Shaking it Up with Bay Area Artisan Salt Blends
Photo curtosy of Sous Salt
Whether you’re sprinkling locally harvested salt—from the bay or ocean cliffs—or adding a dash of finely blended salt and spices to your plate, the right shake, pinch or dash can make the dish. Traditional salts enhance the flavor already in food, while blends also add a crafted zest of herbs, spices, citrus peel, edible flowers, tea leaves, chili peppers, or dehydrated fruits and vegetables.
Local artisan salt makers and seasoned businesses have been showing off their stuff and earning the respect of celebrity chefs and home chefs here in the Bay Area. These “movers and shakers” are eager to share their blended product inspirations; many offer simple and creative recipe ideas and salting techniques that make ordinary meals extraordinary.
Sous Salt
Bay Area Peninsula
“The minute you put something wonderful in your mouth, you stop and go, ‘Oh, that tastes really good.’ You take a breath, you slow down, you keep eating and then you turn around and realize you’re at a table with your friends and family.”
—Susan Furstman, Sous Salt
Every pinch of a Sous Salt blend has been crafted with home cooks and recipes in mind. Owner and Blender Susan Furstman started her Menlo Park–based business after re-creating her mother-in-law’s 75-year-old seasoning salt recipe for friends and family around the holidays. They loved it so much she’s created 13 seasoned salt blends in a range of flavor profiles available year-round, each with recipes in mind. She shares these recipes on the Sous Salt website, taking some of the guesswork out of how to season dishes.
“For people who don’t feel comfortable in the kitchen,” says Furstman, “Sous Salt blends allow you to create something that tastes really good.”
Unexpected flavor combinations allow for adventurous adds like the chocolate cake and brownie recipes featuring the Grey Salt & Pinot Noir blend. For people who love an earthy flavor, Furstman suggests combining a simple bowl of pasta, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of Grey Salt & Porcini Mushroom blend to easily satisfy a hungry crowd around the table. The Grey Salt Szechuan Tan is blended to mirror the flavor profile of Chinese sweet chili oil with a dash of lime to take stir-fried vegetables or popcorn to the next level.
Furstman found that the French grey sea salt from the Guérande salt marshes in France contains the properties she wants for her organic blends. When a salt delivery arrives, it’s so wet Furstman has to dry it for a few days, and it’s still moist when blended—which helps the salt crystals and herbs stick together. “When you take a pinch of the salt, you’re actually getting a blended incorporated salt crystal that has the spices and herbs in it,” she says.
Whiskey Oak Seasonings
San Jose
“I want to give home cooks the tools to make unique and delicious foods to enjoy themselves and share with their friends.”
—Kirk Wells, Whiskey Oak Seasonings
Whiskey Oak Seasonings in San Jose has figured out the secret to capturing smoke in a bottle of seasonings. After a year tinkering in his garage, Owner Kirk Wells built a smoker fueled by ground whiskey barrel wood chips to infuse smoke naturally with salt and other seasonings. The small-batch process yields 100 pounds of seasoning after 18-plus hours in the smoker.
Wells is all about introducing a new generation of cooks to flavorful techniques that will keep them thinking creatively in the kitchen. Whiskey Oak Smoked Salt adds a level of flavor to dishes. “When you’re cooking inside your kitchen, not on the grill, it gives you grilling flavor. If you’re actually on your gas grill, you’ll get that smokiness. And if you’re using a smoker, it’s amping up your game,” says Wells.
Wells sources his raw herbs and salt as locally and fresh as possible. The kosher salt used comes from several places, including the San Francisco Salt Company. When selecting salt, Wells considers the size and shape of the salt crystal and its consistency.
Whiskey Oak Seasonings are versatile for use on both meat and vegetable entrées. The Salty Sweet n’ Smokin’ blend is a combination of smoked salt and smoked sugar. It makes a sweet salmon glaze with a hint of smoke, and it’s also delicious on sweet potatoes and carrots.
Big Sur Salts
Monterey Bay
“I teach people that not all salt is the same. What is it that makes artisan salt artisan salt? You’re using textures to promote a specific flavor, environment or experience. That is the essence of artisan salt.”
—Carlo Overhulser, Big Sur Salt
The saltwater-ruined beer that Big Sur Salts Artisan and Founder Carlo Overhulser left outside after a wave drenched him on the cliffs of Big Sur had something growing in it a few months later. “It was the best salt I ever had,” Overhulser says.
This discovery sent Overhulser back out to the cliffs, filling up five-gallon buckets to harvest sea salt. As he refined the process, he figured out how to safely access Big Sur’s saltwater and built greenhouses to harness the sun’s evaporation power. “I really wanted to completely synthesize what was happening out on the cliffs of Big Sur because salt naturally forms along the cliffs there.”
Big Sur Salts’ unique brine is created by the presence of calcium and potassium minerals. Seasoning blends play with the brine flavor and three salt textures—ground, coarse and flake—create different effects. “In some cases, you need a crunch, something that bites a little bit and kind of goes away, or you want to mix salt with soup stocks,” says Overhulser.
In addition to the greenhouses, Big Sur Salt has access to natural salt ponds along the ocean cliffs. Overhulser fills the beds with seawater, then allows nature to make salt. He takes groups of local chefs to the Pacific Coast cliffside, where they too can harvest salt. “Big Sur Salt is a beautiful expression of an area of the world that I’m trying to bring to people.”
Omnivore Salts
San Francisco
“Salt brings out the flavor in things, and if you add spices like we do, it creates a whole other alchemy.”
— Beth Malik, Omnivore Salts
For Angelo Garro, the owner and creator behind San Francisco’s Omnivore Salts, a party worth its salt wouldn’t be complete without a gift for the hostess. Sharing his Sicilian grandmother’s special blend of spiced salt served to kick-start his business and created a following that includes celebrity chefs and home cooks alike. “Angelo is always creating a community. That’s a big part of Omnivore,” says Beth Malik, Omnivore Salts’ business manager. Through his cooking, Garro met food thought leaders like Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters, who encouraged him to create his artisan salt business.
The signature Omnivore Salt incorporates fennel and red and black peppers that evoke the flavors of home for Garro. The versatile blends use salt from the California coast and bring out the flavor of different cultural dishes from Mediterranean to Thai. “If you’re roasting potatoes, I would roast them with Omnivore Salt,” says Malik. “It has a little hint of red peppers that doesn’t stand out because the flavors are balanced.”
Sprinkled on cocktail rims or used to preserve meat, artisanal salt blend seasonings elevate both the taste of food and the conversation around it. “Food is a huge part of life, and so many people connect through it,” says Malik. “We want to get people cooking more, inspire them to cook and make it easier for them.”
