Salt Baking Vegetables

Salt baking encases a whole vegetable in a thick crust of coarse salt or salt dough before roasting. As the crust hardens in the oven it traps moisture and creates an even, intense cooking environment that concentrates the vegetable's natural sweetness without making it salty. Celeriac, beetroot, turnip and whole garlic heads are all well suited to this technique. Once cooked, the crust is cracked open and discarded. On the show, Mark followed salt baking with a blowtorch on the inner faces of the celeriac, adding a layer of bitterness and char to contrast with the inherent sweetness inside. This two-step approach transforms a single ingredient into a more complex element with varied flavour and texture.