Still the Salt of the Earth

Remember when we were kids and salt was a homogenous, monochromatic entity? When the only interesting additive was iodine, that sworn enemy of goiter, and cheap garlic salt was exotic?

I knew those days were over a few years ago when Kara, my wife-chef, brought home half a cup of dirty-looking gray salt from a catering job and told me I had to check with her before using it, apparently afraid that I would de-ice the driveway with it during the next frost.

Now we can hardly face the dawn without our flaky fleur de sel and its many micro-varietals from the marshes of Guerande, France; without our Celtic salt, hand-harvested with wooden rakes on the Brittany coast; without our coral-pink Alaea sea salt enriched with volcanic Hawaiian clay; without our pearly Indian kala namak.

A bit ironic, isn’t it? “Salt,” a word that has long connoted earthiness, humility, even coarseness, has become the trendy object of desire for would-be home gourmets.

As Mark Kurlansky writes in “Salt: A World History,” “Modern people have seen too many chemicals and are ready to go back to eating dirt.”

But if the search for obscure grains has reached absurd, salt-mine depths, the result is fun. Some of these far-flung sodium crystals are truly distinctive and delicious, as a little experimentation demonstrates.

The first thing you should know about fancy salts is that, unless you have Shaq’s monthly food budget, they are not for all dishes. Don’t sprinkle Dead Sea salt on your fast-food French fries. Don’t use that artisanal Gulf of Maine rock in your pot of chili. It just doesn’t make enough of a difference to justify the expense.

If you do cook with a coarse salt, remember that, like the kosher variety, the size and irregularity of the grains mean that they tend to have more air between them. So it might take two teaspoons of artisanal salt to equal one teaspoon of Morton’s version.

Specialty salts are for finishing dishes at the table. You can observe them in their colorful and sharp-angled splendor, feel them crunch between your privileged teeth and truly savor their flavor.

The simplest and best presentation is a plate of vegetables or fruit and a small bowl of superior salt. In the summer you have tomatoes or corn or avocados or watermelon, in the winter, radishes. Baked potatoes beg for salt year-round. A conservative pinch--just a few crystals, really--can turn a turnip into a first course.

Other canvases suitable for this artful salt include bruschetta, fresh mozzarella cheese, and meats such as lamb or tuna, once they are on the table and ready for chomping.

Where will the search for high-end salt take us next? Well, when President Bush announced plans to resurrect a manned space mission to Mars, I applauded the strategy. I’ll wager there are some really fantastic salts on that planet, and I expect to find one at Trader Joe’s by 2030.

Phil Barber last wrote for the magazine about tailgating parties.

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Fleur de Sel and Black Pepper Cookies

Makes 3 dozen (1 1/4-inch-round) cookies

2 teaspoons lemon zest

4 ounces butter, softened

4 tablespoons sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

Two pinches table salt

1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel

Cream lemon zest, butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the flour and salt and resume mixing on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl. In about a minute, the butter and flour will come together to form a thick dough. Do not over-mix. Form the dough into a ball, put in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 3/8-inch thick. Cut cookies into any small shapes you like. Dust with black pepper and fleur de sel. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until light golden brown and just firm to the touch. Cool slightly on the baking sheet and serve warm.

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RESOURCE GUIDE

Artisanal salts are available at Surfas Restaurant Supply & Gourmet Food, Culver City, (310) 559-4770; and at Whole Foods, Bristol Farms and Trader Joe’s stores.