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cooking Pepper salt

A few weeks ago I got a wild hair and decided to try flavoring salt, not by mixing powdered peppers with it dry but instead seeing if I could impart pepper flavor into the salt crystals.

What I did was quite simple, I steeped a tablespoon of mixed pepper powder in a cup or so of boiling water then stirred in as much salt as the water would absorb and strained it through a coffee filter.

After a week or so in a pyrex dish I have deliciously spicy salt crystals!

Might try smoking the brine in the smoker before completely drying next time?

For now though I'm looking forward to my next steak!

I used distilled water and Kosher salt and the crystals do have a slight coloring to them but this is something I'll be doing regularly.
 
Another method I've used is making a bed of salt in a glass baking pan and tossing the minced fresh pepper (and/or ramp leaf) on top and toss it in an oven that is still hot from something else or at 220F. You may want to stir it to hasten the drying, but don't.. Much better if you just let it dry out and then break it up. I usually use 2 cups of Kosher salt for the bed, fill up a quart jar when it's done, and then top it off with some more raw salt.
Our climate is usually humid, so I don't get away with 'air drying' as much, but that may also work for finishing this salt, given the right environment.
 
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