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Making or buying herbal salt: what it comes down to

By Kevin

Making herbal salt yourself is essentially simple: mix dried herbs with salt, done. Nevertheless, it often fails. The mixture clumps, tastes bland, or loses its aroma after a few weeks. This is rarely due to the ratio and almost always due to three other things: herb quality, degree of drying, and storage. This article explains what matters, and shows at the end when it is really worth making it yourself.

Making herbal salt yourself: the right balance

There is no fixed ratio. What matters is that salt and herbs are in balance: the salt should season without covering the herbs, and the herbs should come through clearly without the mixture losing its function as a salt. How much exactly depends on the aroma of the herbs. For intense oregano, less is enough; for milder supermarket goods, more is needed to get any flavor into the mixture at all. Experiment and taste as you go. For salt, coarse sea salt is better than table salt. It has a more open crystal structure, absorbs essential oils better, and is not iodized. Iodized salt brings a flavor of its own that does not sit as well with herbs. Flow agents have no place in homemade herbal salt anyway. Regarding origin: Sea salt from Crete.
Wooden bowl of coarse sea salt next to a bunch of dried oregano, thyme sprigs, and a wooden spoon on stone

Which herbs are suitable for herbal salt?

Classic choices are oregano, thyme, and rosemary. All three are intensely aromatic, dry well, and retain their character for months. Parsley, basil, and chives, on the other hand, don't work well: they lose almost all their aroma when dried. The decisive factor is the content of essential oils in the raw material. They sit in tiny cells and are only released when the herbs are broken up. Cretan oregano belongs to the carvacrol-rich Greek subspecies, while commercially available products usually come from milder varieties. You notice it immediately when rubbing it between your fingers: if it smells strong, there's enough. If it smells like hay, the finished herbal salt will also taste bland. Why this is so is explained here: Cretan herbs and spices.

Drying herbs correctly

The herbs must be completely dry before they come into contact with the salt. Residual moisture is the most common reason for clumping and mold, and salt alone won't save the mixture. Air-drying in a shady, airy place takes three to ten days, depending on the herb. Sun speeds up the process but costs aroma. If you use the oven, stay below 40 degrees and leave the door slightly ajar so that moisture can escape. The test: a leaf must audibly snap between your fingers. If it bends, it's not ready yet.

Grinding and mixing

Bring herbs and salt together only shortly before filling. If you mix too early, you risk any remaining moisture from the herbs being drawn into the salt. Regarding the grind, it shouldn't be too fine. A mortar is preferable to a blender, as electric grinders generate frictional heat, and that costs exactly the aroma you are doing this for in the first place. The more the herbs are broken up, the more essential oil is released and lost. A coarse, visible structure is also what visually distinguishes good herbal salt. Incidentally, spiced salt can be made using the same principle. Then pepper, garlic, or dried tomato are added. Stone mortar with coarse sea salt, a wooden scoop of dried thyme, oregano sprigs, and an olive branch on a stone slab

Herbal salt: shelf life and storage

Properly made, herbal salt lasts one to two years without spoiling. However, the aroma fades significantly earlier. After about six months, the peak is passed. Store it dry, dark, and airtight, preferably in glass or ceramic. Not next to the stove, where steam and heat can reach it. And never remove it with a damp spoon. That's enough to make an entire batch clump.

Common mistakes when making herbal salt yourself

Iodized salt: brings a flavor of its own and does not sit as well with herbs. Moist herbs: lead to clumping and, in the worst case, mold. Too finely ground: the friction heat costs aroma. Too much salt: if nothing of the herbs comes through any more, the balance is gone. Wrong herbs: what tastes good fresh doesn't necessarily survive drying.

Making herbal salt yourself or buying it?

Making it yourself is worthwhile if you have access to truly good herbs, from your own garden or from a producer whose goods you know. Then you get full control over the ratio and a freshness that is hard to beat. With supermarket herbs, on the other hand, it becomes difficult. The problem is not the process, but the raw material: where there is little essential oil, little will come out. If you buy a ready-made herbal salt, you should pay attention to three points: a herb content you can see and taste, specific origin of the herbs, no additives. What a ready-made herbal salt delivers over your own mixture is consistency. Every homemade batch turns out slightly different, depending on how dry the herbs were, how finely they were ground and how much aroma that particular harvest carried. A ready-mixed herbal salt gives you the same ratio and the same taste in every jar, with no drying time, no mortar and no risk of a batch clumping. Our herbal salt is made of hand-harvested sea salt from the south coast of Crete, oregano and thyme from Gouves. Three ingredients, no flow agents, no anti-caking agents, no iodine. The herbs come from the same region as the ones we sell individually. An overview of all basic ingredients: Cretan cuisine: the 5 most important ingredients.

Conclusion

Making herbal salt yourself is simple, but not arbitrary. The ratio can be generously estimated, but with drying and storage, you should be precise. And the quality of the mixture will never be better than the herbs you start with. No recipe changes that. If you do not have access to herbs of that quality, you are better served by a ready-made mixture than by a homemade one built on weak raw material. Herbal salt from Crete is mixed from exactly that: sea salt, oregano and thyme from the island.