ASIN TIBUOK SEA SALT
Description
A very rare traditionally made sea salt from the Philippines. Asin Tibuok is a prized ingredient in Filipino cuisine, adding a distinct salty flavor with hints of coconut and smoke to dishes.
Considered an endangered heritage food by the Ark of Taste and the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity.
Each Asin Tibuok weighs roughly 1 kg (2.2 lb)
Asin Tibuok ships UPS Ground from N Bergen, NJ, USA. If you order Asin Tibuok along with other items such as smoked salmon the Asin Tibouk ships separately.
How Is Asin Tibuok Made?
To produce Asin Tibuok, asinderos begin by soaking coconut husks for several months in special pits continuously refilled with fresh seawater during the tides.
The soaked husks are then chopped into smaller pieces and dried for several days, at no point during this drying process can the husks be rained on or the sea water will be washed away, and the entire process ruined.
Once fully dry, the husks are burned for several days in a large pile until completely reduced to ash. This is a long, hot process that must be watched over to ensure the fires are constantly fed and don’t burn out. The ash is then collected for the next step.
The ash, or gasang, is gathered into a large funnel-shaped bamboo filter.
More seawater is poured over the ash, allowing the water to leach the sea salt from the ashes and produce a brine. The brine, called tasik, is collected in hollowed-out coconut trunks placed beneath the funnels.
The brine, or tasik, is then poured into special clay pots and placed over a special furnace. The pots of tasik are allowed to slowly boil, continuously replenished by asinderos with more tasik as it evaporates.
Eventually the water evaporates entirely, and the pots become filled with just the remaining sea salt. Cracks are formed in the pots revealing the solidified mass of salt. Once cool enough to be handled, the asin tibuok are sold along with their broken pots.
