Sea Salt: How To Dry, Store Or Re-Moisten It

Wet sea salt? Saving you the frustration of trying to grind wet salt.

I am a sucker for high quality ingredients, right down to the salt! I love using sea salt in my cooking. A few years ago, I came across the most amazing grey sea salt from La Maison Orphée. It honestly changed my life, and I've been using it ever since.

So you're probably used to table salt, kosher salt or regular sea salt; but this is GREY sea salt. This gorgeous salt gets its colour to the clay that lies at the bottom of salt marshes of Noirmoutier Island in France.

What's unique about this salt, is that it's a moist sea salt. Now you might be thinking "huh? did they forget to dry it?" Well, actually, no. This is because moist sea salt is a much better salt to use for cooking and finishing. Dry ground salt will suck the moisture from your food, which dries it out, and dissolves quickly, robbing you of that perfect salty crunch. However, sometimes we need a fine little dusting of salt, so, if you want your salt to disappear, like on a salad, in a sauce, or on popcorn (my fav), grinding your salt is the way to go. If you have wet sea salt, you'll need dry your salt before putting it in a grinder. The results are a million times better, and it won't clog your grinder.

Most of the time I love to just pinch my salt from a dish on the counter. If I need it finer, I'll crush it with my fingers, but that doesn't always do the trick. The only times I use my grinder is when I need the salt crystals to disappear, absorb moisture, or the crunch is not appropriate for the food.

Now, I do this with about 1.5-2 cups of salt at a time so that I'm not constantly drying out salt. It keeps very well in a glass jar, but if you DO wish to re-moisten your salt, here's how you can do that:

How to re-moisten your sea salt. In a glass container, add 1 tsp of water for every 8 oz of salt and stir.

Seal for 6 hours.

Re-stir and check that the salt breaks apart into fine moist crystals when pinched. If it is still dry, repeat the process.

But let's get on to the real reason we're here, how to dry out that darn salt...

HOW TO DRY SEA SALT

Serves 1

INGREDIENTS

1. 1 cup moistened sea salt (you can use as much salt as you need)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

2. On a large baking sheet covered in parchment paper, spread a thin layer of salt.

3. Place salt on center rack of oven.

4. Bake for 10-15 mins.

5. Stir to break up clumps.

6. Continue until the salt has dried to your liking (humid climates may take longer).

7. Turn oven off and leave in oven to cool.

8. Store in an glass airtight container.

NOTES

Temperatures above 200 degrees might cause the salt to discolor and the flavor profile to change.

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