Cooking on a block of salt? anyone?

I just ordered some "bricks" 4" x 8" x 2" and was wondering if anyone here had tried them?
Can you get a good sear / caramelization on beef steak?

Stunt cooking.

http://www.savory.tv/2008/12/14/cooking ... alt-block/

Years ago there was a restaurant on Sheridan in Rogers Park, "The Distant Mirror" - very loosely Spanish-themed. There were granite blocks on the tables with burners underneath. You picked a protein and then got a platter of raw ingredients and a number of sauces. It was just okay food and one of the benefits of cooking on the granite was that it was hard to overcook (but still easy to undercook poultry) because there's better heat distribution. As for the romance of infusing the flavor of the block into the food - eh.

I bought one last summer.

I cooked a few things on it. I did a good flank steak on it that turned out pretty well (as part of a fajita recipe).

The key that I learned was to get the salt block very, very hot and minimize the overall cooking time. The block will definitely impart a salty flavor to whatever you cook (which can be good or bad).

I'm going to try some shimp skewers on it in upcoming week.

Enjoy... let us know how it goes!

mhill95149 wrote:Can you get a good sear / caramelization on beef steak?

Absolutely, you just need to preheat it longer than you may first think. I cooked flat iron and ribeye steak a few times, shrimp, squid, and various fish fillets.

Are you planning to heat it on the grill or oven?

Jeff

My plan would be to start it in a cold oven and bring it to 200˚ (mostly to be sure it was dry)
then crank the heat to 550˚for about 45 min to an hour...
One page on the internets said you could heat these suckers to 900˚ but the only way I might get it that
hot would be to fire it on a Turkey fryer propane burner. I think I'd be happy with 500˚ but will give the
turkey fryer idea a spin as well.

I'd be interested to see how you like 550 in the oven and how the TF burner works. I've used the grill with the rotisserie burner but never the oven.

I would like to buy a salt block and found one on Amazon for $8 but since it is so heavy, shipping cost way more than the salt block itself. Any ideas where I can one locally? I saw one at the new spice shop that opened up in Lincoln Square but I think it was around $30 (although I could be remembering that incorrectly). Any suggestions?

The Spice House carries them.