Flash in the Pan

I guess my comments on how incredibly dumb the idea of a "flavored salt" line called Fusion Salts sounded must have been like salt in the wound (sorry, couldn't resist) of either the CEO of SaltWorks (the manufacturer) or someone pretending to be him. So, it's time for one of my favorite games: deconstruct the PR spin.

I am so happy to know that you have the time to create your own spice blend ...

Actually, it's called using herbs and spices with food - otherwise known as cooking.

...and flavored salts.

Why the hell would I want flavored salt? I have my choice of regular table, kosher, and various sea salts, depending on the effect I want. But why flavored? It's like saying that if I want to use cilantro, I should use cilantro-flavored basil instead of using the cilantro itself. Or both if I want that.

Most professional chefs and home cooks don’t have the time to source the finest flavors and ingredients and develop them into a unique finishing salts and spice blends.

And that's why they buy ingredients, herbs, spices, and salts from companies that do have the time to get them. You might be surprised at the wide variety of ingredients that is readily available these days. That is called making life more convenient.

Fusion sea salts are not for every day use.

You mean I don't have to use them every day? Thank heavens for small favors.

They are gourmet.

Just like McDonalds new Arch Bistro restaurant concept is supposed to be "gourmet" casual?

These salts were created for people and professionals that want to add a little something extra to a dish.

And here I thought they were created to rationalize another way to sell salt. If you want something extra in a dish, like mushrooms, you could - who'd have thought it? - add mushrooms.

I am quite sure that it is easier for you to criticize our product than to create one yourself.

I promise, if I can come up with an idea that sounds as silly, I'll get right on turning it into a product.

I am sorry that we cannot count on you as a potential customer but we will just have to count on our 100k current customers to pull us through.

Do you share your customer list with McDonalds?

Maybe you could share with your readers how they could make these salts at home so that they don’t have to by ours.

I'll go one better - add sea salt, and then add either red wine, or mushrooms, or truffle oil, or espresso (instant espresso actually works well in baking), or any other flavor you'd like in the dish. That way you can skip the R&D and skip handing extra money - and skip the extra sodium you'd get by relying on flavored salts to provide the range of tastes you want in a dish. Oh, and a small point: I think you meant buy, not by. Unless you meant bye.

While you are at it why don’t you explain to them why it is one of the top ten food trends in the US for 2008.

Given that your press release said that the product was being introduced in a food show that hadn't yet happened, it's remarkable that you achieved this miracle. Maybe you just used the sales flavored salt.

Regards, Mark Zoske, CEO – SaltWorks, Inc.

Here's a hint - if you're in business, going on the warpath is usually bad public relations. And if you're trying to be sarcastic, do try to get above the "Oh, yeah?" tone. Hope the salt doesn't taste as flat.

Labels: cooking, deconstruction, product, spices

I haven't used this product, but the concept seemed so inane to me: "sea salts infused with natural flavors." SaltWorks is announcing a new line of products called Fusion Salts and the CEO says "the outcome has been a tremendous -- even magical -- accomplishment." Could that be magical realism, the literary tradition in which the usual is turned upside into distorted and unreal variations? Some of the varieties include red wine, black truffle, green tea, porcini mushroom, Szechwan pepper, sun-ripened tomato, balsamic vinegar, and espresso. Espresso flavored salt? What happens if you want more of the flavor? Add more salt? Wait, combine truffle and Szechwan pepper, tomato, and red wine, and suddenly you have a dish that absorbs all water from your body and leaves you looking like a hardened sponge.

What is this mania companies have for assuming that people cannot - or should not - add any ingredients other than theirs? What's next? Chicken-flavored salt? Hold the dish, just add salt. Hmm, tastes just like ...

Labels: cooking, product, spices

I don't often hurry to dash off a review right after a product comes in, and it generally happens for one of two reasons: a) it's a winner, or b) I want to warn people off from a potential mistake. Unfortunately, it's the latter in this case. Gourmet Gardens, an Australian-based company, has a line of herbs and spices that "are picked fresh, washed, chopped and sealed in unique squeezable clear tubes. " Better you should use the tube and discard the contents.

I received a number of variations and tried the basil - which was mixed with milk whey, dextrose, and a bunch of other stuff. I know basil. I've tasted basil. Gourmet Gardens: this didn't taste like plain basil. There was an unpleasant sweet aftertaste as well as other things that I can't quite dexcribe and don't know that I'd like to. But, hey, diligence is why I make the non-existent bucks for this blog, so I tried the lemon grass. Again - opened the tube, squeezed some out onto my finger, put it into my mouth, made a face, and chucked the tube into the trash can.

Any cook would be better off wtih dry herbs than this, and fresh aren't that hard to come by or prepare. Steer clear of this product. As the PR contact wrote me, "There is no equivalent product on the market – cooked or dried – that can compete with Gourmet Garden. " Thank heavens for small favors.

Labels: herbs, opinion, product, review, spices

A PR person emailed me about tsp spices, a client of her firm. The marketing claim is that the firm sells organic spices in 1 tsp. packets. When you need a spice, you open one of the packets, which is fine if you're using exactly 1 teaspoon. But what if you need a quarter or half teaspoon? You're left with an open packet, which seems to defeat the purpose of sealing individual teaspoon amounts in the first place. I told them not to send anything - well, actually, I asked why someone would buy 1 tsp. amounts of spices. The answer? Convenience - it's good for people traveling, camping, etc.

You know, I still think a measuring spoon and some small containers go a whole long way. And getting spices - from Pensey's, as one source - would seem cheaper. The tsp spices site sells organic basil, for example, for $9 for 12 one-teaspoon packets, or 75 cents a teaspoon. According to at least one conversion chart I found on the web, one ounce of dried basil equals about 35.6 teaspoons. A one ounce bag of California basil (not organic) at Pensey's is $2.59, or just over 7 cents a teaspoon - about a tenth the price. Go to Frontier Coop (just as a comparison - I've never used them so cannot comment pro or con) and a 2.4 ounce bottle is $7.09. That's just over 8 cents a teaspoon. Going traveling? Get some small Nalgene containers and bring some spices along. Although an interesting gimmick, I think serious cooks could better spend their time and money elsewhere.

Labels: Pensey's, spices, tspspices.com

If you've ever made a packaged corned beef and have the experience of the real deli variety, you may have noticed that the home version is decidedly blander. Not only is there the difference in curing, but in the cooking. The packages say to drop the meat into water and simmer for hours. But adding some pickling spice to the water can enormously improve the flavor without your taking on brining the meat yourself. Last night I used some corned beef spice that my wife had picked up from Pensy's - somewhere around 2 teaspoons to a tablespoon. (That's significantly less than the 3 to 5 tablespoons per 5 pounds of meat that they suggest for actually marinating.) I think it's adding that little extra edge that the commercial producers leave out because a) many people like blander food, and b) it's cheaper for them.

Labels: corned beef, marinating, Penzey's, pickling, spice, spices

What a marvelous book Ian Hemphill has created. If you have any interest in spices - which is to say, if you have any interest in cooking, this is a must. There are some recipes by his wife, Kate Hemphill, but this is primarily a practical reference from a second-generation spice merchant and obvious expert. The volume starts with interesting history that applies a pragmatic eye. For example, he dismisses the notion that people used spices in the dark ages to mask tainted foods because anyone who could have afforded the then-astronomical prices of the spices would likely have had money for something fresh. Instead, he attributes the growth of spices to improve bland food and, interestingly, to help moderate the strong gamy taste of many meats and poultry at the time, which might explain the concept of covering over a taste or aroma.

Of course there are sections on growing and using spices, and I found interesting the section on the spices and herbs that specific cuisines use. An approach I hadn't seen before is using relational weights - for example, in Indonesian cooking if you used cloves, turmeric, and coriander seed, they would likely be in a ration of 1 to 5 to 8. My first impression was that there were supposed to be proportions of spice blends, but that didn't make sense when you had, say, 15 different ingredients and you know that the cuisine in question doesn't use all of them every time. And there are recipes for specific spice blends at the end of the book. No, this chapter was to give you a feel for how the given cuisine uses and combines spices - very good to know.

What really grabbed me, though, were the entries for individual spices and herbs. Each includes the following: origin and history, processing, buying and storage, use, other names for the item, names in other languages, suggested quantities for a given type of dish, and what other spices and herbs that work well with it.

You do need to keep in mind that the book is from Australia, because some terminology might throw you. For example, there was a recipe for a savory biscuit. I was thinking the flaky type you bake, and then I suddenly remembered that in Australia and the UK, biscuit can mean a cookie or cracker. You will also find a few spices that aren't readily found in this part of the world. That said, at $24.95, this is a bargain.

Labels: book, cookbook, Hemphill, herbs, reference, review, spices

We've been fans of Penzey's Spices for a long time. But apparently my wife realized that they also had stores, one of which is in the food marketplace in Grand Central Station. It's not huge, real estate there being expensive, but they still have a solid selection and samples to smell. We bought a number of things, including a double-strength Madagascar vanilla with an aroma that should do wonders for baking. (And at $14 for 4 ounces, it had better...)

Labels: food, Grand Central Station, Madagascar, New York, Penzey's, spices, vanilla