A SALTY TALE


Good Food Ireland producers are wide reaching in their range of artisan products. For a cook, we’ve got everything, from hand made dairy foods and homegrown fruit and vegetables, to the best in beef and free range pork. Perhaps one of the most common ingredients in any kitchen is salt. We’ve got that too. Not just salt, now. Some of the best salt in Ireland, harvested straight from the sea at Port Oriel, Clogherhead in Co. Louth. The Oriel Sea Salt Company takes the waters off this coast, and extracts pure crystals of sea salt for use in cooking and salt therapies. The process is all very technical,  but we can assure you the end result is as natural as can be! Oriel Sea Salt was developed by John Delaney and Brian Fitzpatrick. It comes from some of the saltiest waters in Ireland,, which were once part of the Kingdom of Oriel. Have a look on the Oriel website for a video on the history of this area, and how geologists think this is actually the point at which the island of Ireland was formed,  many  thousands of years ago. Oriel Sea Salt is produced in natural and kiln dried forms. Both are fine grain. The first is a slightly moist salt, the second a free running salt produced by ‘flash drying’ after the harvesting technique. Europe’s first free flowing salt which comes with no ‘anti-caking’ agent. Oriel Sea Salts are wrapped with natural minerals from the sea, and has nothing added but expertise, time and care. New also this year are Oriel Sea Salt Bricks, currently being used by a company in the north of Ireland for dry ageing beef,and set to become popular all over the island no doubt. Salt ageing for beef on the bone produces tender meat with well developed flavour in a safe and healthy environment. Oriel Sea Salt Bricks are solid slabs of mineral rich salt, used to line the walls of  temperature controlled chambers, where the meat is hung for a minimum of 21 days, or longer according to the butcher’s requirements. The bricks are quite spectacular and the results they produce equally so. Chefs are mad for Oriel Sea Salt in their kitchens. They feel it adds unique flavour to all their carefully constructed dishes, and it’s intensity of flavour and rich mineral content is so pure, it helps cut down on the amount of salt needed in a recipe. We reckon you’ll think the same. This is salt, but not as we know it…