Himalayan pink salt

Sel rose de l’Himalaya

What it is

The salt comes from the Khewra mine in Punjab, worked room-and-pillar since a British engineer laid out its main tunnel in 1872, and the pink is iron oxide — haematite and goethite — caught in the halite. The story that Alexander the Great's horses found the deposit by licking the rocks is repeated everywhere, but it reads as a colonial-era embellishment rather than a record.

In the kitchen

The sawn block, not the grinder, is what this salt is for: bring it up to heat slowly over forty-five minutes to two hours or it cracks, then sear prawns or thin beef straight on the surface. Never wash it — scrape it and wipe it barely damp, because water dissolves it away.

Goes with

Scallop Tuna Beef Watermelon Cucumber Shrimp

Same species

Alaea red Hawaiian salt Sodium bicarbonate Fleur de sel de Guérande Kala namak (Indian black salt) Kansui Kosher salt

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