Salt that’s too good to put on your chips
IN THE shadow of medieval Castro Marim castle, just a few miles inland from Portugal’s southern coastline, is a simple, whitewashed barn surrounded by what appears to be sun-baked fields.
It is so ordinary that you might be forgiven for missing it while on the road towards the more obvious splendours of the Algarve. Yet these fields yield something that has been cultivated here for centuries and now features in the kitchens of Michelinstarred restaurants around the world – fleur de sel. Or, in other words, salt.
We stop here on our road trip through eastern Algarve, and although it may seem strange to join a tour navigating hot, water-logged salt pans, this is not the stuff you sprinkle on fish and chips. This is some of the most sought-after salt in the world. The Salmarim farm of just seven hectares
produces 100 tons of salt a year, but only ten per cent is deemed worthy to be called fleur de sel.
It is created as the seawater that comes in with the tides evaporates, and the delicacy forms – with the help of the region’s unique environmental conditions – as a thin crust of distinctive pyramid-shaped crystals that has to be harvested by hand.
Jorge Raiado, who took over his father-in-law’s land 13 years ago, says: ‘The Romans saw the potential the Algarve has to produce salt for drying fish and meat to feed their army.
‘But in the 1960s and 70s, chefs began looking for something less industrial, something with more flavour and quality.’
What makes fleur de sel special is its purity – it has none of the traces of sediment from the sea that normal salt contains. But, as always, the proof is in the tasting. Jorge sprinkles table salt, sea salt and fleur de sel on to slices of the same tomato to demonstrate the impact it has. I was unsure how different it could really be, but the flavour of the tomato sings with fleur de sel.
We also sample it on some fresh vegetables and prawns cooked on Jorge’s portable gas stove.
Quality comes at a cost – £103 a kilo – but Jorge compares his fleur de sel with wine. ‘Why do people buy a €300 bottle and not a cheaper one?’ he asks. ‘Because they are not the same.’