Our Instagram
Thank you James and Atul, we were completely thrilled to join you this morning! @jamesmartinchef @saturdayjamesmartin @chefatulkochhar #saltedcaramel #popcorn #sustainable #natural #seasalt #thorntower #blackthorn #saltgeek
9 days ago
A quick pinch of Blackthorn and a lovely slug of this exceptional @orkneycraftvinegar are all this beautiful crunchy winter slaw needs. That colour! Sam and his team are adding beautiful wonders with the world of vinegar - creating raw, unpasteurised vinegars in Orkney in incredibly gentle and considered ways. We are certainly not vinegar authorities, but we are in awe of the care that Sam puts into his bottles - this hand-harvested Rosehip vinegar is just stunning, but then so are the Sugar Kelp and the Bere Malt...
10 days ago
It is not just the Tower that absorbs our time at Blackthorn, but also the Pan House. Although only a mere 10% of our evaporation is achieved in here, this is where we are absolutely and painstakingly precise - we take exceptional care to get Blackthorn Salt to be the very best it can be every time. The reduced and very salty mother liquor comes in from the tower just before it wants to form salt crystals so that we can control how they grow; their shape, thickness, the mineral content and ultimately the all the characteristics that make Blackthorn so unique as a salt and worthy of that two star Great Taste Award. As you can see, we allow some of the bark tannins into the crystals which provide its unusual depth and mellowness; we grow them unconventionally slowly to ensure that tricky and especially hydroscopic magnesium is caught as well as the balancing calcium to ensure length of flavour, which enhances the bitter and sweetnesses of each mouthful. We have used all the #saltgeek's obsessive knowledge to innovate and incorporate tweaks at every stage to make Blackthorn what it is, to reduce the likelihood of microplastics, save on power usage... list goes on. We have even developed a wacky way to take off all of the pesky Pan Scatch (or calcium carbonate which sticks like cement to sides of the Pan) - after each and every batch!
12 days ago