Roasted salt is salt that is heated to some high, but undetermined, temperature. The salt I found claims it was heated to 800° C which is just about the melting point of NaCl, which I find hard to believe. As a chemist, I cannot for the life of me understand why roasting will do anything to salt. It doesn't modify the chemical structure in any way.
I'm wondering if they do it in a hot oven/fire, but that the salt itself doesn't reach the 800C. I imagine if there is any flavor change it's due to it picking up impurities from combustion. For example, smoked salt is a real thing (it picks up smoke condensates).
I have seen roasting a stick of bamboo with salt inside of it in order to have the salt pick up flavors, but this does not appear to be that.
It seems to be roasted inside a sterile metal vessel. So it shouldn't pick up any impurities, save some metal ions. And that would generally not be desirable flavorwise.
Roasted salt is salt that is heated to some high, but undetermined, temperature. The salt I found claims it was heated to 800° C which is just about the melting point of NaCl, which I find hard to believe. As a chemist, I cannot for the life of me understand why roasting will do anything to salt. It doesn't modify the chemical structure in any way.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if they do it in a hot oven/fire, but that the salt itself doesn't reach the 800C. I imagine if there is any flavor change it's due to it picking up impurities from combustion. For example, smoked salt is a real thing (it picks up smoke condensates).
DeleteI have seen roasting a stick of bamboo with salt inside of it in order to have the salt pick up flavors, but this does not appear to be that.
DeleteIt seems to be roasted inside a sterile metal vessel. So it shouldn't pick up any impurities, save some metal ions. And that would generally not be desirable flavorwise.