ® International Food and Wine Festival at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, the Sacramento Cookie Lemon Vanilla Wine Wafer was featured with its own distinctive EPCOT® box. It merely continues the souvenir wafer tradition established almost 150 years ago.
<< Back to Top |
Corti Brothers
Sacramento CA
