What is salt baking?

Question

I have seen in cooking competition videos many approaches to salt baking vegetables and fish.

• the vegetable is placed atop a pile of salt
• the salt is mixed with egg white to make a casing that is hard packed around the object and baked
• egg whites are whipped into a meringue and the salt is mixed as a sugar would be with french meringue. The object is "frosted" with the meringue like a baked alaska.

Are all of these valid approaches to "salt baking"?

Answer 1

yes.

Usually the food is places in a "coffin" of wet salt (water or most of time egg whites).

The food is sometimes wrapped in leaves to protect it from the salt; or in the case of whole fish, the skin will protect it from the salt.

There's also another technique to cook the food on a slab of rock salt; you slowly heat the salt slab in the oven and when it's hot enough, you can "grill" the food on it. (as far as I know, it's mostly useless).