URGENT! - My Brine is Gray

[soniaR]

I made a gouda today and prepared the brine for tomorrow morning. About 80% of the salt I used is a dried gros sel de Guerande I bought in France (not for this purpose but I didn't have enough of the kosher salt). Nice stuff, but the brine is gray and I wonder if this is going to make the cheese an off color. The other 20% was Diamond kosher which was very white next to the French stuff. I never thought of this possibility. Any suggestions? Am I better of dumping it and starting over? Thanks!

[mikekchar]

I'm assuming this is fleur de sel (which Geurande is famous for)?  I've never used it, so take this with a grain of salt (ha ha), but any fleur de sel has some "biological" material in it -- dirt, bird poop, etc.  Geurande fleur de sel is famous for being made from the salt bogs in the area.  My guess is that the grey color is some of the bog material.  It *might* stain the rind, but I would guess more of a brown colour than grey...  However, my personal opinion is that it's probably fine.  Even if it stains the rind, perhaps it's OK?  I mean Geurande fleur de sel is pretty high class for cheese salt :-)  I would go with it.  I doubt it will cause any problems.  The only thing I can think of is that it might lower the pH of the brine a bit, but that would be fine.  Just taste it and if it tastes good, go for it (IMHO). 

[ArnaudForestier]

I was a French chef and regularly used Guérande fleur de sel as a finishing salt on all meats, and sel gris, drawn from the same salt pans as fleur de sel, on all fishes.  Because they are not manufactured and are drawn from the sea, they contain many more minerals than just sodium and chloride and it's this quality that makes the fleur taste more rounded, rich....not salty, but lending a bright quality to served food, particularly if served quickly enough that the flakes or granules don't dissolve and give a surprising, very light "crunch" on biting down.  My staff had to come to really know how many salts tasted & differed and this, I think, was a component that surprised my customers.  I loved bringing out things for them to experience; amazing to actually bring some out & they would say things like it doesn't taste salty at all, some sweetness, etc.  Good stuff.

Mike's right, both in the main locale (Guérande), and that these are drawn from where salt marshes join the sea.  These salts are "made" by progressively shallow pans, concentrating the salts until the last, shallowest pan, rendering the salts.  Fleur de sel ("flowers of salt") are the flakes that float in the salt pans and are removed by hand, very delicately.  Sel gris is the stuff beneath, in contact with clay and other soil components and thus is colored more deeply grey.  Fleur de sel of the Guerande can be greyish, though my experience is that it's very lightly so, if at all.  Sel gris means literally "grey salt" and is a definite, if not heavily, grey tone.  I vastly prefer the fleur from the Guerande, though south, in the Camargue, also produces it.  This fleur is actually very white.  Can't answer for the bird poop Mike, lol!

Just looked up Wiki and this picture is pretty representative of my experience, in terms of the difference in color:



sonia, first think I want to ask is if you're sure it's fleur de sel and not sel gris?  Either way, I know of people using both fleur and sel gris in dry salting cheese, so I can't think of any reason it should make your cheese off.  It is almost entirely sodium chloride, with a bit of magnesium and potassium, another mineral or two I can't recall.  But again I do know it's used in dry-salting, so would think that means it's OK in a brine?  Just an expensive brine! 

Good luck.

By the way, as with so much else, the sheep that feed off these marshes are considered a delicacy.  "Agneau de pré-salé" (salt-marsh lamb) is intensely flavored in a way unlike any other lamb.  If you can ever get a hold of it, recommend trying it.

[soniaR]

Thanks for the interesting background on this salt! I bought it when in France five years ago and never used it because it clogged up my salt mill in spite of it saying it's made for grinding! So I thought I'd use it for the brine since I was practically out of Diamond kosher. When I strained it I did see a little debris, but now it's gone and just sort of gray. If it discolors the outside of the cheese, I guess that's not so bad. But I wonder if it might discolor the inside which would bother me more. I'm including a photo of the package, now empty!

I'm pretty new at this so don't know if there's something I can do to the rind to color it in case it does turn gray. I am not planning on waxing the gouda - either vacuum seal or natural rind, I'm not sure yet.

[ArnaudForestier]

OK, thanks, sonia.  Yep, I'm not certain but I think that's a sel gris specifically produced for mills, as you mention.  They are calling it coarse salt from that area but basically anything not fleur de sel from the salt marshes would be a kind of sel gris, I believe.  In terms of milling, obviously not quite what they promised, lol. 

If it's fleur de sel, one, it's over 2X the cost of sel gris, and two, they put the fact that it's fleur de sel prominently on the package - it's a selling point.  Something like this (same packaging, just fleur de sel):



Anyway, makes sense to me it was so grey.  I wish I had a better answer for you in terms of your cheese, but I don't think it will have any effect at all on taste or texture.  And in terms of color unfortunately, I think the only thing I might have suggested would be some annatto addition, not sure if you did that or not.  Personally I'd just age it out and chow, as I'm sure it's going to be delicious.  If the possibility of this grayness is really bugging you, maybe - but this would be another cheese type - do a natural rind, seeking out moulds, like a tomme?  Or, work on a standard washed rind with a cascade of species, suggest a blend like PLA or something like that?  It would be interesting to see how a grey, if it shows up, either blends with the color of the rind species, or is simply supplanted by them?

Not sure how helpful any of that is, sorry.  I can't tell you how many "unexpected" cheeses I got when I was starting, so kudos to you.  If it were me, I'd just age it out (I think you're natural rind is awesome), and enjoy.  And start on Gouda 2 as soon as you've got the itch....

[soniaR]

I was pleased to see this morning that much of the gray stuff had settled to the bottom of the jar. I poured out the good stuff and got rid of the residue at the bottom. While the brine might not be as clear as it would be with "normal" salt, it's not as bad as I feared. I will definitely use it. I think I'll take a before and after picture to see if there's a difference.

Arnaud, thanks for all your input on this salt. I feel bad that I waited to use it all these years, but now for a brine! I hope I didn't insult anyone!! I have heard of agneau de pre-sale (I need to figure out how to type accent marks) but have never tried it. Next trip to France!