Sea salt

Sea salt is salt made when seawater dries up. People have been making sea salt for a very long time, even before we had written history. It is also called bay salt or solar salt, but it is just salt from the sea.

People use sea salt to add flavor to food, help cook food, and keep food fresh longer. It is also used in lotions and creams that we put on our skin. Like salt from deep inside the Earth, sea salt has been important to us for thousands of years.

Composition

Sea salts sold in stores have different chemical make-ups, but they all mostly contain sodium chloride. Besides sodium chloride, they can have small amounts of salts made from calcium, potassium, and magnesium. These extra salts are found in much smaller amounts. Store-bought sea salts change, but the salt in the ocean stays about the same.

Historical production

See also: History of salt

Sea salt has been used for a very long time. It is mentioned in old Buddhist writings. Sea salt is made by letting seawater dry up, called evaporation. In warm, sunny places, the sun dries the water. In other places, people used fires to help.

Today, most sea salt is made in warm areas, especially around the Mediterranean. These places are called salt works. Long ago, people built places to make salt where they could sell it, had calm coastlines, and had other jobs nearby.

In old Roman times, people used special clay containers to help dry the seawater.

In the Visayas Islands of the Philippines, people used to make salt from coconut husks, driftwood, or other plants soaked in seawater. They would burn these plants to make ash, then mix in seawater and let it dry.

In the past, some people were made to collect salt on islands in the West Indies, Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Today in the US, salt called "sea salt" might not always come from the sea, but it must be very pure.

Taste

Some people think sea salt tastes better and feels different than regular table salt. Because it is coarser, it can change how food feels in your mouth. The minerals in sea salt also affect its taste. The colors come from clays and algae in the water where the salt is made. For example, some salts from Korea and France are pinkish gray, and some from India are black. Black salts from Hawaii may include powdered black lava and baked red clay. Some sea salt contains sulfates. It can be hard to tell sea salt apart from other types of salt, like pink Himalayan salt, Maras salt from ancient Inca hot springs, or rock salt.

Black lava salt is a name used for sea salt that has been mixed with activated charcoal, giving it a special look. It is often used as a decorative condiment on the table.

Health

Further information: Health effects of salt

Sea salt and table salt have similar nutrition. They are mostly sodium chloride. Table salt is cleaned more and may have additives.

Iodine, which is good for health, is only in small amounts in sea salt. Iodised salt is table salt with a little iodine.

Some sea salt may have tiny bits of plastic or fungi.

In Korean cooking, there is a special salt called jugyeom (죽염, 竹鹽). It is made by heating salt in a bamboo container. This salt is said to help with Korean soybean paste called doenjang, but this is not proven.