I want to create a hot salt, but the ingredients aren't bonding!!

September 9, 2015 6:33 AM

You are not my chef or personal cook. LOL However.... I play around in the kitchen and am looking to create a hot salt. I have the coarse himalayan sea salt and secured some carolina reaper pepper flakes. I got the measurements down. I got my mixing bowl. I'm good to go. the salt and pepper don't wanna stay together!

Upon mixing the ingredients and transferring them to the jars with grinder caps, over the course of few days to a week or so, the pepper flakes seem to work their way to the bottom of the jar, essentially creating a oil and vinegar situation, rather than the salt/pepper blend I am seeking.......looking for the simplest solution to get these two ingredients to bond....Im already invested in the dry pepper flakes and salt and not looking to go back and find some sort of mash solution. I'd like to avoid having to bake a mixture to ensure the bonding....One friend suggested layering the mixture with a light coating of olive oil spray......was curious if anyone had any other idea's or ingredients to try? talk to me mefites!

posted by TwilightKid to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

Because the flakes are thinner than the grains of salt, they will naturally work their way to the bottom over time. See Granular Convection. The only thing that will slow this down is using finer-grained (but not too fine-grained) salt. I don't think the olive oil concept would work.
posted by Zarkonnen at 6:38 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

You could add a bit of water, mix things around, and then let it dry in the sun on a sheet pan. That should bond the pepper flakes to the coarse salt crystals.
posted by rockindata at 6:38 AM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]

Actually, yes, rockindata's idea would probably work. Embed flakes inside the salt.
posted by Zarkonnen at 6:39 AM on September 9, 2015

Yes. Like making rock candy except with salt and with pepper in it. If by the salt won't readily dissolve, heat the water on the stove and put a ton of salt in it so that it doesn't take forever to evaporate the water out.
posted by aydeejones at 6:45 AM on September 9, 2015

I've never made flavored salts before, but here's the approach I would look into...

You need the pepper to be embedded in the salt crystals, not just next to them.

So: grind the pepper as fine as you can get it (like, super fine). Do the same for the salt (to make it dissolve more easily). Then, add just enough hot water to dissolve the salt well.

Spread this mixture on a large pan, and leave it to evaporate. (Maybe point a fan at it to speed up the process.) The ultra-salinity and the capsaicin should be sufficient to prevent any bacterial growth (note: I am not a food safety expert).

You should end up with a pan full of (flavored) salt crystals. They won't be the same coarseness you started with—but since you're putting them into a grinder anyway, that doesn't matter.

It may be that the presence of even finely ground pepper is sufficient to prevent good crystal formation. If that's the case, then you'll need some way to extract the flavor compounds (capsaicin and friends) from the pepper, and discard the chaff (cellulose, etc.)—without using oil, which would just produce a gloopy sludge when mixed with the salt. I believe that pure grain alcohol would be the choice here—submerge the peppers in alcohol; wait a while; remove the solids; evaporate the alcohol.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 6:46 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

I think you want to introduce some minor amount of liquid to your pepper flakes, incorporate that into the salt/chili mixture and then let it dry.

i made sriracha salts as a wedding favor by combining large amounts of kosher salt with sriracha, mixing well and letting the whole thing dry out laid flat on baking sheets for a day or so.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 7:11 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Do you have a mortar and pestle? Test this out:

Grind some pepper flakes as fine as they will go. Add some salt and grind all the way down to a fine powder. You should now have dangerously hot salt powder mixed with small pepper flakes. Put some coarse salt in a bowl, spritz gently with a fine spray of water and mix the salt around. Immediately mix in the peppery salt powder. It should all stick now. If not spritz a little more and keep mixing. Let dry out on a tray.
posted by zennie at 7:41 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

A while back I made some black pepper tincture for cocktails. It's as simple as putting whole black peppercorns in high-proof spirits for a day or so until the flavor comes through loud and clear. I used rye whiskey, you would probably want to use a spirit with a neutral flavor like a high-alcohol vodka or Everclear. Originally this tincture was meant to be added to cocktails by the drop, but if you put it in a mister bottle it's a surreal way to give black pepper flavor to food without actually grinding pepper on it.

I have made a similar tincture by soaking whole dried arbole chiles in spirits. Trust me, their heat comes through just fine.

Anyway, salt does not dissolve well in alcohol. So, if you soak your chiles or peppers or flakes or whatever in high-proof neutral-flavored spirits and then mist your salt with the results the alcohol should evaporate off leaving only the heat behind, coating the salt (and preserving the appearance of the course Himalayan salt).

At least that's how I'd go about it.
posted by komara at 7:46 AM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

All of these hint at the root problem: you're focussed on bonding the pepper to the salt, when what you actually want is the flavor of the pepper in the salt.

Forget about the flakes attaching, and imbed the flavor. The fastest way is to dissolve the capsaicin (and other alcohol-soluble flavors) in alcohol, add it to the salt, dry it, and break up and sift (for aesthetics). Otherwise, merely mixing the two will eventually move the flavor, but since capsaicin isn't highly water-soluble this method is far slower and less efficient (but chilis are cheap, so this isn't a big deal).
posted by IAmBroom at 7:55 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]