Tomatoes with lavender salt, pan-fried steak with smoked paprika salt, electric green matcha salt on poached eggs, tangerine salt sprinkled over a roast chicken. If any of that sounds delicious and intriguing, then we suggest you watch Eric Gower's fun and informative video on how to make and use flavored salts. While you're at it, check out his beautiful open pantry/spice shelf in the background.
As an 'out-of-sight-out-of-mind' kind of person, I really appreciate Eric's open pantry. I imagine it would be very handy to just scan the shelves when I'm short on inspiration, or that I will never again lose an ingredient to the back of a cupboard, where it had lingered for years, turning to tasteless dust. And since he often cooks all three meals of his family's meals at home, Eric's pantry gets used on a daily basis, which keeps the dust down and the ingredients fresh.
Eric Gower's San Francisco rental kitchen was featured in The Kitchn a few years ago. Since then, he's moved into his own home and has started to post fun, informal videos from his new kitchen on how to sharpen knives, take care of cast iron and use fresh herbs in cooking. He's a new dad, too, so we'll maybe wait a little before asking him for a new kitchen tour!
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It is beautiful, but I'd probably keep spices I didn't use a lot of in opaque containers to preserve the flavor for longer -- light degrades them. But I guess sitting unused in the back of a cabinet for years is probably worse! And if only my pantry were so organized...
I agree with Octavia82 - keep things out of the light!
We lit up the kitchen for the shoot, it's usually much darker!
Keeping spices in dark places is something we always hear is a good idea, but I do think the utility of actually seeing them is such a boon to daily cooking that it trumps the keep-them-in-the-dark argument. As Dana points out, a simple scan really does spur creativity; you make combinations that would never occur to you otherwise.
I think the key is to keep smaller quantities of everything but the most heavily used spices. It makes for more trips to the Indian grocer (where spices are not only the cheapest, they're the freshest, since most people shopping there use pretty vast quantities of spices in everyday cooking, and therefore the turnover is much higher; never buy spices at a big supermarket, they're almost guaranteed to be dead, AND expensive), but that's a feature, not a bug, in my mind!
I thought the video was enjoyable and inspirational. It makes me want to go straight to my cupboards and dig around for some spices to mix up. Thanks so much for sharing.
I liked the video, I always want to buy flavored salt but I never have the money. I like the spice cabinet too. I never seem to have enough bottles, though. I always end up buying spices at bulk places b/c it keeps cost down, so I have a cabinet full of little baggies. This is is always a headache when I need to find something quick.
KeepTheCheeze, you should considering losing the baggies: they invite moths/insects, they tend to split/spill, you can't really tell what's in them, and they're fugly to boot. Most of the jars in the photo came from Ikea, and they cost just a buck or two. You don't have to get dozens of them at once, start with just a few of your most-used spices. You'll be glad you did! I'm betting you'll cook more, too, which always helps keep food costs way down, so the small investment in glass will pay for itself in no time!
Other valuable investment: a labeler! I use mine constantly.
Wow, what an inspirational video. I checked out the breakway cook blog, and I am just thrilled to have another food blog to follow. It looks right up my ally. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks for posting this, my first time seeing his videos.
The tea ceremony spoon is a fantastic idea for dishing spices! I wouldn't have considered that (and I've been lucky enough to see a tea ceremony) so recognized it right away.
Thanks for the inspiration Eric!
This was a great video!
I'm part of the camp that uses clear, glass jars. I like to see my spices!
Would regular sea salt be acceptable or is the moisture content in the sel gris important?
Oh and I'm in the glass jar camp, too: I use dry erase markers to label them and keep them in a room that's usually kept pretty dark.
Ran out of gray salt recently and this was a great reason to pick up some more. saltworks.us has some very good prices and free shipping. Five pound bag on the way, some for me and a birthday present or two. They even sell flavored salts. I'll be using some of theirs for inspiration... (they even have matcha salt).
Incidentalice, I do think sel gris is best for flavored salts, because of its high moisture content, which bonds well with the flavoring ingredient. It still works with other types of sea salt, but the binding action is different: you get disparate pieces of salt/ingredient, with no homogenation. Using sel gris creates a unified salt that's bound together by moisture.
I love Eric's enthusiasm! I never thought to make my own salt blends. I usually consume too much anyway. I buy my spices online and only if I am desparate do I buy jars at the market. Spices, baking powder and baking soda need to be replaced often once they have been opened but not as often when I buy from a good online spice company. I like the use of the matcha spoon and a natsume (small matcha contatiner) to store or present salt might be a good idea. If you use a natsume, it should be the plastic type and there are some very nice ones. The expensive ones made of wood and lacquer may be ruined by the salt. There are also square wooden sake cups that make a beautiful presentation and they are not expensive. Some come in just plain wood that has no finish and some that are plastic or lacquered. Or, sakazuki style that is the shallow round sake cup. There are so many little dishes used in Japanese cuisine that would be great for these salts. Anyway, thanks for a video with so much inspiration!