Collection: Paleo River Salt, Dumbelyung, WA
Discover WA's amazing natural salt products.
100% Sourced and Made in Australia
Most Desert Salt comes from underground ancient seas pumped into salt pans which is used for gourmet salt, although some desert salt is collected from inland salt lakes using industrial machines. Obviously the desert salt made from underground ancient seas is much more clean and pure than the salt from surface salt lakes.
Most desert underground ancient seas have a salinity of 13% or more which means if you dug a pool and you pumped the underground brine into this pool you could float. The minerals in the brine precipitate out of the brine at different levels. For example gypsum is the first minerals to fall precipitate and falls to the bottom. Then you get the salt flakes which float and make beautiful light texture flakes that have a rich taste but with a mild salty taste. After that the salt starts forming course cube salt crystals called halite that form on top of the gypsum. Magnesium is one of the last minerals to precipitate.
In desert salt these processes happens in a matter of days instead of months for sea salt due to the richness in minerals and the harsh sun. With desert salt the processes overlap thus they create a rich balanced salt but without the astringent bitterness of the cheap salt. The bitterness usually happens when all the brine is allowed to evaporate and then having some concentrated leftover minerals such as magnesium which gives the salt the irritant taste.
We all know that magnesium is a mineral that’s needed by the body. Many desert brines have around 4% magnesium. Sea salt has around 1.2% magnesium. The same with Calcium where desert brines have 1% twice that of sea water. By having the right mix in the salt you get the perfect mild taste. Calcium creates a flat earthy taste whereas magnesium has a metallic astringent taste. With the right amounts you have a delicious balanced salt.
It is also important to note that good salt is picked from the brine which usually has a nice balanced taste. If the brine is left to fully dry, becoming rock salt, like what happens when the salt is harvested on an industrial scale such as the cheap table salt, then some of the minerals in the salt when too concentrated will create a metallic astringent salt that irritates the tongue and gives the food a horrible taste.
