Eating Greek
Greece’s White Gold: Sea Salt
|
|
|
|
|
By Georgia Kofinas Photography: Vassilis Stenos / Food styling: Tina Webb “Those who do not know the sea… never eat their food mixed with salt.” Homer One of my favorite summer pastimes is collecting crystal flakes of sea salt from the shallow pools along Greece’s rocky shores. It gives me a sense of continuity, knowing that ancient Greeks harvested salt much the same way, by hand from thousands of such small, shallow saltpans along every craggy coast. Sea salt is the traditional—indeed, the only—salt in Greece. In fact the origin of the Greek words for salt, alas, and sea thalassa have the same root, referring to the briny liquid from the sea. Salt was a de rigueur seasoning among the ancients, and ancient as well as Hellenistic literature is filled with mention of it. The ancient Greeks used salt to preserve fish, meat, vegetables, olives, and cheese, among other things; to not use it was a sign of barbarism for ancient gourmands. Salt has always been a revered commodity but not a rare one in sea-surrounded Greece. Ancient Athenians got most of their salt from the saltpans around Rafina, in Attica, as well as from Megara and Sounio, the latter renowned for its high quality, refined texture, and white color. So esteemed was the salt around the environs of Athens, that Athenians had a lively trade in it with Thrace, spending their salt money on Thracian slaves, who were called halonitoi (bought with salt). Demand for salt in the ancient world increased as the population around the Mediterranean grew; despite the relatively easy supply of sea salt, demand necessitated more efficient harvesting. It took until the 10th century for salt collecting to be systematized, thanks to the Arabs, who introduced the method of successive evaporation ponds, which is still in use today. Salt has been a major source of revenue for Greece basically since the inception of the Greek state. The production of salt has been a state monopoly since 1829. Today, Greece produces from 180,000-200,000 tons of sea salt annually depending on climatic conditions, the fluctuation of the sea level and the salinity of the various saltpans (also called salinas). Not all of that ends up in the salt shaker. About 30,000-40,000 tons end up on the roads in winter, sprinkled by trucks to melt the snow; the rest ends up on the supermarket shelf, either used industrially in the food processing industry or sold simply as common kitchen salt in various sizes (coarse, semi-coarse, fine, etc.)  Olives are just one of countless Greek ingredients that rely on sea salt for flavor Making Salt Today, the salt industry in Greece operates at three different levels, categorized according to the degree of human intervention, explains Dr.Theodora Petanidou, a professor of geography at the University of the Aegean, who has done extensive research on salt-making techniques. Most of the saltworks are fully mechanized industrial plants that are profitable thanks to the high productivity and chemical purity of the salt produced. There is only one semi-mechanized plant left, on Lesvos, where the first stage of the harvest is done manually. Then there are the primitive, small-scale salinas, carved into coastal rocks with a simple or complex series of basins for the evaporation of seawater. Seven fully mechanized industrial Greek saltworks operate around the country under the aegis of Hellenic Saltworks S.A., in which the Greek state has a 55% share, local governments another 25%, and the privately held Kalamarakis-Kalas the remainder. The basic concept for making salt is easy: seawater is collected in a series of shallow ponds, and, over the course of the sunny, windy Greek summer, evaporates. When the liquid that is left has the desirable level of sodium chloride, the concentrated seawater is moved to special basins called crystallizers. Here, the seawater evaporates even further to crystallized salt. This step-by-step controlled water evaporation allows for the elimination of unwanted salts such as calcium and magnesium while retaining the beneficial elements. Production manager of Hellenic Saltworks, Christos Milas, says that among the eighty plus elements contained in sea salt, iodine is the least stable. While present in the salinas, iodine is lost in the process of crystallization which is why commercial salt companies add iodine and stabilizers to refined salt. The drawback is that additives such as anti-caking agents and the refinement process rob sea salt of many of its beneficial qualities. The process, however, is by and large environmentally friendly. Not only do the Greek saltworks provide a basic natural food element, but they also play a major role in conserving nature. According to Christos Milas all seven Hellenic Saltworks sites are IMAS certified, which is the environmental equivalent of ISO 2000. Salt processing spawns a whole ecosystem of microorganisms that are fodder for more than 100 species of birds, among them pink flamingoes. Many Greek salt marshes are a bird-lovers paradise, in fact, where almost 200 species migrate and congregate throughout the year.  In the last few years, artisanal salt has become popular in Greece Artisan Salt In the last few years, artisanal salt, produced on a small scale the traditional way, by manually transferring seawater into a series of shallow pools until it evaporates and crystallizes, has become popular in Greece. This is intensive manual labor. Most artisan salt producers don’t have the manpower to harvest a large amount of salt once a year, so they harvest smaller quantities throughout the year. Most artisanal salt is produced in Kythera, Lesvos and the Mani. In Kythera, about 20 artisanal salt producers operate, typically off leased public land, either selling their salt in bulk to bigger—but not big-- companies or packaging and marketing it themselves. One such producer is Tasos Venardos of Kalamitsi Products, which harvests about 8 to 10 tons of delicious island salt, about half of which ends up on the shelves of high-end food markets. The rest is exported to Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, and America. Some of the oldest small-scale salt producers are in the Mani. One of the best- known salt families is an old local clan named Chotassa. The matriarch, Stavroula Patouhea, explains that it takes 20 to 25 days for a 100 kilos of seawater to evaporate and crystallize into about 70 kilos of salt, depending, of course, on the weather. They transport the brine from pool to pool by donkey, mule, or farm vehicles and, once the salt has dried sufficiently, they harvest it by hand. Local cheese-makers buy up most of the harvest and the rest is sold in bulk. One of the most innovative and enterprising Mani salt producers is a young woman named Eleni Chaidou, whose company, Mani-Rocks, markets flavored salts and salt products. She obtains her 1- to 2- ton annual supply of sea salt from local producers and infuses it with herbs and spices such as sage, basil, saffron, and ginger. She has also started a line of salt-based cosmetics products. Food companies with a wide range of products are also focusing on salt, among them Mylelia, whose owner Christina Panteleimoniti has developed a line of seasoned salts, culled from the salt works of Kalloni, in Lesvos, her husband’s native island. She infused her salts with the likes of mastic, seaweed, and lemon and orange zest. Even Hellenic Saltworks has been experimenting with high-end salt products, such as fleur de sel, called afrina in Greek. This is an unrefined natural sea salt harvested from the corners and edges of the small shallow salt pans, which gives it a finer, frothier texture and taste than the other crystallized salt. A few companies are already marketing afrina, including Trikalinos, whose black, cylindrical flat can gives the salt a decidedly gourmet air, and Filion, a Greek-German company that packages the salt in jars. Modern chefs…worth their salt Although unrefined sea salt has been used in cooking for ages, there is a growing trend among creative chefs to use the crystallized flakes in the presentations of dishes, both savory and sweet. Konstantina Faklari, chef at Santorini’s famed Selene restaurant owned by Giorgos Hatziyiannakis, makes a delightful chocolate mousse topped with strawberries and sprinkled with sea salt from Kythera. Another suggestion calls for simply serving sea salt in tiny bowls next to strips of fresh vegetables much as you would a dip. And of course the light airy texture and flavor allow for using sea salt as a garnish for grilled vegetables, grilled fish, and salads, just to mention a few. Chef Jean Charles Metayer of award winning Calypso restaurant of the Elounda Peninsula Hotel in Crete makes a delectable sea urchin crème brûlée served with a spinach sauce topped with sea salt foam. He also makes a salt-crusted baked fish, infusing the salt crust with a bit of thyme and a pinch of tobacco, which adds a distinct, smoky flavor to the dish. |
|
back