Fleur de sel
Encyclopedia
Sea salt
Sea salt, salt obtained by the evaporation of seawater, is used in cooking and cosmetics. It is historically called bay salt or solar salt...
collected by workers who scrape only the top layer of salt before it sinks to the bottom of large salt pan
Salt evaporation pond
Salt evaporation ponds, also called salterns or salt pans, are shallow artificial ponds designed to produce salts from sea water or other brines. The seawater or brine is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be subsequently harvested...
s. Traditional French fleur de sel is collected off the coast of Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
most notably in the towns of Guérande
Guérande
The medieval town of Guérande is located in the département of Loire-Atlantique in western France.The inhabitants are so called Guérandais, for men, and Guérandaise, for women....
(Fleur de Sel de Guérande being the most revered), but also in Noirmoutier, Ile de Ré
Île de Ré
Île de Ré is an island off the west coast of France near La Rochelle, on the northern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait....
and Camargue
Camargue
The Camargue is the region located south of Arles, France, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the Rhône River delta. The eastern arm is called the Grand Rhône; the western one is the Petit Rhône....
. It is an artisan
Artisan
An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...
al food product. Due to its relative scarcity, fleur de sel is one of the more expensive salts.
Fleur de sel is often slightly grey due to the sand collected in the process of harvesting the salt from the pans. On occasion, the presence of Dunaliella salina
Dunaliella salina
Dunaliella salina is a type of halophile green micro-algae especially found in sea salt fields. Known for its anti-oxidant activity because of its ability to create large amount of carotenoids, it is used in cosmetics and dietary supplements. Few organisms can survive in such highly saline...
(a type of pink microalgae commonly found in salt marshes) can give it a light pink tint. It is usually sold in sealed jars.
Fleurs de sel contain more mineral complexity than table salt. The following is a chemical analysis of Flos Salis, a Portuguese fleur de sel:
| Mineral | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Sodium Chloride Sodium chloride Sodium chloride, also known as salt, common salt, table salt or halite, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaCl. Sodium chloride is the salt most responsible for the salinity of the ocean and of the extracellular fluid of many multicellular organisms... |
94.3 - 97.6% |
| Calcium Calcium Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft gray alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth-most-abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust... |
0.19 - 0.20% |
| Magnesium Magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole... |
0.42 - 0.79% |
| Potassium Potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K and atomic number 19. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the hydrogen emitted in the reaction.Potassium and sodium are... |
0.22 - 0.67% |
| Iron Iron Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust... |
8.0 - 11.1 mg/kg |
| Iodine Iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced , , or . The name is from the , meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor.... |
0.5 - <3 mg/kg |
Parallels to authentic fleur de sel, sourced from other territories, include:
- Fleur de sel de l'Ile de ReÎle de RéÎle de Ré is an island off the west coast of France near La Rochelle, on the northern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait....
from western France - Flor de sal, a PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
variant from AveiroAveiroAveiro is a city in Aveiro Municipality in Portugal, with a total area of 199.9 km², a total population of 73,559 inhabitants, and 59,860 electors . It is the second most populous city in the Centro Region of Portugal, after Coimbra...
. - Pangasinan salt from Pangasinan, PhilippinesPangasinanPangasinan is a province of the Republic of the Philippines. The provincial capital is Lingayen. Pangasinan is located on the west central and peripheral area of the island of Luzon along the Lingayen Gulf, with the total land area being 5,368.82 square kilometers . According to the latest census,...
- ดอกเกลือ (dork gleua) from Samut Sakorn, Thailand.
Sel gris
Sel gris
Sel gris is a coarse granular sea salt popularized by the French.Sel gris comes from the same solar evaporation salt pans as fleur de sel but is harvested differently; it is allowed to come into contact with the bottom of the salt pan before being raked, whence its gray color...
is another type of salt that is harvested from the same salt pans as fleur de sel.
Use
Fleurs de sel are moist salts. Flos Salis, for instance, contains from 5.4 to 8.1% residual moisture, while others can reach upwards of ten percent. Because of this, fleurs de sel do not dissolve when sprinkled on a moist food: they retain their crystal structure, giving a slight crunch to the food as well as a slight shimmer.Due to the small size of the crystals, fleur de sel dissolves faster than regular salt when used in cooking. Hence it is best used as a finishing salt by sprinkling it over food just before serving. The crystals of fleurs de sel are irregularly sized and shaped and so dissolve at different rates in the mouth, giving several phases of salting.