Narrator: Break open this gray sphere,
and you'll reveal one of India's most popular salts.
It's called black salt, or kala namak.
Centuries ago, it was used as medicine for digestion.
Today, the salt is a staple in South Asian cuisine,
known for its unique eggy and umami taste.
Workers risk burning their skin
on a nearly 1,000-degree-Celsius kiln
and spend hours inhaling smoke
to make it the traditional way.
But the long and dangerous process
has pushed people away from the craft.
Chetak is one of the last factories
making kala namak this way.
But it's on the brink of shutting down.
We went to Lucknow in India
to see how this black salt is made
and how, despite the challenges,
this factory is still standing.
Even though it's hard to make,
kala namak is still massively popular
in South Asian cuisine.
And it's even finding a home in spice blends
made in the United States.
But as workers prepare to cook kala namak,
they have to fire the kiln
up to dangerously hot temperatures.
The high heat damages the kiln over time,
so they have to rebuild it every year.
They fill the kiln with cow dung,
which works as fuel for the fire.
The Chetak black-salt factory
goes through 5,000 pieces of it every week.
Workers pour in a layer of coal
and use burning bicycle tires to set everything on fire.
Sometimes they use diesel, but it's more expensive.
On the other side of the factory,
workers prepare the pots.
Shiv Shankar Prajapati has been making them for the factory
for the last seven years.
He learned the tricks of the trade from his father.
Narrator: Shiv still uses his family's techniques
to make the pots completely by hand.
This potter's wheel relies on the momentum from spinning it.
Narrator: Shiv says this step can only be done manually.
He has to constantly change how fast
he's spinning the clay to get the perfect shape.
Narrator: This wooden tool, called a thapa,
helps smooth the pot's surface.
It takes him 18 minutes to turn this clump of clay
into a perfectly round pot.
Shiv can make 30 to 35 pots every day.
Workers add another layer of clay to the inside
and outside of the pot to fill in any cracks
and then leave it to dry for four hours.
Narrator: Each kiln can hold up to 32 pots.
Workers have to make sure that
each one is steady and heated from all sides,
so they add pieces of coal and cow dung to fill in any gaps.
The temperature can reach
up to nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius,
and smoke from the burning coals and cow dung
consumes the air as they burn.
Narrator: When the pots are hot enough,
workers add 3 kilograms of raw Sambhar salt.
It is found at Sambhar Lake,
India's largest inland salt lake,
over 670 kilometers away from Lucknow.
This mixture of finely ground plants and fruits
is the key ingredient in kala namak.
It gives the salt its signature black color
and distinctive flavor.
Workers have to be careful
as they pour 1 kilogram of it into each pot.
Narrator: After two hours,
the salt and powder melt together.
Workers use an iron rod to check the salt from a distance
to avoid getting burned, but it's not always foolproof.
Narrator: Some employees who live at the factory
have to deal with the heat all day long.
Narrator: They work through the night, tending to the fire
and adding more salt and powder until the pots are filled.
Narrator: Cooking one batch of kala namak takes 24 hours.
At around 3 o'clock in the morning,
the fire dies out under the pots.
Narrator: One pot can weigh up to 35 kilograms.
Breaking the pots is the only way
to get to the finished kala namak.
After letting them cool for an hour,
workers use hammers to shatter them,
revealing the finished salt inside.
At this point, the kala namak is still extremely hot.
So workers cover the balls with raw Sambhar salt
to cool them down.
They break the kala namak into smaller pieces.
Narrator: Some of it is sold in large chunks.
The rest is ground into a fine powder.
Although kala namak appears black when removed from the pot,
the salt crystals look white after grinding.
Narrator: Chetak makes around
250 packets of kala namak a day.
Narrator: Ram Chandra Gupta has been running the factory
for the past 10 years.
Narrator: But now he's on the brink of closing it down.
Labor shortages and erratic weather
have been threatening the business lately.
Ram says fewer people want to do this difficult work.
Narrator: Even some of his employees aren't interested
in passing the traditional craft
down to the next generation.
Narrator: Demand for kala namak
has increased in recent years.
Its unique taste has made it a popular ingredient for chefs,
both in India and abroad.
In 2023, India was the largest exporter
of black salt in the world.
To meet this increased demand,
black-salt producers have shifted
from using traditional practices to machines.
But this has left factories like Chetak
struggling to keep up.
Narrator: The factory's location in Lucknow
has also made it more expensive
to get the raw materials, like Sambhar salt.
Narrator: Ram's team can make kala namak this way
year-round.
But another, more recent challenge to this tradition
is unpredictable weather.
He has to watch out for heavy rains,
which have been hitting the area even during dry season.
Narrator: Rain can also make the already dangerous
salt-making process even more risky.
Narrator: Despite the challenges,
Chetak is still the only factory
producing kala namak for customers in Lucknow.
The salt is a key ingredient
in Indian street foods like chaat and salads.
Narrator: In recent decades,
the salt has found a home outside of South Asia.
Barkha Cardoz is a culinary entrepreneur
living in New Jersey.
She's been eating kala namak
since she was a little girl in India.
Barkha: As a child, you didn't pick up on
what it specifically was.
You just knew there was
a different kind of salt in your drink or your food,
or you topped your yogurt with it.
Narrator: Today, she brings classic Indian flavors
to the American market with her spice blends.
She works with a spice company, Burlap & Barrel,
to source the kala namak she uses from India.
Barkha: Bringing it to other markets out of India.
Not only are we increasing awareness
of our beautiful cuisine,
but we're also bringing awareness
to our farmers, how they work.
Narrator: The salt is a key ingredient
in one of her most popular blends, chaat masala.
Barkha: So, I'm going to add tamarind,
ginger,
kala namak,
chili powder,
a little bit of the asafoetida hing.
Not a lot, but just a little bit.
And then this is all the other spices that we had put in.
And this is how I like to taste it.
Just take a little bit of it.
Ooh, I love it.
It's good.
It's sharp. It's spicy. It's tangy.
Narrator: Over the years, Barkha says she's seen
the salt become more widely used in America,
especially in vegan cuisine, thanks to its eggy taste.
Barkha: Just finishing it with a little bit
of that black salt,
you realize you get a little bit of that flavor,
which reminds you of that egg
that you've given up.
There are so many amazing chefs, not just Indian,
but American chefs that are using it
and are talking about it.
I'm just so proud and happy that
we're opening it up to the world.
Something that we all took for granted
growing up in India, or using it even today,
and to then see friends of yours
or people you know asking you about it
and wanting to learn more about it and use it.
That's perfect.
Narrator: Today, Chetak sells its kala namak to merchants,
who export it to countries like the US and the UK.
While Ram doesn't know
what the future holds for his factory,
he's proud of the work he's done
to keep traditional kala namak alive.