Add Salt Spray to Your Cooking Arsenal

Most home chefs know that a sprinkle of salt can boost dishes as well as bring out unexpected flavors when used in oatmeal, pasta water or even cocktails. Sometimes, that crunch of coarse salt is nice on things like bread and steak. But then there are other times when you want a more uniform application. Enter salt spray.

Food and Wine writer Stacey Ballis discovered sea salt spray on a recent trip to Rome Italy and the experience was life-changing. “ I was shocked at how intensely salty it was; it was literally liquid salt,” she notes. But despite all the types of salt she already had in her kitchen, she “could think of a million ways to use it.”

Many of us have more than just iodized salt in our kitchen collection. There’s sea salt, kosher salt, Himalayan pink salt and even big flakes of finishing salt. While each of those salts has its place, salt spray has many creative uses as a finishing mist. Here's how you should use it.

2. Corn on the Cob

Ballis sprayed the liquid salt on corn on the cob and realized this was a great solution when grains of salt won’t stick to the cob. “Using salt spray gave corn the perfect amount of salt to enhance the sweet kernels, with a totally even application,” she says.

3. Popcorn

When you make fresh popped popcorn on the stove at home, it’s difficult to keep all the salt from pooling in the bottom of the bowl. A quick spritz of olive oil and a spray of salt and you’ve got the perfectly-seasoned snack.

4. Salad

Ballis says that “large flakes of kosher salt can weigh down salads.” Spraying salt can cover all the greens evenly and delicately. The spray would work on any kind of raw or cooked fruit or veggie, really.

5. Cocktails

We all know that a salted rim is essential to a delicious margarita. Ballis used the spray in other cocktails, like an old fashioned where the salt spray made the flavors “pop.”

6. How to Make Your Own Spray

To make your own salt spray, grab a small food grade pump spray bottle (a little goes a long way). Dissolve one and a half teaspoons of fine sea salt into a half cup of filtered hot water (for maximum purity). If you’re feeling fancy, you can also add a drop of citrus oil, just like the sprays in Italy have. Now it’s time to mist away!

Add Salt Spray to Your Cooking Arsenal for Delicate, Even Flavoring

2. Corn on the Cob

3. Popcorn

4. Salad

5. Cocktails

6. How to Make Your Own Spray

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