What’s pink, naturally anti-microbial and a favorite cooking surface? Yes, you guessed it: Himalayan salt.
This beautiful salt has been showing up in restaurants for years; on the grill, in the steak aging room, and also in decor. Entire walls made of pink salt bricks are a popular motif. A few years back Mark Bittman wrote a whole cookbook about cooking on Himalayan salt.
With Labor Day and the last big weekend for grilling upon us, now is a good time to get inventive. If you aren’t already grilling on a block of salt, what are you waiting for? Read these tips, and get yourself a block of salt for the weekend festivities.
There is no need to add salt when you are cooking on a slab of it. Season simply! Here are three things we want to grill on a salt block immediately.
The Himalayan Salt Company website (one of the oldest to market the product in the USA) has lots of information about this fine salt, and offers salt in many forms (bowls, lamps, planks, candle holders).
Here’s how you grill a steak on a block of salt. For further instructions on how to use a salt block on the stove top, check this post at The Manual: The Essential Guide for Men.
The important thing about cooking on salt – aside from heating the slab very slowly – is correct cleanup.
These helpful infographics are from the blog at ereplacementparts.com. Click through for more details and tips from griller John Thomas.
Featured photo from The Manual.
How long does it take to get a brick up to 400 degrees? How well does it hold the heat?
A salt block should be slowly heated on a grill or stove top – not the oven! First, on low heat for at least 15 minutes, then increase the heat to low-medium heat for another 15 minutes, and finally, on medium-high for 15 minutes. So the average salt block needs 45 minutes of gentle heating time. It should reach 400-500 degrees F by then, and if you sprinkle a few drops of water, they will sizzle away instantly. Salt blocks are very dense and hold heat well. While cooking on it, the block should still be over the heating element. A salt block can retain heat for hours, so let it cool completely before handling or cleaning it.