If you’re a fan of flavored salts, for your own kitchen or to give to others, the recipe in my latest Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon is for you. Herb-infused salts are so simple to make, can be flavored with almost any homegrown herb, and keep a year or more. You can use them like plain salt when cooking or at the table, or you can intentionally showcase them as a finishing salt on any dish, sprinkling them on just before serving.

You can also swing the salt-and-herb pairing the other way, with more emphasis on using the herbs than the salt. Whole herb leaves preserved in salt stay soft and pliable, letting you use them like fresh leaves long after their parent plants have died back and gone dormant under a blanket of snow. The salt keeps bacteria and mold at bay and picks up hints of the herb’s flavor, remaining usable after you’ve pull the last leaf from the jar.

Learn more about saving herbs and get the complete recipe for Salt-Preserved Herbs and Herb-Infused Salt in my column.

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Twice as Tasty

I tend to show off salts infused with homegrown herbs on fresh or grilled vegetables or atop sourdough creations like focaccia and bagels. I also love using them on cocktail glass rims. I like the way a salted rim turns a greyhound into a salty dog and enjoy a hint of that taste in every sip of a paloma or bloody Mary. When that salt has been infused with herbs, it gives a double dose of flavor.

At home, I most frequently take the time to salt the rim of Grilled Tomatillo Margaritas. Many leafy herbs can enhance the sweet-and-sour taste of the charred tomatillos, like cilantro, sorrel, and even a peppery arugula, when blended singly or as a combination into salt and rolled on the glass rim.

Different twists on margaritas can call for different herbs, as I learned when researching recent pieces for the Taste of Home. For a blended Blueberry Margarita with a touch of mint in the glass, a mint-infused salt on the rim boosts that flavor. Variations I added to the recipe include rosemary and basil, so you could change the rimming salt to match or mix-and-match the herbs.

For a Blue Margarita colored by blue curacao instead of fruit, the liqueur’s orange flavor dominates the drink’s profile. Rosemary and mint pair well with this sweet citrus taste—as does lavender, infused either into salt or into sugar for a sweet start to each sip.

You can find more of my original recipes that can showcase salt-preserved herbs and herb-infused salts in the blog’s recipe index and read more of my work off the blog here.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.