Salt and wine. An unlikely pair?
Flavour of the earth
Once worth more than gold, salt was the culmination of the search for love and wealth in many ancient cultures. Emma Odendaal met with Craig Cormack to experience his new salt and wine pairings and learnt more about the historical significance of ‘the fifth element'.
Wars have been fought, ancient empires established and violent revolutions sprung from this substance that Homer referred to as "divine" - that same chemical compound we lavishly sprinkle over our slap chips.
But those gastronomically inclined are discovering that salt is anything but just a condiment used to disguise bland dishes. From pink salt sourced in Bolivia to black salt from the volcanic craters in Hawaii and white salt pearls from South Africa, sodium chloride has opened up new culinary vistas.
Forget that R3 bag of table salt that is bleached, refined and generally has a harsh salty flavour. Salt, like wine, is something to study and savour as it imparts an explosion of taste sensations in different parts of your mouth.
And this fascination is not a new, passing fad. In fact, it's quite the opposite, having roots that run deep through the history of civilisation.
Jungian psychologist Ernest Jones, a leading name in psychoanalysis and friend of Sigmund Freud, published a paper in 1912 about humans' irrational and subconscious sexual fixation on salt.
In this paper he points out that Romans once said that a man in love was in a ‘salted state', while salt in many cultures has been associated with fertility and exciting sexual desire - and abstinence from salt was often the first step in dulling sexual urges.
Aphrodisiac qualities aside, salt has played an important role in shaping civilisation as we know it today, and its impact can be traced back as far as 640 BC when a Roman king by the name of Ancus Martius built an enclosed basin at Ostia. Seawater was let into this basin, which then evaporated under the sun, of course leaving behind precious sea salt.
The Roman soldiers who protected the road along which this salt was transported are thought to have been paid in salt and, in fact, the word ‘soldier' comes from the Latin ‘sal dare', meaning ‘to give salt' - and from the same words we get ‘salary'.
Salt's contribution to food can be traced back several thousand years, in particular its importance in the preservation of food and the curing of meats. "There is no better food than salted vegetables," an Egyptian papyrus said.
Contrast this to salt's image today. Salt intake in first-world countries is on average excessive, leading to a variety of health problems. It's seen by many to be a ‘necessary evil' and is largely a one-dimensional taste. When something tastes salty it's just salty, right?
Craig Cormack would beg to differ. What began for him as an idea for a food show four years ago has grown into a "passion and obsession" for the chef-extraordinaire and one of the names behind the acclaimed Overture restaurant at Hidden Valley just outside Stellenbosch.
Craig is leading the way in South Africa, and probably the world, in the latest craze among a small group of foodies: salt and wine pairings. (One wonders what Ernest Jones would have thought of the sexual implications of salt and wine together...)
Contrary to what you may think, pairing wine with salt is not about sticking your finger in a bowl of exotic salt, having a lick and then sipping and swirling your wine, waiting for fireworks to go off in your mouth.
Craig, who personally hosts the pairings, starts by guiding guests through six salts on individual palettes. In our case, palettes included Pakistani salt with a rather sulphuric rotten-egg smell - which was, in fact, delicious.
We then moved on to white salt from Iran, pink salt from the Andes Mountains in Bolivia, Khoisan salt pearls from South Africa, and finally ended with black salt from Hawaii with a distinct charcoal character that we decided reminded us of a braai on the open vlaktes of the Free State.
Craig, who has accumulated a repertoire of 42 salts from around the world, explains that he uses these and other salts in his culinary creations, using recipes that are thousands of years old and age-old cooking methods of curing fish and meat.
Pairing salt-based dishes with wine is no doubt a challenging task. Craig's dishes are "designed for a specific flavour and taste, not only to fit a flavour profile, but also to pair a wine - and this is a challenge as we know that salt dominates wine, which in turn makes the wine textures richer, and sometimes smoother. Salt can of course also cut through foods, giving the wine a flat taste, while it can also accentuate tannins and alcohol.
"Salt is both good and bad for wine - it can improve or destroy wine," says Craig, emphasising the importance of careful pairing. It often takes days, if not months, of trial and error before the perfect combination is achieved.
"The taste of the food and wine together should be balanced so that one does not dominate the other. The wine should remain unchanged. If it does change, then it's not a good match. One then has to change the food or the wine so as to create a harmony."
The salt taste sensation is typically found in the front and upper sides of the tongue. Some salts are saltier than others and, as Craig explains, they have different flavours and colours depending on the region and country they come from.
We start our five-course feast with popcorn coated in rich butter and tossed in chives and a dusty-coloured Pakistani salt. Popcorn may seem to be an unusual first course, but paired with a glass of Land's End Rosé 2008, with sweet strawberry Fizzers on the nose, the flavours remind us of a kids' party - except so much more fun!
Trout medallions follow - cured in a mixture of one-third coarse Khoisan salt and two-thirds sugar - served with a parsley emulsion and waterblommetjie tempura.
The combination of the soft, delicate flesh of the trout, the creaminess of the parsley and the crunchiness of the tempura shows that Craig loves to play with textures. Paired with the crispness of the Hidden Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2009, the freshness of the trout is highlighted and the delicate flavours of the parsley emulsion are brought to the fore - delicious.
Craig then presents plates of thinly sliced pork fillet cured in Upington salt and tossed in a soya-sauce dressing. This he pairs with Hidden Valley Hidden Gems 2006, a full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignonbased blend, with supple tannins that cut through the saltiness of the dressing.
Next on the menu is braised, slow-cooked beef cured in Murray River salt sourced from Australia. Traditional German sauerkraut made with Namibian salt is an unusual accompaniment, yet the crunchy and slightly acidic cabbage is a wonderful texture contrast to the the flaky, ‘melt-inyour- mouthness' of the beef.
Land's End Syrah 2007, with dark chocolate and spice on the nose and a lingering palate, stands up well to the strong flavours.
Our decadent end is a chocolate tart served with cardamom ice-cream. For an interesting twist, Craig dusts the tart with Polish salt, which balances the rich sweetness of the chocolate.
He's not yet decided on which wine pairs best, but for our lunch he chooses the Hidden Valley Pinotage 2006. Not quite on the money, but very close, we muse as we are entranced by the decadent dark chocolate.
When asked about the negative health implications of eating too much salt, Craig reminds us that salt is still an essential component of any diet. In fact, "when you go to hospital, the first thing they do is stick in a saline drip!"
The salts which he sources have less chemicals and tend to be healthier than your average table salt and, "like anything, good for you if used in moderation".
What does Craig hope to achieve from the pairings? "I want people to say, ‘I'll never use that other stuff again,'" he says. "If that's the reaction I get, then I've done my job."
For more info on wine and salt pairing events contact Craig on 021 851 8025 or chefsonthemove@telkomsa.net.
