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Sensational Svaneti Salt Blend

10/3/2016

 
Sensational Svaneti Salt Blend

Local Food Friday  

   In the Svaneti region of Georgia, with the highest mountains in Europe, live the Svans. The story goes that the Svans prized salt so much that in olden times a measure of salt was worth as  much  as a cow in trade. Valuable salt couldn’t be wasted and so it was parsed, and stretched by adding in herbs and spices. Svaneti salt has become much beloved throughout Georgia and perhaps the world, where it is offered in little bowls to be sprinkled on salads, sides, beans, grains, potatoes and meats.
Sensational Svaneti Salt Blend
Village of Adishi, Flag of The Republic of Georgia, Svaneti Region
Sensational Svaneti Salt Blend
Svanetian salt
​(Georgian: სვანური მარილი), from Svaneti region in the mountainous north-western part of Georgia, has a unique fragrance and taste and is traditionally used as a flavoring for a variety of meat, fish, potato and soup dishes as well as a condiment instead of table salt. The salt mixture is made from a minimum of 8 ingredients, including regular salt, ground caraway seeds, garlic, marigold, coriander and blue fenugreek.

Svaneti Salt Blend 

Makes 2 cups /278g
​Ingredients

1 cup /218g coarse sea salt
1 T + 1½ t /18g crushed garlic
2 T  /14g caraway seeds
1 T + 1½ t /8g coriander seeds
2 t /5g whole black peppercorns
2 t  /8g whole fenugreek seeds
2 t  /4g dill seeds
1 T  /6g Aleppo pepper
or 1T  /6g paprika with ¼ t (pinch) cayenne


Method
Pre-measure all ingredients into four bowls: whole spices, powdered spices, garlic, salt 
In a spice grinder grind the whole spices and set aside, then grind salt with the powdered spices and garlic.
In 2-3 batches
grind all 
spices  together until everything is evenly combined.
Store in a jar and keep where you will use it often. It will last until you are done with it.

With Love Enjoy
Sensational Svaneti Salt Blend

Favorite Salt Mix

     This is one of my all time favorite salt mixes and I’m so happy to share it with you. I first discovered it in the back pages of Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean. A cookbook I use a lot especially for teaching and catering. There’s also a recipe for it in Tony Hill’s The Contemporary Encyclopedia of Herbs and Spices, also an excellent reference, well loved and used. Their  recipes are different, as is to be expected. Paula Wolfert’s doesn’t contain dill or Aleppo pepper. I love Aleppo pepper but haven’t had the heart to buy any in recent years. It would bring tears into my food, I hope this changes soon [ moment of silence ].
    I’ve tried both of their recipes, and have settled on using Paula Wolfert’s ratios with the addition of dill and paprika which Tony Hill’s include. I’m happy with the outcome. ​
Spices and Herbs used in Georgian Cuisine
   Several years ago a food passionate young man, Sam, helped me cook for the Copper Canyon Press Holiday Party. He was an intern there, but was much more enlivened by the poetry of food than pages.
​I think my party-food theme was Turkish but wandered over towards Georgia, a cuisine I hold in great esteem. The fresh herb sauces, use of red peppers, spicing; such simple, bold, and vibrant food with an inner grace and wisdom.
​   To be wrapped up into that much culinary tradition, I envy it.
 
I had Sam make a batch of Svaneti salt, and he was all over it, enraptured as cooks get.  
​  Sharing that winter afternoon with Sam, making fabulous food, food poetry together, always brings me back to Svaneti salt, and the spice of life.
   I made Sam a jar of Svaneti salt, and hand wrote the recipe for him when he moved away, on to his next adventure.  
​

Georgian recipes

Posts to enjoy

Sensational Svaneti Salt Blend
Sensational Svaneti Salt Blend
Nell Mathern
10/3/2016 07:18:17 am

I will pass along your link to a sweet young woman from Georgia. She is Larry & Linda Smith's daughter-in-law. I know she's homesick.

Mako
10/3/2016 10:30:37 pm

I got a link 😊😊 this is sooo nice, I love that Svanetian salt and I could never figure out how Svans made it. My Mom sent me a big, plastic coca cola bottle full of Svanuri marili all the way from Georgia to here 😊


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    Hi I'm Sido Maroon,
    chef, food writer and culinary educator. I cook, teach, and write to bring you into the heart of the kitchen. 

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“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” 
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own


  • Kitchen Blog
    • Food Shorts Audio Sunday
    • Revisionist Baking Monday
    • Technique Tuesday
    • Foodwise Wednesday
    • Culinary Curiosity Thursday
    • Local Food Friday
    • Amandine Audio Saturday
  • About
    • Meet the Chef
    • Food Explorer
    • Food Philosophy
    • The Art of Food
  • Recipes
    • Baking >
      • Gluten Free Baking
      • Levain/Sourdough/Fermented
      • Rye
    • Chef's Touch
    • Fermentation >
      • Lactofermentation
    • World Foods >
      • Ethiopian
  • Activism
    • FolkArt and Food Camps >
      • bards and bread camp >
        • Painting and Pastry Camp