Salt Block Cooking 70 Recipes for Grilling, Chilling, Searing, and Serving on Himalayan Salt Blocks

Salt blocks are a big deal, and they are getting bigger. They bring an otherworldly beauty to the kitchen. Luminous crystals shot through with hues of rose, garnet and ice offer a template for preparing food that is as arrestingly visual as it it tantalizingly beautiful. Salt expert, Mark Bitterman outlines the ancient practice of cooking on salt blocks, while providing simple, modern recipes. The introduction provides a thorough manual on everything you need to know to buy, use, heat, maintain, and clean salt blocks with confidence. 60 recipes are divided by 5 techniques: Serving, Curing, Warming, Cooking, and Chilling. Salt blocks are not only beautiful, but will appeal to people interested in grilling, baking, general cooking, curing, and notably, entertaining. About 500,000 salt blocks come into the country every year. Author Mark Bitterman's company, The Meadow, sells over 70,000 blocks per year. Some are sold in bulk to hospitality businesses, but most are going directly to consumers. Here is the first book to comprehensively describe and photographically show how to use these blocks.

Mark Bitterman is the author of the James Beard Award-winning book, Salted. He is the leading expert in culinary salt, and has led the charge into the culinary adventure of cooking on salt blocks.  As owner of the speciality store, The Meadow, with locations in Portland, OR and New York City, he is one of the largest importers, retailers, and wholesale distributors of salt blocks. He lectures at culinary schools such as the French Culinary Institute, the Institute of Culinary Education, and Le Cordon Bleu and has been recognized as a Local Food Hero by Cooking Light, and a Tastemaker by Food & Wine. He has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, O magazine, GC, Rachel Ray, Wine Spectator, and on The Splendid Table, All Things Considered, CBS News, ABC News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and more. 


Andrew Schloss, who frequently develops recipes for The Meadow’s various communications and activities, contributes his expertise to the development of the recipes for the book. Schloss is the author of sixteen cookbooks including: Mastering the Grill (a New York Times best-seller) and The Science of Good Food (winner of an IACP Cookbook Award, a James Beard finalist, nominated by Le Cordon Bleu Food Media Awards as Best Food Book in the World), both co-authored with David Joachim. His latest books are Fire it Up (also with Joachim) and Homemade Sodas. He is the culinary force behind Cookulus, the first interactive cookbook app.