On a whim, I picked up a $15 bamboo salt box at Crate and Barrel - and once I started cooking with it I was completely hooked on the whole concept of a box, a cellar, a pig, or any kind of little container for your salt.
It's hard to put my finger on why I like this little pool of salinity sitting on the stove so much. I think it's more or less the act of actually touching the salt itself. No matter how many fabulous appliances you may have or desire, I do think that the foods that are the most special and give us the most pleasure are the ones that we've spent some time actually touching with our hands. A bit of basil, carefully sliced and sprinkled by hand over a ripe tomato, becomes as luxurious as caviar. A braided and dimpled loaf of homemade bread has a heft and chewiness that echos the musclepower put into kneading it. A pastry crust's delicate fluting speaks of the fingertips pressing and prodding it into shape.
Rubbed between my fingers as it tumbles into a basic pot of pasta, I feel like salt gives me a echo of that same satisfaction - the joy of the handmade, in miniature.
While I love the swing top and clean lines of the keeper pictured here, there are lots of other nice options out there if you want to get your hands salty.
- Emile Henry has a classic pig model in lots of basic colors.
- Nigella Lawson's version is matte black and curvy.
- Williams Sonoma has a few versions, including a miniature maple box, a rather country piggy, and a positively Provencal version that's frankly way too much money for a box to keep salt in but never mind.
- This black marble one is intense, like something you picture Michelle Pheiffer's character in Scarface using to store her drugs.
And speaking of which, be warned: all this playing around with salt will definitely tempt you to upgrade to the hard stuff.
