What Is Celtic Sea Salt? A Guide to Sel de Guérande
Celtic sea salt is a traditionally harvested grey sea salt. The coarse salt sold by Crystal Health & Beauty is Sel de Guérande, from the coastal salt marshes of Guérande on the Atlantic coast of France.
What Celtic sea salt is
It is unrefined sea salt. Seawater is left to evaporate in the sun and wind, then the salt is collected by hand. Nothing is added: no anti-caking agents, preservatives or bleaching agents.
Where Guérande salt comes from
Guérande sits on the Atlantic coast of France. The salt marshes there have been used for traditional salt harvesting for generations. Sel de Guérande is the name used for salt from those marshes. Sel gris refers to the grey colour.
Why Celtic salt is grey
The grey colour comes from contact with the clay-lined ponds where the salt forms. A little natural moisture is normal. Crystals may clump. That does not mean the salt has spoiled.
Coarse and fine Celtic salt
The Crystal Health & Beauty pack is coarse Celtic sea salt in a 500g resealable bag. Coarse crystals can be used whole, crushed, or ground in a mill made for moist salt. A fine salt is a different product: it is dried and ground to a small grain. Do not treat a fine 1kg specification as the specification for this coarse 500g bag.
Celtic salt and table salt
Table salt is typically refined to produce uniform crystals. It is usually white, dry and free-flowing, and it may contain anti-caking agents. Celtic grey sea salt is unrefined, naturally grey, slightly moist, and sold here with nothing added.
How it is harvested
Seawater moves through the marshes and evaporates naturally. Harvesters collect the coarse salt by hand. It is not washed or refined before it is packed.
How to use coarse Celtic salt
Use it to season food to taste: soups, stocks, pasta, rice, roasting, brining and finishing. It is still salt, mostly sodium chloride, so use it as you would any salt in a balanced diet.
How to store it
Keep the bag sealed in a cool, dry place. Moisture and slight clumping are normal for this kind of salt.
Iodine
Unrefined sea salt can contain trace elements. It is not the same thing as iodised table salt unless the iodine content of that specific salt has been verified.
How to choose it
Look for the origin, the texture and the pack size. This product is organic coarse Sel de Guérande, 500g, from Guérande, France, packed by Crystal Health & Beauty in the UK.
