Steenbergs Black Salt Kala Namak 100g

Indian black salt has a faintly sulphurous and smokey flavour which disappears during the cooking process. Unsurprisingly, kala namak is the best salt for use in Indian cuisine, especially North Indian cooking, and is traditionally used in making salt blends like chaat masala and the summer drink, jal jeera. Alternative names are black salt, kala loon, kala namak and sanchal.

Kala namak is a true rock salt, found in large large halitedeposits formed through evaporation of ancient seas and is mined from locations in the Pakistani Himalayas. It is then imported into India where it is converted to kala namak by heating to around 900C in the presence of natural reductive agents (usually either gum Arabic - Vachellia nilotica - or Salsola stocksii) until it melts, then it is cooled, stored and aged. The final kala namak consists mainly of sodium chloride, with trace impurities of sodium sulphate, iron sulphide and hydrogen sulphide. The sodium chloride gives kala namak its saltiness, the iron sulphide the purple-pink colour and the sulphur compounds give the salt a distinctive egg-like volcanic odour.

As well as its use in traditional Indian cuisine, the sulphurours aroma makes it an ideal finishing salt for vegan dishes that require an egg substitute.