(
Algeria) One method of gathering
sea salt is to draw seawater into
marsh basins or
salt pans and allow the water to evaporate, leaving behind the salt that was dissolved in it. As the water evaporates, most of the salt
precipitates out on the bottom of the marsh or pan (and is later collected as ordinary sea salt), but some salt crystals float on the surface of the water, forming a delicate crust of intricate pyramidal crystals. This is
fleur de sel. The delicacy requires that it be harvested by hand, so this is done with traditional methods using traditional tools. In France, the workers who collect salt are called
paludiers, and to collect
fleur de sel they employ a wooden rake called a
lousse à fleur to gently rake it from the water. In Portugal, a butterfly-shaped sieve called a
borboleta is used instead. It is then put in special boxes so that it will dry in the sun, and to avoid disturbing the flakes as it is transported for packaging. Historically, the workers who harvested
fleur de sel were women, because it was believed that the salt crystals were so delicate, they needed to be collected by "the more delicate sex." Because it is scraped from the salt marsh like cream from milk,
fleur de sel has been called "the cream of the salt pans." It is also called "the caviar of sea salts." This method of salt formation and collection results in salt crystals that are not uniform. The salt also has a much higher amount of moisture than common salt (up to 10% compare to 0.5% for common salt), allowing the crystals to stick together in snowflake-like forms. Other minerals, like calcium and magnesium chloride, give it a more complex flavor. These chemicals make
fleur de sel taste even saltier than salt, and give it what has been described as the flavor of the sea. Trace mineral content depends upon the location at which it is harvested, so the flavor varies with point of origin.
Fleur de sel is rarely the pure white of table salt. It is often pale gray or off-white from clay from the salt marsh beds. Sometimes it has a faintly pink tinge from the presence of
Dunaliella salina, a type of pink
microalga commonly found in salt marshes. However,
fleur de sel from Ria Formosa in Portugal is white. ==Uses==