At Maison DEHESA, salt remains a tool. What we seek goes by another name: the saline notes, that share of iodine and minerality which the sea lays down in a product and which time reveals.
Salt, a tool
Salt preserves and refines. Poorly measured, it crushes everything: the reproach so often levelled at bottarga or anchovy, whose salt ends up masking the taste. Our slow maturations reverse the proportion. The salt recedes, the saline note remains.
The saline note converses with the other flavours. It balances bitterness, and acidity reveals it.
Four saline notes of the Maison
The Cantabrian anchovy
Boned with tweezers in the Bay of Santoña, matured over long months, our Cantabrian anchovies offer a buttery texture and iodine aromas close to those of bottarga, with no dominant saltiness.
The grey mullet bottarga
Salted with restraint, then aged for one to three months, the bottarga melts the salt into iodine and bitterness. Grated or sliced, it is a seasoning in itself.
The dried bluefin tuna heart
Slowly dried in the Japanese katsuobushi tradition, the bluefin tuna heart concentrates the aromas of the sea with great finesse. On the katsuobushi grater, it falls in fine shavings and puts its signature on the dish at the last moment.
The anchovy garum
Drawn from the brine of our XXL Cantabrian anchovies, the anchovy garum carries the saline note in liquid form. A few drops are enough to give tension to a vinaigrette or a beurre blanc.
In the chefs’ kitchens
- Sota Atsumi grates the dried tuna heart over a crêpe filled with Jerusalem artichoke and radicchio: saline and bitter notes answer one another.
- Nino de la Spina plays our XXL anchovies against the aged vinegar and the green olives.