When it comes to excellence in gourmet cuisine, high-quality ingredients and expert cooking techniques are essential for delicious, mouth-watering food. But even more important among top chefs is their ability to create dishes with a signature flair. For food that stands apart from the rest, the special ingredient chefs can't live without is Maldon salt, one of the most important items in their seasoning arsenal.
Maldon has a unique flakiness and delicate flavor, which makes it a versatile finishing salt for a wide variety of both sweet and savory dishes. Among the food cognoscenti, Maldon is considered the finest salt available. In fact, in the last several decades, Maldon salt has been praised by top chefs from around the world. Ruth Rogers, the owner of the top-rated River Cafe in London, insisted on Maldon as the must-have finishing salt in her first cookbook. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver also uses it as a finishing salt in his TV appearances and cookbooks; cookbook author Delia Smith included Maldon salt in her top ten kitchen essentials.
Maldon salt is also trendy. Gwyneth Paltrow has sung its praises on Goop and Cameron Diaz has been known to carry Maldon in her bag for an on-the-go fix. In 2012, Maldon received the official seal of approval from the British royal family, and its popularity continues to increase every year.
Compared to regular salt, Maldon is minimally processed without homogenizing or anti-caking chemicals. These snowy-white sea salt flakes are 100% all natural, which gives them a savory zing and a whisper of sweetness. Chefs also appreciate its clean aftertaste that doesn't overwhelm the palate with overly salty or bitter flavors. As the world's only sea salt flakes, Maldon is also known for its crunchy texture, which comes from the naturally-formed pyramid shape of the crystals. Its flaky structure also gives it a mellow saltiness that enhances the flavors of a dish with precision and elegance.
The food editors at Bon Appetit magazine recommend using Maldon sea salt flakes to add a briny and flavorful crunch to dishes right before serving. You can sprinkle sea salt flakes on seared meats, salads, and chocolate desserts, which will help to bring out the flavors of the dish while also lending a delicious crunchiness to every bite. Maldon salt is considered a gourmet item but it can also be used on everyday foods like watermelon, flatbreads, caramel squares, and much more.
Owned and operated by a fifth-generation family, Maldon Salt Works continue to use traditional salt harvesting techniques in River Blackwater, an estuary in Essex with a high amount of sea salt. This area of England is very dry, which makes it an excellent spot for harvesting sea salt, a tradition that can be traced back thousands of years. All types of salt are made up of sodium chloride, but what makes Maldon salt different from the rest is the nuanced flavors, which reflect the unique composition of seawater in the east of England.
When you include Maldon salt in your collection of seasonings, get ready to instantly elevate your everyday meals from ordinary to gourmet. All it takes is a pinch of Maldon salt!
Sources:
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/history-of-maldon-salt
https://www.today.com/food/ina-garten-s-favorite-ingredient-available-amazon-t146940