Blackthorn

Ayrshire, Scotland · Firth of Clyde seawater, thorn tower, then open pan · Gregorie Marshall

Seawater from the Firth of Clyde is pumped to the top of a timber tower packed with blackthorn branches and left to trickle down through them, where the wind takes most of the water and carries the brine from three per cent salt to more than twenty. What is left goes to the pan house, is gently heated, and forms hollow pyramid crystals that are lifted by hand. Gregorie Marshall built the tower in Ayrshire in 2019; his family has traded salt since 1874. The flake is dry, quick, and a shade softer than most — the one for anything with a seared surface.

• Crystalpale-straw pyramid flake
• Dissolutionfast — a bright burst, then gone
• Moisturedry and crisp
• Adhesionperches on the surface
• Texturea soft, light snap
• Applicationsteak, chops, dark chocolate