Smoked sea salt adds a gentle, smoky flavor to anything you sprinkle it on. Meat, seafood, cooked vegetables or even salad…it’s all more delicious when finished with smoked salt. You’ve probably seen smoked sea salt in gourmet food stores but the truth is, it’s nothing fancy. You can make a batch of smoked sea salt right now simply using your charcoal grill.
Light the lump charcoal, cover it with soaked wood chips and set a foil pan filled with sea salt on the grill grates. Cover the grill and let the smoke work its magic on the salt for an hour. That’s pretty much it. Smoked salt keeps forever in a glass jar, in the unlikely event that you don’t go through it much faster. Do keep in mind that just a pinch of sea salt punches up the flavor of food a lot, so there’s no need to be heavy handed. But there’s also no need to be fearful of salt.
Unrefined sea salt contains important minerals – sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Plus, salt makes food more satisfying, which is a good thing. Especially when you’re sprinkling smoked sea salt on grilled broccoli, or kale salad or a grass fed steak.
Servings: 1 cup smoked sea salt
Time in the Kitchen: 1 hour for smoking
Ingredients and Equipment:
Instructions:
Soak wood chips in water for 30 minutes then drain.
Prepare charcoal grill for indirect grilling. Meaning, heat your coals then put all the hot coals on one side of the grill and leave the other side empty so it can be the cool side.
Scatter the wood chips over the coals.
If the charcoal is too hot when you put the pan of salt on the grill, your salt will get burned not just smoked. With the lid on, the ideal temp for the grill is between 250 °F and 350 °F (121 °C to 177 °C). If your grill doesn’t have a thermometer, you can stick one through the vent on the lid for a fairly accurate reading. Other indicators that the grill is too hot: smoke will be pouring, not just wafting, out of the vent on the lid and the salt will immediately turn brown.
If the grill seems too hot, fill the 8×4 loaf pan with cold water and set it over the hot side of the grill.
Spread salt in the 11×9 inch pan. Place the pan on the cool side of the grill.
Cover the grill, making sure the vents are open and the lid vent is over the salt, not the charcoal side.
Smoke the salt for 1 hour. Shake the pan once or twice during the hour to make sure the salt is evenly flavored and colored.
Cool the salt. Stored in a sealed glass jar, the salt will keep indefinitely.
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