Fleur de Sel vs. Sea Salt

darkpixie08

Can someone explain to me the difference between the two?  I mean, I'm guessing that Fleur de Sel is a type of sea salt, but when baking are they pretty much interchangeable?  Is there really that big of a difference between the officially titled Fleur de Sel that you can get at Williams Sonoma and the generic sea salt that you can buy at the grocery store?

alithebride

to the best of my knowledge it's harvested differently and has a slightly different flavor-flowery almost-which is where the 'fleur' in the name is from.

marriedjenn

fleur de sel is too expensive for me to justify baking with it, I save fancy salts for putting on top of things where the flavor will really shine through...I would use it only to sprinkle on a finished dish.  Also, it is more likely to keep its crunchy crystal like nature if sprinkled on food compared to regular salt b/c it can withstand a higher moisture content, so it's good to use as a finishing salt if you're going for texture.

my palate isn't awesome but I don't recall ever tasting flowery notes in fleur de sel...

 As for the difference? According to wikipedia: Fleur de sel is a hand-harvested sea salt collected by workers who scrape only the top layer of salt before it sinks to the bottom of large salt pans.

So my guess is regular sea salt is just any old salt collected from seawater.

alithebride

to me it tastes slightly flowery and i think as the salt dries it gives of a flowery aroma.  

the only places i've ever been that actually harvest water and produce sea salt are sicily and mexico and neither had any aroma.

marriedjenn

alithebride:

to me it tastes slightly flowery and i think as the salt dries it gives of a flowery aroma.  

the only places i've ever been that actually harvest water and produce sea salt are sicily and mexico and neither had any aroma.

ok I just tasted mine and I def. don't taste or smell anything flowery - i think my palate really does have issues if everyone tastes flowery notes in it!

DiamondMinx1

The word "fleur" (flower) in fleur de sel comes from how the salt crystals bloom on top of the water in the salt marshes they dry. The crystal blooms look like flowers.
Fleur de sel is normally not used for baking, as it is very expensive and delicate - it is best used as a sprinkled garnish on salads or fresh vegetables, or even on a caramel desert.