The Scoop on Salt

Have you ever wondered which salt to use when?  Sometimes a recipe is specific and states “Kosher Salt” or “Sea Salt” or even “Table Salt” but other times a recipe will just say “Salt”.  Snd then what are you supposed to do?  People ask me all the time, “Which salt do I use and when?”

Today we are going to discuss the three most commonly used salts in the kithchen; Kosher Salt, Sea Salt, and Table Salt.

As a general rule of thumb, I almost always use Kosher Salt.  It is excellent for cooking, dissolves very quickly, and is flaky which makes it easy to grab a pinch.  Kosher Salt contains no preservatives and, depending on which brand you buy, contains no caking agents.  I keep a salt canister next to my cooktop filled with Kosher Salt and use it for nearly everything I cook.

Sea Salt is harvested from evaporated seawater and lightly processed. The minimum processing of the raw salt leaves behind the minerals from the water it came from.  Occasionally, Sea Salt will have a slight color hue from those minerals.  While Sea Salt and Kosher Salt are generally inter-changeable, I prefer to use coarse Sea Salt on raw foods or when a food is finished cooking, such as salads, corn on the cob, vegetables, and shellfish.  Essentially, I use coarse Sea Salt as a finishing agent.

Table Salt is best for baking because the granules dissolve very quickly and you can get an exactly measure a bit easier since it is so fine.  Table Salt is very finely ground and not easily inter-changed with Kosher Salt and coarse Sea Salt.  You can in many recipes, evenly swap Table Salt with fine ground Sea Salt.  I don’t keep table salt in my pantry.  I use fine ground Sea Salt for baking.

To sum it up, the main difference between these salts are their texture.  Table Salt is fine ground, Sea Salt can be either fine ground or coarse, Kosher Salt is coarse and flaky.

Use fine ground salts for baking and coarse salts for cooking and finishing.  If you want to keep your salt collection to an absolute minimum, I recommend Kosher salt for cooking and fine ground Sea Salt for baking.