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SALT STORY
Special Stories Told by Salt
Types and Characteristics of Salt
Even similar-looking white salt has its own unique names and roles.
Salt is classified by manufacturing process and particle size, and its uses vary accordingly.
01
Halite
Halite
It is literally a mass of salt that has hardened like stone.
It is salt that remained and hardened after water evaporated over a long period
in areas that were once sea but became land due to tectonic movements.
Rock salt is currently the most produced salt globally and is used for food in many countries
including the United States, Europe, and China.
However, it can be considered mineral-deficient salt as sodium chloride content accounts for 98-99%.
This is because only sodium chloride crystals remained while mineral components
were washed away during the long period of hardening into rock salt.
Some rock salt appears red rather than the characteristic white color due to heat generated during tectonic movements.
02
Refined salt
Refined salt
Salt made by dissolving and washing solar salt once before recrystallization is called flower salt. It's called flower salt because the crystals look like snow flowers, and it's also called refined salt. Flower salt is whiter and has smaller particles than solar salt, and is used in most cooking, but it's better to add it during or at the end of cooking rather than at the beginning. It typically contains 88% sodium chloride and is recrystallized from a saturated solution made by mixing domestic solar salt and imported salt in a 2:8 ratio, dissolving in water, heating, and evaporating moisture.
03
Refined salt
Refined salt
It is high-purity salt obtained by removing impurities and heavy metals through ion-exchange membranes. It's also called machine salt because it undergoes mechanical processing. When seawater is electrolyzed and passed through an ion-exchange membrane with approximately 10Å fine holes, sodium ions (Na+) and chloride ions (Cl-) pass through, while divalent ions like magnesium and calcium, and heavy metals like lead, zinc, and arsenic cannot pass through. The resulting high-purity sodium chloride crystals are refined salt.
04
Lake salt
Lake salt
Well salt is made by evaporating brine from salt wells. It's also called brine well salt because salty brine comes from wells near the sea. A typical example is salt made in China using groundwater with 15-16% salinity.
*Brine refers to seawater that has become highly concentrated with salt due to water evaporation.
05
Salt
Salt
This is salt made by drawing seawater into salt pans and evaporating only the water using sunlight. 소Salt is broadly classified into solar salt and refined salt. Solar salt is unprocessed salt made by drawing seawater into salt pans and evaporating water and harmful substances through wind and sunlight, forming coarse, translucent hexagonal crystals.
In Korea, it is mainly produced on the West and South coasts where the water is shallow and tidal differences are large, and it is also produced in places like the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean coast, United States, and Australia. Shinan County in Jeollanam-do accounts for 65% of domestic solar salt production and over half of the salt pan area, with globally outstanding quality.
Strong winds result in smaller crystals, and low temperatures cause bitterness, reducing salt quality,
, so it's best to harvest salt on days with high sunlight and little wind.
While solar salt contains beneficial minerals like moisture, calcium, magnesium, zinc, potassium, and iron, it also contains some toxic substances that should be removed before consumption. When solar salt is used in making kimchi, soy sauce, or soybean paste, the harmful components disappear during fermentation.
06
Sea salt
Sea salt
This is a traditional Korean method of obtaining salt by boiling seawater.
Similar methods, though not identical, have been passed down in Japan and Vietnam. In Korea, a hole is dug in the mudflat, filled with dried mud, and a straw container (for collecting brine) is placed in the center. When seawater pushed in by high tide passes through the dried mudflat, its salinity increases, and this concentrated brine is collected in the container and boiled to make salt. Currently, very few places follow this traditional manufacturing method, and it is produced only in some regions. It is characterized by high mineral content and good flavor.
