Salted: A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes [A Cookbook]

I knew some of the history of salt, but Bitterman's was enlightening and comprehensive. He describes everything about this essential element from the formation, mining, harvesting, and drying, to cooking on it and with it. The varieties of (salts, color taste and consistancy) around the world is mind boggling, and he explains all of it well in Salted. There are salt artisans...who knew?! He provides a Quick Reference Guide to these specialized salts. There is comprehensive Salt Reference Guide with photos, description, flavors and uses, and then in-depth descriptions. Bitterman also provides some tasty recipes that use salt to preserve (lemons), brine (poultry and fish), cure (salmon), etc. and explains what every good chef knows...how important it is to salt beef well.This Book is a James Beard Foundation Book Award Winner, and well deserved.

I love this book. I haven't read every page yet, but enjoyed the descriptions of how various salts are derived, and love the pages and pages of reference on different types of salts. It helped me in my choices away from kosher and Real Salt, toward various sea salts. I never used table salt, but used kosher for a long time. Now, I'll use kosher to brine pork, but the salt I use for cooking and finishing include fine Celtic sea salt, Australian Murray River salt, French grey coarse and fine, fleur de sel, and Korean sea salt. My objective in using a variety is to get a broad range of trace minerals that are found in different parts of the world. There's a salt store here in Seattle, and my favorite variety from there is a Bacon Smoked Sea Salt. Need I say more?

I've been cooking for a long time - never professionally. My cooking improves and plateaus and improves again. This book triggered another improvement as I really started to explore the core of what makes up some of the base flavor of my cooking. I have always used salt, but I have never used salt as effectively as I am learning to. I have never tasted it as much as I do now - and how it can be used in more interesting ways than I have so far.Of course, learning to taste things means that your tastes shift. Be prepared to start spending more on silly hand-harvested sel gris for every day use, fleur de sel for finishing salt, regional specialties for interesting characteristics...Yeah, I have 12 kinds of salt next to my stove right now and I'm just getting started.

I love to cook and my husband bought me something this book as a gift. At first I was a bit perplexed about why he thought this would make a good present. I started reading and was fascinated. Who knew there was so much to know about salt! We now have five salts that we use on a regular basis and several others for particular recipes. The Morton's salt went in the trash as soon as we compared it to sea salt. It's amazing what the right salt can do to make a good recipe better.I have ended up buying this book for a few family members as gifts. They now have a collection of salts rather than just plain table salt.

Easily one of the most inspiring cookbooks I've read, and I've been blowing through them a couple a week for a while now.The amount and variety of slats listed. combined with the elegant, bold and deliciously clever writing make Bitterman's Salt book an absolute delight. You gotta read all the way to the end to learn how and why industrialised salt is such an egregious crime, and you will have to pay attention and read the little pull-out boxes to learn why we iodize salt, why we shouldn't be afraid to enjoy salt and some fun tidbits about the specific practices of harvesting salt.

And if you are going to tell the history stuff, get a little below the surface. Skipping like a stone across the surface of information is like eating half a cookie (better to not have the cookie at that point).But overall, solid effort and the passion of the author for the topic is evident. But passion for a topic does not necessarily translate into good story-telling and writing. I just suggest a little more work be done there, else hire a helping hand.That said, the images are good and helpful as well. Overall, I liked it and it filled in some of the information gaps that I had, cooking-wise.

Recipient of the gift loved it !

A very painful start to the book with the author employing way too much pseudo-archeology and anthropology, imagined history, and the PC jibberish use of BCE dates instead of the conventional date system! The author settled down and provided some very interesting "actual" historical data and science. For beginners the actual history and science is a must read and for the more experienced an excellent review.The artisan salt making section is excellent as is the salting strategically guidance. The salt guide is truly superb.Recipes are interesting: Radishes with butter and Fleur De Sel was simple and very tasty. Hamburgers with Sel Gris, how can you go wrong salting hamburger? Roasted peaches in Bourbon syrup with smoked salt has too many great flavor combinations to describe, simply marvelous!Even allowing for the politically correct BCE dates and the overreaching new world preachy bits start, the book is actually quite good. I highly recommend it to any one who enjoys eating or preparing food.

Informative with a creative writing style. Great depth and breadth. Learnt a lot in just the first 30 pages. A rewarding read on so many levels. Well worth a read. Recommended

Excellent book. Good value. fast dispatch.

THE BOOK of salt clock cooking!

Great book, great service.

I recently started making sea salt and this book opened up my eyes to a whole world I had only just tapped into. I've left it out on the coffee table and so many people have flipped through and enjoyed it! Whether you love food, history, science, or just gorgeous pics and trivia, this is a great book to own.