Salty Dog

Our Favorite Dane!

If you are new to Salt Traders, you will soon find out that one of our most favorite products is our one-of-a-kind Danish Viking Smoked Salt! We are proud to be the sole vendor in North America to bring to you this wonderful product direct from Denmark.

The artisan salt maker (pictured) discovered through ancient Viking literature descriptions of smoked salt, which led him to experiment with different smoked wood. The resulting Danish Viking Smoked Salt is a particular blend of juniper, oak, cherry, elm and beech. Sea water is boiled down over this unique wood fire blend. The result: smoky perfection! Saveur Magazine writer Kelly Alexander described it best: “The resulting salt tastes like a bonfire; its strong, haunting flavor is best enjoyed when the crystals are sprinkled on simple dishes like scrambled eggs, baked potatoes, and grilled steaks” (Issue No. 58, page 34).

Give this small but mighty salt a try – you won’t be disappointed! Use it to transform meat, potatoes, chowders, corn on the cob, chocolate and caramel!

A Bit of History from Paradise

Remember the Reeses Peanut Butter Cup commercials, in which the Chocolate “met” the Peanut Butter, and the match was instantly recognized as perfectly delicious? In ancient Hawaii, on the island of what is now Kauai, red volcanic clay called Alaea “met” Sea Salt when, during heavy rains, the red clay sediment seeped into the ocean from Kauai’s rivers. When this red ocean water became trapped in tidal pools, evaporation created Hawaiian Red Alaea Sea Salt.
 
While much of the salt was used by ancient Hawaiians in sacred rituals in which security was sought for everything from canoes to homes and temples, the salt was also used to preserve food. Today, the salt is used by Hawaiians in traditional dishes like Kalua Pork, and by discerning restaurant and home chefs who appreciate this salt’s unique history, taste and appearance.

However, generally speaking, the salt will serve you well anytime you want to add dramatic, colorful impact to any dish.  Enjoy!!

A Little Bit of Food History

A little bit of food history:

When American colonists were first introduced to corn by the Native Americans, they referred to it using the generic English word, corn, which at the time referred to any kind of grain, even a “grain” of salt. This, by the way, is how corned beef got its name, as corned beef is, of course, cured or pickled beef in a seasoned brine.

And corned beef is not, as one might think, enjoyed in Ireland as it is here in the States. Corned beef and cabbage is an Irish-American tradition, dating back to when Irish immigrants were introduced by their new Jewish neighbors to flavorful and affordable corned beef.

A Love Story for Salt Lovers

A widowed king, with three maturing daughters, began to feel his own mortality bear down upon him.  He wanted to determine how to divide his wealth.  He gathered the girls together and asked each in turn how much she loved her father. 

“I love you as much as I love my own life,” answered one sweetly.
“I love you,” said the next, with a look at her sisters, “as much as I love God.”
The king was pleased at such devotion.  He called his youngest, his dearest, to him.
“And how well do you love me, darling?” he asked.
“I love you, Father, as much as I love salt.”

In all the stories, in Sweden, Rumania, Spain, Germany, Italy, and in England where the tale is called “Cap O’Rushes,” the king throws his dearest child out in a rage.  Like salt!  A scandal! And the princess, in rags but forgiving and diligent and honest, makes do.  Perhaps she eventually is taken as a servant girl, back into her father’s kitchen, disguised.  Perhaps she marries a prince who sees her true worth and, under a false name, invites her father to a banquet.  Either way, she conspires to cook for him.  At a happy feast she serves him a secret dish, like all the others but minus its precious salt. (“That will be rare nasty,” says the cook in one version, when she proposes the experiment.)

The king can be polite for only so long before he leaps from his seat in disgust, watching the other diners in dismay.  The food is awful! He exclaims.  How can it be eaten! And the princess reveals herself, kneels at her father’s feet.

“I tell you again, my father,” she says, “I love you as that most precious thing, as much as salt.” And he understands.

~From Lot's Wife: Salt & the Human Condition by Sallie Tisdale