I am a sucker for artisanal food stores and couldn’t resist popping into Harvard Square’s Salt & Olive on my way to dinner last summer. Three months later, I have developed a healthy obsession with their Toasted Onion Sea Salt and put it on everything. Whether it’s in a rub for flank steaks, sprinkled on top of avocado BLTs, or stirred into a meaty Bolognese, this salt is my go-to ingredient. It adds just the right amount of toasty, oniony goodness while punching the flavor of any food up a few notches. Wanting to learn more (and feed my newfound addiction) I set off to interview the owner, Mary Taylor, and learn about the world of gourmet salts.
“We are a place where people can get interesting, unusual products and creative inspiration on how to use them,” says the proprietor. The specialty food shop sells natural, solar evaporated sea salts, as well as artisan olive oils and vinegars. A Cambridge native, Taylor specifically looks for small, natural producers from around the area, such as the briny Martha’s Vineyard Sea Salt. Further afield, Salt & Olive offers products sourced from Hawaii to the Himalayas and is the only U.S. store to carry the award-winning and limited Achill Island Irish Sea Salt.
While many of Salt & Olive’s clientele are drawn to the culinary application of sea salts, some customers are attracted to these products because of what they don’t have—additives. Taylor explains that sea salt is collected through solar evaporation, a process where seawater is pooled in a shallow pond and slowly evaporated out. The remaining salt contains naturally occurring minerals and a distinctive flavor.
The myriad of briny options can be a bit overwhelming, but the knowledgeable Salt & Olive staffers take the time to discuss a client’s culinary goals and offer recommendations. Taylor explains that pairing is critical when it comes to salts. “Everyone talks about pairing wines, it’s the same with salt, you pair like to like,” she says. In this case, that translates to saving higher sodium salts for strong flavors. French Fleur de Sel contains a modest 340 milligrams and can enhance even mildly flavored foods like steamed asparagus, while the Hiwa Kai Hawaiian Lava Salt rings in at a whopping 530 milligrams and should be reserved for stronger flavors like cioppino and bluefish.
Taylor says a sea salt’s flavor is determined by its terroir (just like wine!), which influences the texture, salinity level, and color of the salt. Think of Napa Valley and its rare volcanic soil, which helps to create cabernets with a distinctive taste. It’s the same with Fleur de Sel, or the crisp, flaky Welsh Halen Mon.
After getting schooled on the basics, it was back to my obsession: Toasted Onion Sea Salt. It turns out all of Taylor’s flavored salts—be they blue cheese or espresso flavored—are infused during the final stages of production. In the case of the blue cheese salt, pieces of actual cheese are added to the salt when it reaches about 80 percent evaporation. As it continues to dry out, it absorbs the flavor of the cheese and functions as a natural preservative for any crumbles that remain. Encouraged by this salty tutorial, I used my new expertise to whip up some meals inspired by my favorite salts.
Here are two scrumptious recipes using Halen Mon as crunchy cookie topping and the Toasted Onion and Blue Cheese Sea Salts to make a delicious dip!
- Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies finished with Halen Mon Sea Salt
- Toasted Onion Blue Cheese Spread
Salt & Olive, 1160 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 857-242-4118, saltandolive.com
