Product Description
PURPOSE
WHAT IS IT?
“Why salt, with vanilla?!” you ask, incredulously.
Pretty much any spice that you know works in the sweet world with sugar, works with salt. They’re both flavor enhancers.
Think of it like the amp attached to a guitar. However the guitar sounds, acoustic, or electric, it sounds clearer, and stronger with an amplifier.
Salt is an essential element of life. It helps cells move water in an out of them. It accelerates flavor, on your tongue, because it opens up access to your taste buds to the essential oils, and other flavorants in foods, that make them taste good.
Vanilla is an aromatic. When mixed with an alcohol, the alcohol extracts the essential oils into the liquid. Which is why we call that common preparation “Vanilla Extract.” Added to sugar, another flavor accelerant, the sugar carries the vanilla to your tongue in a sweet-happy.
Vanilla salt, then, is a similar thing, but with a salty pop. The aroma of the essential oils is more free to hit your nose.
It’s used for DELICATE applications, as a light topping, mostly, to foods, or added to bar salt to rim a cocktail glass, or put a unique finish to the plating of a squash soup.
HOW IS IT MADE?
This is one of the most labor-intensive seasonings, right after the pistil picking of saffron: Hand-harvested sea-salts from France, and hand pollenated, and picked vanilla beans.
Sea salt is hand-harvested in long, flat beds by slowly raking up the crystallized, dry bits. Vanilla beans are dried down to zero percent humidity, then ground into fine powder that is mixed with salt. Hand-harvested French sea salt, blends with crushed Tahitian vanilla beans.
The mixture rests for weeks in a low oxygen, low-moisture environment to allow the vanilla essential oils to infuse fully into the salt. The mixture of finely ground vanilla rests for weeks in a low oxygen, low-moisture environment to allow the vanilla essential oils to infuse fully into the salt.
Can you do this yourself, with some of Spice Jungle’s outstanding ground Tahitian vanilla bean, and a medium grain salt? Sure. Air-tight container, filled nearly to the top, Toss in a couple of silica desiccant packets to remove oxygen and moisture from the remaining air, put in a dark cool dry place, like the back kitchen cabinet, for about 8-10 weeks, and you’re good to go.
If you haven’t risen to the level of Master of the Spice Dark Arts yet, though, or don’t have the time, or interest, to become a blender of your own concoctions, just purchase this finely-crafted blend!
EXPERIENCE
Fleur de Sel (Vanilla Salt) delivers a delicate balance of bright sea salt and warm vanilla aroma. The light, flaky crystals dissolve quickly, releasing a clean salinity followed by soft notes of vanilla, cream, and subtle floral sweetness. Used as a finishing salt, it enhances desserts, caramel, chocolate, fruit, and delicate seafood.
CULINARY GEOGRAPHY
TRADITIONAL USES
- A sprinkle on very dark chocolate (90%), brings back a little vanilla love to the bitter bar, without sugar spoiling it;
- Over fruit, like papaya, or pineapple, brings a vanilla flair to them;
- Over cupcake icing, to offset the sweet, and speed delivery of the vanilla flavor;
- Add to bar salt, sometimes with other aromatics, like star anise, to rim a martini, or cocktail with sweet white vermouth;
IMPROVISATIONAL ‘RIFFS’
- Ghee-seared scallops, finished with a light light sprinkle of onion powder, then a Fleur-de-Sel sprinkle on top for pure vanilla aroma love;
- After the drizzle of roasted pumpkin oil on my sage-curried pumpkin soup, it adds the last bit of wow when sprinkled on top of the finished plating of the bowls;
- The tie-in between sweet, and the savory acidic of a candied tomato, as part of a dessert (YES! Dessert tomatoes);
- A wonderful sprinkle on flan, or crème brûlée;
- With a sprinkle of cinnamon, and the thinnest possible drizzle of chestnut honey, on oatmeal.
THE BACKSTORY
A creation of the Bretons of France, combining the plentiful delicate sea salt, harvested from the shallow pools around the coast of Brittany, the climate and the slight difference in the salt content of the waters, blended with exotic vanilla, from far-flung ends of the French empire, Fleur de Sel became a professional chef’s coveted concoction to give their foods A+ game status. The “ooh” in ooh-la-la! (Oh that’s it!).
AKA
Afrikaans – fleur de sel vanieljesout
Albanian – fleur de sel kripë me vanilje
Amharic – ፍሉር ደ ሴል ቫኒላ ጨው
Arabic – فلور دو سيل ملح بالفانيليا
Armenian – fleur de sel վանիլային աղ
Azerbaijani – fleur de sel vanil duzu
Basque – fleur de sel banilla gatza
Belarusian – fleur de sel ванільная соль
Bengali – ফ্লুর দে সেল ভ্যানিলা লবণ
Bosnian – fleur de sel vanilija so
Bulgarian – фльор де сел ванилова сол
Catalan – fleur de sel sal de vainilla
Chinese (Simplified) – 香草盐之花
Chinese (Traditional) – 香草鹽之花
Croatian – fleur de sel vanilija sol
Czech – fleur de sel vanilková sůl
Danish – fleur de sel vaniljesalt
Dutch – fleur de sel vanillezout
English – fleur de sel vanilla salt
Estonian – fleur de sel vanillisool
Finnish – fleur de sel vaniljasuola
French – fleur de sel à la vanille
Galician – fleur de sel sal de vainilla
Georgian – fleur de sel ვანილის მარილი
German – Fleur de Sel Vanillesalz
Greek – fleur de sel αλάτι βανίλιας
Hebrew – פלור דה סל מלח וניל
Hindi – फ्लेर द सेल वनीला नमक
Hungarian – fleur de sel vanílias só
Icelandic – fleur de sel vanillusalt
Indonesian – fleur de sel garam vanila
Irish – fleur de sel salann fanaile
Italian – fleur de sel sale alla vaniglia
Japanese – フルール・ド・セル バニラ塩
Kazakh – fleur de sel ваниль тұзы
Khmer – fleur de sel អំបិលវានីឡា
Korean – 플뢰르 드 셀 바닐라 소금
Lao – fleur de sel ເກືອວານິລາ
Latvian – fleur de sel vaniļas sāls
Lithuanian – fleur de sel vanilės druska
Macedonian – fleur de sel ванила сол
Malay – fleur de sel garam vanila
Maltese – fleur de sel melħ tal-vanilla
Mongolian – fleur de sel ванилийн давс
Nepali – फ्लेर दे सेल भ्यानिला नुन
Norwegian – fleur de sel vaniljesalt
Pashto – fleur de sel د ونیلا مالګه
Persian – فلور دو سل نمک وانیل
Polish – fleur de sel sól waniliowa
Portuguese – fleur de sel sal de baunilha
Romanian – fleur de sel sare de vanilie
Russian – флер де сель ванильная соль
Serbian – fleur de sel ванила со
Sinhala – fleur de sel වැනිලා ලුණු
Slovak – fleur de sel vanilková soľ
Slovenian – fleur de sel vaniljeva sol
Spanish – fleur de sel sal de vainilla
Swahili – fleur de sel chumvi ya vanila
Swedish – fleur de sel vaniljsalt
Tagalog – fleur de sel asin ng banilya
Tamil – fleur de sel வெண்ணிலா உப்பு
Telugu – fleur de sel వెనిల్లా ఉప్పు
Thai – ฟลอร์ เดอ เซล เกลือวานิลลา
Turkish – fleur de sel vanilya tuzu
Ukrainian – флер де сель ванільна сіль
Urdu – فلور ڈی سیل ونیلا نمک
Uzbek – fleur de sel vanil tuzi
Vietnamese – fleur de sel muối vani
Welsh – fleur de sel halen fanila
Yiddish – פלער דע סעל וואַניל זאַלץ
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