I love my smoked salt — I use it in everything, from cookies, breads and muffins to sauces, meat rubs and marinades. I love the hint of earthy depth it adds to . . . well, everything!
So imagine my delight when I discovered this:
There’s nothing new under the sun . . . until there is!
Uncle Roy’s Old Fashioned Gravy Salt, a mix of course sea salt and a deep brown caramel coloring that imparts a hint of bitter and burnt.
The smoked sea salt functions similarly, but the coloring is not as rich a brown and the flavoring is more smoke than char, though the coloring of the smoked salt is a natural by-product of the smoking process, where the color in the Gravy Salt is an added ammonia chemical.
The European Food Safety Authority recently re-examined the safety of caramel coloring in foods, and you can read the results here: EFSA reviews safety of caramel colors
*NOTE: Some additional chemical info on Caramel E150c.
I don’t consume much (if anything) that’s colored with an additive in my diet (no colas, commercial sweets or factory breads and beers), so I’m not too concerned over the small amount I’ll encounter when using Gravy Salt, but I figured I’d put the info out there so you can make up your own mind.
*Last but not least: I also picked up some Whiskey Salt and Heather Salt:
More newishness under my sun
I used the Smokey Scotch Whisky Salt in a batch of cherry muffins I made last week. It added a very welcome boozy tone to the muffins without interfering with the wet to dry ratio of the rest of the ingredients.
Big fan of boozy, right here.
The Scottish Heather Salt I picked up simply because it was so pretty. I have no idea yet what I’ll use it in, but I have faith in my ability to improvise. If nothing else, it’ll look great served up in a small white dish on the table.
I think this is what’s known as form over substance.
