Hawaii Red Salt: A Volcano Of Health

Salt is an essential ingredient and for centuries we have used the one that was most accessible. In Spain, depending on the place, we have consumed salt from the sea or mines.

These traditional salts are currently being joined by other types aimed at gourmets and people interested in products with more nutritional value.

Thus we find Maldom salt, fleur de sel, pink, Himalayan or black salt, among others. There is also a red Hawaiian salt that is part of their popular culture, but that is a novelty among us.

With the properties of the best salt and volcanic red clay

In authentic Hawaiian red salt, the color, which can range from orange to brown, is due to the content of a volcanic clay called alaea in Hawaiian. It is not found as it is in nature, but is the result of mixing unrefined sea salt from the pristine Pacific, with the clay from the mouth of the rivers that the Hawaiians use to build the salt flats.

Sacred and medicinal

In these salt flats, three harvests were carried out: the surface white salt, a pink salt from the next layer and the red salt from the bottom that had been mixed with the clay. This red salt was used for special recipes, sacred rituals, and medicinal treatments.

But this traditional way of obtaining Hawaiian red salt is not considered acceptable or safe from a sanitary point of view, so the salt that is marketed today follows a more aseptic procedure, mixing the salt with sterilized clay.

In fact, most of the alleged Hawaiian red salt that is marketed in the world is made with refined salt from California and red clay from China or Brazil.

Choose real red salt

The result is not the same. True red salt is 84% ​​sodium chloride and 16% minerals and trace elements (more than 80), with iron oxide as the star nutritional element. In contrast, commercial red salt is 99.8% sodium.

If you want to consume a red salt that bears some resemblance to the original – with its variety of nutrients, with aromas reminiscent of walnuts and with less salty taste than any other salt – you have to make sure that it has at least been produced in Hawaii. . Specifically, the one made on the island of Molokai has special prestige.

On the other hand, people who follow an essentially vegetarian diet should remember that the salt for regular use must be enriched with iodine. Gourmet specialties, such as Himalayan salt, black kala namak or this red from Hawaii are for the most sophisticated recipes.