/ck/ - Food & Cooking

I thought I'd shatter when exposed to that kind of heat. Or is that putting it on a burner?
Also, I got the distinct impression that's gonna be tasty.

does it make everything salty as fuck?

>>4447421
*it'd

>>4447421
I've heard of them shattering when heating them up in an over to quickly for the first time. I've only used mine on a gas grill that I heat up on med/high.

>>4447426
No it doesn't really. I don't use any salt when seasoning the food and i lightly cover the block with olive oil before cooking on it. The flavor so far has been incredible. Cleaning it, is what sucks the most about this thing. But it is fun to use.

>even the expensive as fuck ones explode half the time because of water trapped inside them
>don't even try to buy a cheaper one because it will crack

not even worth the effort

>>4447435
How do you clean it?

Soap and water doesn't seem very practical. And definitely not dishwasher safe.

>>4447427
>>4447435

i came

try cooking burgers on it OP or steaks ?

report back

>>4447446

Scrape off any residue. You don't have to worry about sanitizing it because it's a solid block of salt, plus you heat it when you use it. Salt kills bacteria, as does the heat.

>>4447471
What about halophilic, thermophilic flesh-eating bacteria?

PHS was a meme once right guys
or did i dream that

>>4447471
Wouldn't any rancid fats render your food nastay?

>>4447472
It's a good thing they don't live in the cold refrigerators OP keeps food in.

but how many times can you use it

What benefit could this even have on your food aside from, making it taste salty without having to salt it? Which is a very boring perk.

>>4447446
right after cooking on it I use a wire brush on it to scrape off any residue. Then let it cool. I then use steel wool to smooth down the surface and wash off with water and pat dry. Then store it in a canvas bag that came with it.

The tile that I got was from woot and is 8x8x2 and is heavy. I've read review where one person had been using theirs for 5 years. Not sure how long mine will last without it breaking. But so far its been a joy to cook with.
>>4447465
I think I will try a steak next. Probably a filet mignon and some mushrooms.

>>4447549
Off the top of my head, having such a large quantity of a hydrophillic substance as your cooking surface is going to give you a superb crust.

Normally you salt a steak to draw out a tiny amount of moisture, which also brings out soluble proteins and stuffs. These are the things that form your gorgeous tasty crust as they accrete onto the surface of what you're cooking through the evaporation of the water that's being sucked out. The fact that they're exposed, outside of cell membranes, gives them an excellent chance to experience intense, direct heat and react under the malliard reaction.

By cooking on a salt block, you're going to be constantly drawing out moisture throughout the cooking process, which is going to bring out a steady parade of soluble proteins, which will continue to accrete as the water the brought them rapidly evaporates under the high heat.

What made me think of this was looking at ops shrimp pics. Those shrimp are obviously on pretty high heat, but there's a huge amount of moisture around each one. Way more than I get when I use stainless steel to sear my shrimp. Salt would do it.

Oh, and before someone screams about drying out your meat, the amount of moisture that salt pulls out is a trivial percentage of the total moisture within the meat itself. Alton Brown did a nicely controlled experiment on national TV and proved it.

>>4447397
I have. It isn't all that great really. It feels more like a gimmick than anything else. I've since then broken my block up and keep grinding some up in my mortar and pestle for my salt shaker. I bought a cooking-grade pink Himalayan salt block a few years ago (origin of all that PHS crap that went on at the time I'm afraid). It was massive.

I've not found the old pics of when I cooked stuff on it yet, but here's a pic of it all broken up in one of my stock pots.

The amount of salt in your food really depended on how moist the food was to begin with. Some things were horrifically salty and others barely salted. Like hamburgers were too salty, steak was okay, and most vegetables were lightly salted.

>>4447586
You forgot the part where there's a 50/50 chance it will explode in your oven after a few cooking sessions! how thrilling!

>>4447605
You are not supposed to ever put them in your oven.

>>4447418
>that albumin

Pink
Himalayan
Sakt

>>4447617
All that failure

>>4447472
Ha, not going to survive in your stomache

>>4447568
I can't believe steak wasn't the first thing you cooked on it. What's wrong with you? Although salmon is a good choice.

trow it away

>>4447474
it was never a "meme", it is well known that it is the best and most nutritionally sound salt to use for cooking and seasoning, because it contains trace minerals like maganese and calcium, and even gold. It isnt stripped of all its minerals like bleached white table salt, or iodized salt. This is common knowledge anon-san.

>>4447681
>trow
1
obsolete : believe
2
archaic : think

Hmm

>>4447703
>detect typo
>provide definition for typo
>commence masturbating to your "witticism"

>>4447682
And, AND most importantly it doesn't have fucking sand particles in it like that shit from Real Salt brand salt that is mined in Utah from some ancient sea bed. I kept getting grit and sand in my foods and breads and finally after a while I discovered it was the Real Salt I was using. So, I pour some in a clear glass of water and stirred it in until all the salt dissolved. At the bottom was a bunch of sand and grit.

I tossed out the Real Salt and switched to shitty bleached salt until my PHS block arrived. Now, I've had excellent salt for the past few years.

>>4447705
>defensive meme arrows

>>4447705
masturbating....

>>4447721
>>4447713
>>4447705
>>4447703
>>4447681
cant we be friends and just get along?

>email address
>czech it

>>4447710
>Real Salt brand salt that is mined in Utah from some ancient sea bed
As opposed to the current ocean bed in Utah?

>>4447730
meh

>>4447721
Now ejaculate and pat yourself on the back.

>>4447738
http://realsalt.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealSalt

Real Salt is a brand and a registered trademark of a rock salt mined near the town of Redmond, Utah. It is a remnant of the epeiric Sundance Sea and it contains some minerals, like iron oxide, that give it a characteristic color and flavor.[1]

Native Americans found a mineral-rich salt deposit from an old sea which is located what is not called Central Utah. In 1959, Milo and Lamar Bosshardt were having a difficult time keeping up their family farm until they discovered this salt deposit. The two began selling the salt to local farmers for their animals. The farmers were then using their salt to season their own food. After their costumers demanded the salt be used for everyday use, the company Real Salt was born.[1]

>>4447742
Patting...

>>4447597
Ah, finally, found the old pics. Here's some of the only ones I took while actually using my block to cook with.

>>4447766
That thing must've weighed a ton.

>>4447766

Mmmmmm look at that grey fucking meat, omnomnom :|

The only thing that has looked good so far in this thread is the shrimp, obviously because of their low cooking time and small surface area. Everything else just gets kind of half-boiled in its own liquid with very little maillard reaction happening on the actual food.

>>4447803
>maillard
I don't know. The salmon AND the shrimp turned out fantastic.

>>4447803
While it is not worth the cost to buy a salt block for cooking. The salt used for seasoning and the mad trolling and asspains it produced was well worth the $150ish total I paid.

>>4447774
Here's the one I bought and the place I bought it from,

http://www.atthemeadow.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_27&products_id=961

>Price: $132.00
>Extra large for greater flexibility (9" x 18" x 2")
>100% natural with 84 trace minerals
>27lbs
>Includes detailed instructions for cooking and serving food, as well as cleaning and maintaining your salt block.

The "cookware" ones are more expensive and have less fissures in them.