Why cook food in coarse salt?
Cooking on a bed of coarse salt is very simple, and there's no shortage of recipes. Simply spread a fairly thick layer of "Le Guérandais" coarse Guérande salt on the bottom of a frying pan, an ovenproof dish, or a plancha, and place the food to be cooked on the salt, skin side in contact with the salt, in order to cook on one side.
This cooking method is particularly suitable for fish and meat with a fairly thick skin, such as duck breast, salmon, cod...
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The health benefits of Guérande salt
The salt creates a protective layer between the food and the dish, and thus prevents the formation of tars, harmful substances created by the action of heat on meat fats during bare cooking.
This is one of the first major "health" benefits of cooking on a bed of salt from the Guérande salt marshes.
Under the action of heat, whatever the cooking method, animal fats tend to melt. In the case of "classic" cooking, this fat remains in contact with the meat, which is then candied in its own fat.
Guerande coarse grey salt, under the effect of the heat of cooking, is very hydrophilic, avid for all fats. When cooking on a bed of coarse salt, the fat therefore seeps into the coarse salt, allowing it to be removed without remaining in contact with the meat, and therefore, without candying it.
As Michel Roth, MOF and Bocuse d'Or, says of his recipe for Le Guérandais Cod cooked on a bed of Coarse Guérande Salt : "The fish thus feeds on the salt during cooking, giving it an iodized, marine taste."
