— Why not the blue box

Iodized salt is engineered to flow.
Real salt clumps a little.

Table salt is heated to over a thousand degrees, stripped of every trace mineral, and treated with anti-caking compounds. What's left is sodium chloride and aluminosilicate, in a uniform white grain that pours through a hole no matter the humidity.

Real sea salt has minerals — magnesium, calcium, potassium — that change the flavour. It also has a little moisture, which is why it clumps in the cellar. That's the salt doing its job, not failing it.

"If you ever want to taste the difference, ask us — we keep a sample box at the counter."

— Featured · QC, Canada

Maison Orphée
Fine Grey Sea Salt.

Hand-harvested in Guérande, France, repacked in Quebec. The grey colour is clay from the salt flats — and exactly what carries the minerals. Fine grind, slightly damp, sweet on the tongue rather than sharp. This is the salt we use at home.

22 lb sack
$92.99
2.2 lb bag
$14.99
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In stock

The full salt
shelf.

Available in cellar-sized jars and bulk bags. We can grind from coarse to fine in-store — just ask.

Where each one belongs

Cooking salt.
Finishing salt.

Two jobs, two different salts. The cheap rule: anything you taste at the end deserves the better salt.

— For seasoning while cooking

Cooking salt

Anything fine, anything plentiful. The grey sea salt fine grind, Himalayan fine, kosher-style coarse. Use it generously in pasta water, on roasts, in bread doughs. It dissolves into the dish — the texture isn't doing any work.

  • Pasta water · seasoned aggressively
  • Bread dough · 2% by flour weight
  • Soups, stocks, braises
  • Salt-curing, brining
— For sprinkling at the end

Finishing salt

The expensive, beautiful, structured ones. Fleur de sel for a slow-roasted vegetable. Smoked Alderwood on a fried egg or a steak. A coarse Himalayan crystal on a chocolate cookie. You want to see the salt and you want to taste it as itself.

  • Roasted vegetables · final pinch
  • Sliced tomato in summer
  • Chocolate, caramels, baked goods
  • Fried eggs, butter on toast