The Only Thing You Need to Change in Your Kitchen to Improve Your Cooking

Salt is an incredible commodity and was for centuries been used as a measure of wealth. The Assyrians would lay salt on conquered cities to eliminate any curses preventing re-inhabitation; brave and successful Roman soldiers were rewarded as they were deemed 'worth their salt'

Other references:

The word 'salary' is derived from sel; used as a metaphor in the bible, Matthew 5:13, Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth"; Liverpool, once a small English port grew to become a major salt exporting port for the Cheshire salt mines; Jacques de Langre, the 'Salt Doctor' established that unrefined sea salt can even lower blood pressure, flush out the kidneys and eliminate many poor health conditions.

Fleur de Sel: The Master Bakers and Chef's first choice

Fleur de Sel, flower of salt, is one of the last great unadulterated ingredients on this planet. It takes a year from being gathered until it is ready for the table, but from then on it keeps indefinitely.

Fleur de Sel is an unpredictable salt to harvest. François Lecallo, former President of the Guerande Producers Cooperative advises "If the winds are too strong, the crystals sink. If the direction changes, the crust breaks up. When it rains the crystals don't form. You can have an average sel gris harvest and almost no 'flower'.

Lecallo is apaludier, a man of the marshes, or salt farmer. He farms two salines, mazes of channels, drains and ponds where the salt evaporates. One of the salines has not changed since it was built in 1536. He is not a fan of commercially produced salt: "Industrial salt" he says "is bitter. It deforms the taste of food, whereas an unrefined salt adds to it."

Fleur de Sel is so rich in taste that most people cut their consumption of salt when they switch from commercial salts to unrefined salt.

There are basically three kinds of salt: 

1) Sodium Chloride. Normal table salt. This is toxic and bad for your health, as you have been told.

2) So called "natural sea salt". This should be good for you but unfortunately it has been processed and many of the valuable minerals removed. It's not much better than normal table salt.

3) "Celtic Sea Salt" - hand-harvested, sun-dried sea salt. This is delicious! We NEED salt - REAL salt. Our bodies thrive if given essential minerals every day. Unrefined salt - no processing; no additives; dried by the sun and the wind!

Together with his wife Phylipa, Graeme Dinnen runs Resources For Life, a natural health centre in Chichester, West Sussex. They first discovered Celtic Sea Salt in 1997 and have used it daily since.

For more information: http://www.resourcesforlife.net/product.asp?product=11
or watch the short film clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UIKGGXItqI

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