Stuff That Tastes Like Other Stuff

Over the last week or so, I got the urge to mix things up.  You know, make things taste like other things.  For some reason, it started with salt.  I wanted to make salt taste like lemons.  When I was in North Carolina for vacation this summer, I had lunch at a restaurant that seasoned their french fries with lemon salt.  They were delicious.  I also bought this little bottle of lemon lime salt that you are supposed to pour in your beer (it's Corona's new best friend... sorry lime). 
 

Being as optimistic about my culinary skills as I am, I said to myself "self, you can make this at home."  So I gave it a try. 

I wasn't content to just make lemon salt.  My version needed to have something more, something really different.  A-ha!  Lemon PEPPER salt.  Totally unique, truly a seasoning for the ages. 

After a couple of experiments, I came up with a good recipe. 

·        5 T coarse sea salt

·        3 t fresh ground pepper

·        Zest of one lemon, grated with a microplane

Combine all of the above in the work bowl of a food processor or a spice blender and process until the salt is fine and the zest and pepper is fully incorporated.  Add more or less pepper to your specific taste.

I seasoned a lovely piece of cod with this and baked it.  It was quite good, but a word of caution.  Use it as you would salt, not an herb blend.  Or bread crumbs. 

Since I had lemon pepper salt under my belt, I wanted to see what else I could come up with.  And I came up with bacon salt.  Everything tastes better with bacon, right?  Hell knows what I'll use this for (oh, come on - french fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, any kind of potatoes, scallops, pizza, the list goes on and on). 

The recipe for bacon salt was way too easy. 

·        1/2 c coarse sea salt

·        3 T chopped bacon (I used Hormel's real bacon bits... you don't have to worry about making the salt too greasy, and all the work is done for you)

Combine in the work bowl of a food processor or a spice blender and process until the salt is fine and the bacon is fully incorporated.

Careful, you will be tempted to eat this one with a spoon.

Finally, I needed to step up my game.  I needed a real challenge in the salt department.  How about some homemade garlic salt?  Sounds good to me.

I consulted the internet for this one, and found a few recipes that mostly called for combining garlic powder and salt.  Not for me.  Too amateur, even for someone who really can't cook.  Finally I found a recipe that taught me how to use real garlic. 

·        3 T coarse sea salt

·        3 lg. garlic cloves, minced or pressed

Combine the garlic and salt, choppity chop chop until the garlic gets really pasty and is blended with the salt.  Spread on a sheet pan and dry in a 100-125° oven, stirring every 15 minutes for 6-7 hours until completely dry.

So I had a few problems with this one.  First of all, my oven doesn't go any lower than 170°.  Second of all, I had maybe 45 minutes to tend to this - not 6-7 hours. 

I set my oven to 170°, and stirred it every 15 minutes for a half hour.  Then I tossed it into the food processer to better incorporate and crunch up the large salt crystals.  That didn't really work.  So, later that night, I found myself in Williams Sonoma looking for a spice grinder.  $40 later, I'm at home trying to grind up the salt in my new spice grinder (I somehow got B to believe it was necessary and would save us money on garlic salt in the long run... we seriously hardly ever use garlic salt).  This didn't work either.

My conclusion was that garlic is really sticky and needs to be dried out in the oven for 6-7 hours at a really low temperature, being stirred ever 15 minutes.  Better luck next time, right?

At the end of the day, I have a bottle of very yummy lemon pepper salt that I can't wait to try on french fries, some bacon salt that would probably have been really good on that turkey sandwich I made B for lunch today, and a bottle of fairly useless garlic salt.  Actually, I did use some of that very sticky garlic salt in the spaghetti sauce I made the other day, so I'm pretty sure it won't go to waste. 

I'm sure there are many more salts in my future... I'm currently strategizing on how to make buffalo salt.  Do stay tuned.