Remember years ago when you discovered garlic salt, onion salt and celery salt?  For years you used these seasoned salts to give better flavor to your dishes. But then you wanted even more flavor and zing for your taste buds, and so you started using different spices like chili powder and lemon pepper in your recipes.

Salt is certainly a very effective way for us to enhance flavors of many dishes and we have been doing this forever. In more recent times we have discovered kosher and sea salt and this again improved the flavors of our recipes.  Some of these rock salt granules provide trace elements and minerals and are a healthy salt alternative. Now recently the latest rage has been to experiment with Gourmet Salts that are a unique blend of spices, herbs and fine flake salts that add unique texture and flavor to foods.

One way to look at these Gourmet Salts is in their use as finishing salts, a way to alter everyday dishes and elevate them to something really scrumptious! Adding these Flavored Salts at the end of the cooking allows the flavors to have more punch rather than when applied earlier in the cooking process. This also allows the actual texture of the salt to be felt on the tongue before it literally melts away. Gourmet Salts bring amazing tastes with deeper flavors while also add dazzling colors. Their uses are endless: eggs, fish, chicken, rice, burgers, pastas, salads and potatoes to list just a few.

You can even place the salts in small dipping bowls and place them on the table for your family and friends to use as they wish. A salt tasting party is a great way to sample the countless Gourmet Salts available. Invite friends and make sure you label each salt, and serve with wine and tasty finger foods and watch the conversations and comparisons begin! Choose 5-6 different salts and vary the texture, region and color. Some good finger foods are strips of celery, cucumbers, carrots, green peppers and cherry tomatoes. I happen to really love having a baquette and butter on hand and dipping into the different gourmet salts. Pass around paper and pencils and have everyone rate the different salts for discussion.

Gourmet Salts add flavor and texture without the high sodium content of regular bland table salt. Gourmet Salts have 3 physical properties which consist of mineral content, moisture content and crystal structure. The crystals can be shaped as chunks, flakes, strata, granules, pyramids or blocks. You will also notice that these sea salts are heavier than regular table salt because of the high mineral content. The mineral contents can contain natural trace materials such as iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, iodine and zinc. And best of all, they will keep indefinitely in an airtight container at room temperature.

Over the last decade or so immigrant cultures have brought to us their dishes, and as we have been exposed to these new recipes our tastes have changed. We are being exposed to foods and flavors we are not accustomed to and we have come to embrace these new cuisines. Flavored salts are made of sea salt or mined salt and flavorings and colorings are added to a brine mix before crystallization occurs. And when we desire pure natural flavor fusion sea salts have been developed which combine sea salts with natural flavors. These salts are considered gourmet salts.

Most flavored salts are a combination of salt, vegetable extracts, spices and monosodium glutamates. Then there are the beautiful speckled Himalayan pink salts that are unrefined fossil marine salt, so rich with many minerals including calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper and iron. Another really fun category is Himalayan salt blocks and plates. These pure salt crystals were formed thousands of years ago and were thrust upwards from the ocean floors.  They were preserved because these salt mountains were surrounded by snow and ice year round.

So go out on a limb and try some of these mouthwatering delicacies – you will be glad that you did. And think of the fun that you will have sharing these startling discoveries with your friends and family!

About the Author: Judy Patterson is a staff writer for SpicesInc.com and also heads up our merchandising efforts. She has more than 25 years of experience in sourcing out the some of the greatest and most innovative products across many various categories. When she isn’t busy writing articles or sourcing out new products for us she is tooling around town with her Black Standard Poodle Pepper. You can reach Judy at JudyPatterson@SpicesInc.com.