Himalayan pink salt slabs

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WOK-a-holic

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Just got 2 Himalayan pink salt slabs. Does anybody have experience with them?. I would like to experiment with heating them on barbecue and cooking steak. I also would like to try as a serving dish for cold or hot food. can I use the same slab for both? (at different times) .should I reserve one for barbecuing and the other one for a serving dish?. opinions and suggestions on use/care/maintenance
would be appreciated.
 
I've used them in product demos at the culinary store. Liked em but thought they were more show than go. At their best when right off the grill cooking shrimp at the table. The ones I've used did not retain enough heat to cook a steak unless sliced. Not used one as serving dish per se but that would prob work well.
 
+1 to Daveb's comment - a bit more novelty but a nice presentation & works for shrimp or very thin slice meet ... only every used them in my oven so not info on grill use ... good luck and take pic's please ...
 
Thanks guys ,I'll keep that in mind.
the ones I got are fairly small 8×4×1 inch, they were small and cheap so I bought 2, $3.99 each.
I pieced both of them together to get an 8 by 8 slab .last night I made a stir fry ( no salt )served on salt slab and it was delicious, the presentation was beautiful. I'm going to experiment with thinly sliced meat+ vegetables and see how it goes ,if I like the results maybe I'll buy a much larger one that would retain more heat.....I'm not going to get my hopes up for any amazing .if they were so great everybody would be using them
 
I was thinking of trying one of these as well - so they'd work with thin-sliced steak laid on them? That's fine with me; more excuse to play with the knives! :knife:
 
last night I heated one of the salt slabs in toaster oven(slowly) .
then I had it on 500 degrees for 3 hours .I sprinkled some water on it and it vaporized instantly. I was just testing the salt to see if they could handle the heat. I'm pretty sure I could sear some meat on it . I took the second block and put it in the freezer for a few hours .sliced up a ripe avocado( thin), laid it on salt slab for a couple minutes ,added a squeeze of lemon. avocado was perfectly chilled and salted.

going to put salt slab in freezer then slice up some limes and serve with Corona beer.:biggrin:

I inspected both pieces this morning neither seems to be damaged by extreme heat or cold
 
Good to know, I've heard some reviews where they can shatter from heat (presumably if heated unevenly or have trapped moisture?). I guess reviews at SLT should be taken with a grain of salt lol
 
Always planned to try and heat it in a salt bath in a pan, never got around to it....
 
update:
a heated salt slabs in oven at 500 degrees then put directly on gas burner stove. I cooked a few small trout (skin on),
the fish stuck to the Salt slab. I used olive oil and the salt was left with lots of burned stuff on it. The next day I tried to wash off with water .salt is now completely uneven, pitted, and looks severely damaged and discolored.

not practical for cooking on!
I'm going to buy a couple more and use them for serving platters only.
I can keep salt slabs at room temperature to serve hot food on. or chill salt slab in freezer or refrigerator to serve cold food.
pretty sure the heat altered the chemical state of salt, just like processed table salt that has been heated in a Blast Furnace. extreme heat ruins the salt.
 
What is heat going to do to salt? You won't change the amount of metal and chlorine ions significantly. You might eventually vaporize some (in which case you have no altered salt, but lost salt) or manage to make insoluble oxydes of some of the metals (not that likely, chlorine/flouride compete with oxygen. ).... You might mess with sulfur if there is any..
 
I don't mean just " heat" I'm talkin direct contact to flames when cooking on salt slab.
it's common knowledge that fire destroys things.
concerning refined table salt, the salt is processed with chemicals ,then goes through a series of conical shape vessels inside of a vacuum evaporation chamber . Next salt is put in a blast furnace for drying (1200°F) .the extreme heat transforms the salt crystals into perfect six-sided cubes . this completely unnatural state of salt crystal ,is not found in nature and it's hard for the body to process.
 
Yes it is - that's why we are processing it after dissolving it in water at some stage of cooking or ingestion :)
 
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