Cooking on a Himalayan Salt Block: How to Heat, Season, Clean and Use One Safely
A Himalayan salt block is a thick slab of pink rock salt that you heat, chill or leave at room temperature and then cook or serve food on. It works like a griddle that seasons as it sears. It also behaves nothing like cast iron or stone, and most first-time failures come from skipping one step: heating it slowly. This guide covers how the block works, how to heat it on a gas stove, grill or in the oven, what to cook, how to clean it, and the mistakes that crack blocks. What is a Himalayan salt block? A Himalayan salt block is a cut slab of halite (rock salt) sold as a cooking plate, serving platter or curing surface. The salt is mined in the Salt Range of Punjab, Pakistan, not in the Himalayan peaks themselves, despite the name. Its pink to orange colour comes mostly from iron oxide, and the salt is roughly 96–99% sodium chloride with small amounts of calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfur and other minerals. Because the crystal structure is dense, a heated block holds heat...