What exactly is a Salty Dog?

 

I happen to love salt and Lord knows I have met my share of dogs—both the two and four-legged variety. But how did the two ever get put together as an expression?

I will tell you—it is the most delicious candy bar you will ever taste. Sea salt and dark chocolate together is truly delightful. Delightful is not an expression I normally use but seriously, I can find no better description of this delicious combination.

For those who know me well, I am a diehard peanut butter/chocolate fan. In fact my sons are lucky that one of them is not named Reese. But I am willing to step away from the peanut butter cup in favor of the Salty Dog.

Some of you will cringe, but I ate lots of rock salt as a child. My dad kept a large bag in the garage for making homemade ice cream. I would dig down to find the biggest piece and suck on it all afternoon like candy. Sometimes I liked to pretend the rocks were real diamonds and I was rich with a pocket full of gems.

 

Later when I worked as a waitress at Satellite’s Country Inn, I would fill a plate with hamburger pickles and salt them for my favorite afternoon snack.

Salt was everywhere and easily attainable. It tasted so good I never worried that it could hurt me or cause health problems later in life. I can make a long list of salt-laden foods I love…. green olives, sunflower seeds, capers, pretzels in honey mustard dip…. and of course hot buttered popcorn with sea salt.

Have you tried topping your bag of popcorn with a bag of dark chocolate M & M’s? Truly a snack to die for.

I don’t know why it took me so long to find the salty dog. Now that I have, I think about it all the time. I bought a large bar and kept it in the freezer trying to just have one…or two…or three squares a day. Finally I finished it and now I just enjoy buying it one piece at a time every few weeks, like a great reward for skipping the peanut butter cups at the grocery store.

I tried to find a recipe so we could make our own “Salty Dog chocolate bar” but the best I could do was a drink made with gin and grapefruit juice. Until this recipe can be found we will have to purchase these “dogs” from our favorite neighborhood chocolatier. A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man, and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her.

Helen Rowland