Salt produced at the deposits of Russalt in the Orenburg, Irkutsk and Astrakhan regions, was included in the review of the only salt sommelier in Russia today in Gastronom federal publication. Yuri Keselman spoke about what kind of salt we eat and where it is mined.
According to the magazine, “According to statistics, about one million tons of salt is consumed in Russia annually. In 2016, an embargo on salt was introduced in the country. Of the 180 types of geographically unique salt, it was forbidden to import more than half. Due to this, the few Russian producers were able to expand the sales market and start re-equip, install new equipment. Today in Russia there is no monopoly on the production of salt. Now there are several large companies that occupy the bulk of the market. The largest of them is Russalt, which combines several large industries and salt mining sites, for example, on Lake Baskunchak , in the city of Usolye-Sibirskoye (Irkutsk region) and the Iletsk field (the city of Sol-Iletsk, Orenburg region) “.
Remember, recently – in April – Yury Keselman also spoke about the peculiarities of Iletsk salt on Channel One.
To understand the product itself, the sommelier told what types or varieties of salt can be divided into.
- Extra.99.75% sodium chloride. The most technically advanced salt, but the least suitable for cooking. She has a very sharp taste.
- Top grade. It is 98% sodium chloride, with the remaining 2% trace compounds unique to the mining site that give the salt its flavor and color. Basic salt, universal for cooking.
- First class. 97.5% sodium chloride, 2.5% give a completely different taste picture. Such salt can be used for ready-made dishes – such salt is called finishing salt.
In addition to “mass” salt, there is geographically unique salt, which is mined in one specific place and is not found anywhere else in the world. Vivid foreign examples, known to all: Himalayan pink salt, which is mined in a mine under the Salt Mountains in Pakistan, or Persian blue, which is mined in a mine in northern Iran in the province of Semnan. We also have such amazing deposits.
Lake Baskunchak
The Baskunchak salt lake is located in the Akhtubinsky district of the Astrakhan region. Russalt company produces here more than half of the volume of salt consumed in Russia. Here they extract self-planting salt, that is, which has already settled. At the beginning of the season, while the brine is high, a special harvester runs along the rails that are laid directly on the salt lake, scoops up layers of salt from under the water, dries it, cleans it, etc. The salt is then sent to a factory where it is packaged. It should be noted that This year, the Baskunchak harvester will also be replaced by a new salt pick-up and tractors, which local engineers called Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee – for their impressive size, manufacturability, versatility and colors. The salt picker will make mining more gentle and environmentally friendly, and the famous rails laid in the salt water of the lake & nbsp; will gradually leave the everyday life of an industrial enterprise.
There are deposits where only evaporation salt salt is made. In such deposits, the so-called insufficient capacity is an insufficient amount of salt in order to extract it in a quarry way or make a mine. A hole is drilled, water is pumped in, the brine is pumped out, it is cleaned and salt is obtained from it by vacuum evaporation.
Vevaporation is a method, so there is geographically unique salt, which is also boiled down. Historically, this happened in places where there is not enough solar energy for natural evaporation, for example, on the White Sea or in Staraya Russa. Evaporated salt is also made & nbsp; at the Russalt enterprise in the city of Usolye-Sibirsky, Irkutsk Region.
Pink Crimean salt or Saki – is considered handicraft salt, it is produced by a cooperative on the Sasyk-Sivash salt lake in the western part of Crimea near Yevpatoriya. The water has a pink-raspberry color due to the special mineral composition (it contains about 53 different trace elements), but sometimes microalgae blooms in the lake, and then the water becomes a rich pink-milky color. Such salt is called saddle salt, that is, it is precipitated. Water from the lake is driven into a specially built system of pools, where it settles and, as various compounds precipitate, it is gradually purified. As a result, only brine remains, which is distilled into the last pool. From a gastronomic point of view, it is a geographically unique salt that tastes great. The larger the crystal of unrefined artisan salt, the more moisture it has inside.
