10 Reasons to Own A Himalayan Salt Block & How To Use It

Cooking on a pink salt block naturally imparts the incredible health benefits of Himalayan pink salt into your food. Such health benefits include balancing your body’s pH, stabilizing hydration levels, improving digestion and reducing acid reflux. Of course, the amount of salt that is absorbed depends on a number of factors – moisture level, thickness and oil content of the food being prepared, as well as the temperature of the block being a few of the major determinants.

In addition to NaCl (plain old table salt) Himalayan pink salt contains over 80 trace minerals and other elements. Not only does this make HPS better for your health, it also has a much more complex flavor. Meals prepared on a Himalayan salt block will take on some of that complexity, turning familiar foods into a new and interesting experience.

Himalayan pink salt crystals have very low porosity and minimal moisture retention. Because of these two traits, HPS won’t immediately upon contact transform food into an unbearable salty mess. Instead, your pink salt block will impart just a hint of its very interesting salt flavor into your food.

Unlike other food-preparation and cooking surfaces, you’ll never have to worry about germs on a Himalayan pink salt block. This is also due to the low porosity and moisture retention of the salt which creates a naturally anti-microbial environment. (See the Use & Care section below for some quick cleaning tips.)

In order to prevent cracking of the surface, salt blocks must be heated slowly (no more than 200 ºF per 15 minutes.) That said, Himalayan pink salt also has extreme temperature resistance with a melting point of just over 800 C (a little under 1500 ºF) making it excellent for high-heat cooking! Just be sure to have a good solid salt block holder for safe carrying of your super-hot HPS block

Due to the crystalline structure of Himalayan pink salt, heat spreads evenly through the entire block instead of radiating out from the middle and cooling toward the edges. Food prepared on the block will cook at the same pace whether it be in exact center, in a corner or anywhere in between.

Also because of its crystalline structure, Himalayan pink salt blocks hold their temperature – whether it be hot or cold – longer than other cooking and serving surfaces. This means you won’t have to worry about food prepared on your salt block getting cold or too warm while you finish up any accompanying dishes.

While most of us probably got our salt blocks with the idea to cook food on them, some of the most interesting dishes you will prepare (and serve!) on your block are those best served cold.

If you’re anything like me and you love sashimi, the pink salt block will be your new best friend. Imagine serving sake, hamachi and maguro arranged artfully on a chilled pink salt block. Your friends will be talking about it for months!

Raw foods like sashimi will actually begin to cure the longer they rest on the salt block. This is fascinating to watch for both children and adults!

These blocks are so beautiful and intriguing that it is almost impossible to not use them as serving platters. Mark Bitterman – American food writer and owner of The Meadow – captured this idea perfectly when he said, “There is a tactility and an immediacy to having this giant white hot block of 600-million-year-old salt on a table that turns us all into apes. It’s just this gorgeous, luminous thing.”