How to make salt at home

I grew up in Hawaii, on the south shore of Oahu, where ocean water collects amid lava rocks and heats in the sun. Walking among the pools as a kid, I could see the salt forming as the water evaporated. I’d scoop it up and take it home to dry before tasting the snowflake-like crystals. Though I never learned how to make sea salt, the simplicity of its natural creation always fascinated me.

Decades later, 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 begin 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 free yet delicious travel souvenir. All we needed were a couple jugs, a shallow pan, a pot and a stove–and some time for the dehydration to take place. These homemade 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 part? The shelf life of salt ensures they’ll be with us for years to come. We’re still enjoying a Greek salt from 2007.

My sea salt recipe appeared in Saveur magazine, and I’ve included it here. Making salt is easy enough, and if done properly, it’s safe. The single most critical aspect of making salt is to use the most pristine water available, avoiding areas of runoff. (As the water dries out, any impurities or metals will become concentrated.) How much salt each batch yields depends on the salt level in the water and the dehydration process; a slower evaporation of the water leads to larger, natural crystals, which add beautiful texture to dishes. If I’m in a rush, I boil out the water on the stove; the crystals end up smaller, but the flavor is the same.

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

Recipe: How to Make Sea Salt

Ingredients:

Instructions:

• • Use one-gallon, plastic water bottles to collect the most pristine water available. Plastic bottles are typically easier to manage; especially if you hike or kayak to the spot where you collect the water.
  • Place the collected water in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for at least 6 minutes to kill any bacteria. Immediately pour the boiled water 1-2 inches deep in shallow, non-reactive baking dishes (glass Pyrex dishes are preferable), cover each baking dish with cheesecloth and set outside in the sun until the liquid has evaporated. Depending on the weather, this could take a few hours or up seven days. Consolidate the salt into one baking sheet and set in an oven with just the pilot light on. Leave overnight to completely dry.
  • If your travels take you from your destination before your salt is dry, you can leave a little moisture 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 salt to a decorative bowl or canning jar with an air-tight lid.

Alternative Quick Method:

• After boiling the water to remove any bacteria, reduce the heat to medium and continue boiling, stirring frequently. Larger crystals can be skimmed off the top and set aside. Continue 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 salt crystals, slow to a low boil.) Finish in the oven as directed above.

Yields approximately 1/2-3/4 cups of sea salt. Instructables published a handy, step-by-step photo tutorial for how to make sea salt as well.

Ahh, salt.

Having grown up beside the ocean, the salty air coming off the ocean is a nostalgic smell for me. But salt is also an important resource. So important, in fact, that many major cities, including Rome herself, were founded in olden days to take advantage of salt trade routes.

The word ‘salary’ even derives from salt (salarium). A Roman soldier during the Roman Republic was paid his weekly pay in the ancient world’s most valuable commodity, salt. You have also probably heard an old expression — ‘to be worth your salt’. Are you worth the salt they’re paying you? Salt was used by the hundredweight to salt cod here in Newfoundland and Labrador for centuries, and our ancestors did what came naturally — they made their own.

Salt — the ocean is filled with it

So why do we buy fancy salt from the stores? Road salt might be cheap, but one look at the prices of some of the brand name sea salts and specialty rock salts on the market might make you think you are buying gold dust. The clear seawater available off the shores of Newfoundland offers a high quality alternative to pricey artisan salts: Newfoundland sea salt!

Sea salt is in fact absurdly easy to make. In essence, you just need to take a bucket of seawater, and make the water go away.

If you don’t mind waiting until July or August, you can let the sun do most of the work for you, by using shallow pans to evaporate off the sea water. Otherwise, settle in for an afternoon down at the beach, boiling some water down over a fire, or by evaporating over the stove. When we make salt at home, we evaporate half of the water off over the stove, and finish the rest up using solar power. This method is quicker and more suitable to salt-making during the rainier months.

Sea salt versus rock salt

Regardless of origin, salt is mostly composed of sodium chloride. In Canada, most salt comes from the salt mines in Windsor, Ont. Regular table salt such as Windsor salt is about 98 per cent sodium chloride, usually with some added iodine as a dietary supplement to prevent conditions such as hyperthyroidism.

Himalayan Rock Salt is currently a big fad, and an expensive one, too. Pink Himalayan salt often sells for 20 times the cost of table salt, or more. The pinkish hue of Himalayan salt can add a nice dash of colour to a dish, but don’t be fooled — aside from a very small amount of iron (which lends the salt its pinkish colouring) the chemical composition of Himalayan salt is identical to typical rock salt at 98 per cent sodium chloride. So don’t buy into the nonsense that Himalayan salt is somehow better for you. It contains trace amounts of iron, which is an important dietary mineral, but that’s it.

On the other hand, sea salt is only about 86.3 per cent sodium chloride. The ocean, as the original source of all life, also contains the basic mineral building blocks of life — the remaining 13.7 per cent is made up of mineral nutrients such as sulfate, magnesium, iron, calcium and potassium. These minerals crystallize in trace quantities in the salt crystals. So, salt is still salt, and it should be used in moderation. But if you’re going to add salt to your food you might as well eat some extra mineral nutrients while you’re at it.

Be like Gandhi — make your own salt

Before you make like Gandhi and march straight down to the ocean for your salt, first of all, ensure you find a nice, clean source of sea water. Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, that should be very easy. Just ensure your collection spot is free of heavy marine traffic and far from the town’s sewer outflow pipes.

Collect the sea water, and pour it through a coarse metal strainer so remove any bits of sand. Keep in mind that sea water contains 3.5 per cent salt by weight, so if you are looking to make a pound of salt, you will need approximately four gallons of water (15 litres).

The best, and easiest, way to make your own salt is to find or build a simple evaporator pan, something water proof, preferably using food grade plastic or stainless steel. Don’t use iron — the salt will corrode it. For our salt evaporating, we use recycled plastic ‘crisper’ trays taken from our old refrigerator.

The sun isn’t necessarily going to co-operate. If we’re making salt during a sunny stretch in July or August, we will rely entirely on solar evaporation to make salt. During rainier times of the year, however, it is helpful to concentrate the seawater brine by 50 per cent before adding the brine to the evaporator trays. If you have a wood stove, it is also very easy to make salt passively in the wintertime by topping up an evaporator tray located near your wood stove. This will also help add some humidity to the room.

Once you’ve collected the sea water and poured it into the evaporator pans, the only thing left to do is wait for the sun to do its job and evaporate the water in the pans. Cover the trays or bring them in on rainy days. On sunny days, cover the trays with fine mesh. For example, we use the mesh screen material used for windows and screen doors, which is available by the roll at your local hardware store. It works like a charm to keep dust and bugs out of your salt.

As days pass, you will notice the water levels get lower, and salt crystals will begin to form on the surface of the salty slurry. This is called ‘fleur de sel’. You may collect this off the top using a wire mesh strainer. Fleur de sel (salt flowers) is specially harvested in Mediterranean countries and it is considered a superior, more refined form of sea salt.

Salt crystals also settle to the bottom as the water evaporates. The process is nearly complete when there is only a centimeter or two of water left on top of the wet salt crystals. Since the impurities from the seawater do not crystallize, it is very easy at this stage to just pour the last centimeter of water off — this will take any residual sand bits or impurities with it. If you miss this stage, and come back to a dry pan, you can simply scrape off the very top layer of the salt to get rid of any little bits of sand or other impurities in your salt.

Fluff your salt out as it dries. Once it stops caking, it is dry enough to bottle up and tuck away. The salt will flake into coarse salt crystals, which are perfect to use just as they are. If you prefer finely ground salt, just grind it down a little bit in a mortar and pestle. The final step is to challenge your creativity as you find all sorts of interesting uses for your homemade, hand crafted salt. Try making infused salts! Citrus infused salt, salt infused with rosemary, Sriracha sea salt — the options are endless, and these are perfect for adding a dash of variety to your spice rack.

Here’s a short step-by-step instructional video we made a few years ago to guide you along your way:

Join our growing online community—Backyard Farming & Homesteading NL on Facebook—for more information on salt-making and many other things. The group is becoming an important resource, bringing together experts and hobbyists alike as we learn new skills and bring about more local food options and sustainability for the people of Newfoundland & Labrador.

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