Gomashio (ごま塩, parched sesame salt)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Suribachi (ridged Japanese mortar) and surikogi (wooden pestle), or a mortar and pestle
• •Dry skillet
• •Pale plate for checking seeds
• •Small airtight jar

Instructions

1. 1

   Check the sesame

   Spread the sesame seeds on a pale plate and look them over for grit or broken bits. Black sesame hides its condition, so use your nose too. It should smell clean and faintly nutty, not oily, dusty, or like an old cupboard. No amount of careful grinding will rescue rancid seed.

2. 2

   Parch the sesame

   Put the sesame in a dry skillet over low to medium-low heat. Shake the pan and stir steadily for 6 to 8 minutes, until the seeds smell deeply nutty, look a little satin-bright, and a few begin to tick and jump. Black sesame will not show browning kindly, so listen and smell. Tip the seeds onto a plate at once so the stored heat of the pan doesn't take them from fragrant to bitter.

   The seed keeps cooking after the flame is off. Moving it to a cool plate protects the clean aroma you just made.
3. 3

   Parch the salt

   Wipe the skillet clean and add the salt. Warm it over low heat for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring, until it flows freely and looks dry. Salt carries moisture from the air, and that moisture makes gomashio clump and taste flat. Let the salt cool before it meets the sesame.

4. 4

   Grind half-fine

   Put the cooled sesame in a suribachi and work it with the surikogi in steady circles. Stop when roughly half the seeds are cracked and sandy and half remain mostly whole. Do not grind it to paste. A little oil released from the seed helps the salt cling, but too much oil makes the mixture heavy and shortens its fresh life.

   Half-fine is the point, not a failure of patience. Whole seeds don't season evenly, and powdered sesame loses its lift.
5. 5

   Mix and store

   Add the cooled parched salt to the ground sesame and turn the pestle through the mixture only a few times, just until the salt is evenly scattered. Taste a pinch on plain rice before changing the salt. Store in a dry airtight jar once everything is fully cool, and use within a week for the best fragrance.

Chef Tips

• •Buy raw black sesame from a shop with good turnover. The seeds should smell clean before they ever touch the pan. Sourcing first, always.
• •A suribachi with a wooden surikogi gives the best half-fine texture. A mortar and pestle is a good stand-in. A spice grinder works only if you pulse once or twice and stop before powder.
• •Keep the ratio gentle. Twelve to fifteen parts sesame to one part salt by weight gives a condiment for rice and porridge, not a salt lick wearing a black coat.
• •Make a small batch. Once sesame is ground, the fragrance begins to fade, and a fresh spoonful is the whole reason to make gomashio yourself.

Advance Preparation

• •For the freshest meal prep, parch the sesame and salt up to two weeks ahead, cool them fully, and store them separately. Grind and mix only what you need for the week.
• •Finished gomashio keeps about one week at cool room temperature in an airtight jar. Refrigeration extends it slightly, but let the closed jar come back to room temperature before opening so moisture doesn't condense inside.
• •Do not double the batch unless you use it quickly. Gomashio is a morning sprinkle, not a pantry monument.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 3g)