Fleur De Slate - A Colorful Crystal Salt With Natural Mineral Properties

If you love fleur de sel, you owe it to yourself to learn more about it. This sea salt is derived from seawater that forms in a thin, silky crust when it evaporates. Fleur de sels have been gathered since ancient times, and has traditionally been used as both a salve and a purifying salt. It's now commonly used to flavor and garnish many foods.

There are several things you should know about fleur de sel, so before you go out and buy some, you'll want to understand what it's composed of. The bulk of the salt is made up of sodium chloride. That means you shouldn't be buying any other type of sea salt. Sodium chloride is very soft and has a fine, wide texture. Because it's so fine, it doesn't have a lot of weight, so it won't melt into your food like other table salts do.

Because fleur de sel isn't really a traditional type of sea salt, the crystals present in the salt aren't typical, either. Instead, you can expect to find fleur de sel in two distinctive forms: coarse and fine. Conventional sea salt tends to be coarse, lumpy, and granular in texture. Fine sea salt tends to be crystalline, with grains that are fine enough to be separated without difficulty.

The crystalline structure makes it possible for the substance to take on a number of different textures. When fleur de sel is exposed to heat, its crystalline structure changes from smooth to rough, giving it a distinct fleur de sel texture. Hot air or heat can also induce the smooth surface to become brittle, and as water evaporates from the material, it leaves behind large voids in the surface. As the water evaporates, the voids allow salts to push through the material, coating the surface in a salty solution. That makes the fleur de sel material sticky, and when it comes in contact with cool air, the texture changes again.

So which fleur de sel should you use? It depends a great deal on the style of jewelry you're planning to wear, as well as on what your other bridal jewelry is made from. If your jewelry is composed primarily of gold or silver, especially semi-precious metals, you should consider using fleur de sel that contains trace amounts of gold or silver. But if you're looking for a good quality finishing salt, you'll probably want to choose fleur de sel that's composed mostly of potassium aluminum silicate, since this substance is completely nonporous, contains no lathering agents, doesn't require any special reagent, and can stand up to repeated cleaning.

Fleur de ceramics that contain the material known as potash are particularly sensitive to changes in temperature, so adding a tiny amount of silicone to the salt crystals before you heat them will help keep them from going bad before they even go into the oven. When shopping for fleur de sel, look for a product that contains a high percentage of potassium aluminum silicate, because this mineral usually has the best combination of hardness, permeability, and taste. In addition, you want a salt with a high salt crystal density, since the higher the concentration, the harder the salt crystal can be. The highest salt crystal density is around 40% - the higher the concentration, the larger the crystals - so look for fleur de ceramics that contain a high concentration of this mineral.

Once the fleur de sel is heated, the crystals start to melt and release their watery melt-away material. This material then solidifies into flakes and settles on the table. You'll need to gently reshape the fleur de sel in order to smooth out the flakes. For example, if you cut one edge at a sharp angle, it will refract light in a different way than if you cut the edges at a more gradual angle. Since each piece of the mineral cake is pretty tiny, a high quality artist should be able to create a masterpiece that will rival that of a major art gallery.

Of course, fleur de sel isn't just for cooking, either. In fact, the texture of this type of sea salt is ideal for creating many types of fine household items, such as table salt, shampoos, candles, decorative tableware, and more. Becausebuy fleur de selhas a high concentration of minerals, fleur de sel can help to maintain the health of your hair and skin, as well as add subtle color and an elegant sheen to everything in your home. Enjoy the wonderful texture and rich flavor of fleur de sel as you begin creating new and fun home projects using this versatile crystal salt.