Comments on: What Salt Should I Use?

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:24:15 +0000

Mark.. It’s saltnews.com not .org..

By: Mantonat

Mantonat — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:58:19 +0000

About iodine: it’s in almost everything these days, so you don’t really need table salt or fish to get it. Eat fish because you like it. Your body needs so little iodine that if you eat anything at all that’s packaged (bread, canned tomatoes), you’ll get plenty of iodine.
About fleur de sel: it’s the salt that’s scraped from the top of the harvesting ponds, usually after the prevailing winds have pushed everything to one end. It’s considered more valuable because harvesting it is more labor intensive and some claim that it has a higher mineral content than regular sea salt. It’s usually a little damp and does have a little oceany flavor to it. I had a marguerita rimmed with fleur de sel at a local restaurant and it tasted like someone had put a little fish sauce in it.
I second the coriander salt comment above! My cilantro plants went to seed last summer so I toasted the seeds, ground them, and mixed them with coarse sea salt. It’s a great addition to vegetable dishes.
Black salt: I read recently that black salt is not naturally occurring but is sea salt with the addition of activated charcoal. I haven’t noticed a flavor difference but it looks good on some foods. I woudln’t spend money on it, but it was a nice gift. I also wouldn’t mix it into food or add it while cooking, unless – as mentioned above – you want gray food.
Make my own chevre cheese at home and sometimes serve the cheese rolled into balls and coated with a variety of salts. A fun presentation – great with smoked salt.

By: bob delgrosso

bob delgrosso — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:49:28 +0000

Fred
I get it!

By: Bronwyn

Bronwyn — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:46:20 +0000

@Rhonda, Sodium is an issue because it’s sodium. You don’t get too much sodium from eating iodine or glucose (dextrose) you get it from eating too much sodium, i.e. sodium chloride, aka salt. That said, if you don’t have high blood pressure problems you don’t need to cut your salt. I had a very elderly aunt who ended up taking drugs for LOW blood pressure until I told her doctor she’d been eating virtually no salt (her husband got put on a low salt diet so she thought it must be good for her too), so he stopped the drugs and got her salting her food again. You have to remember that the health recommendation to lower salt intake is a public health thing – if we all lower our salt intake the AVERAGE health of the population as a whole will improve. This is not the same thing as everyone’s health improving – it can come from half the people’s health improving, a quarter staying the same, and another quarter getting worse.
Here in New Zealand we do have to eat iodised salt. Our soils are naturally very low in iodine, and since the foodie craze began, with celebrity chefs telling us to eat non-iodised salt, we have had a major upsurge in thyroid problems. Other countries don’t necessarily have this problem, but we do. So, I use iodised table salt for salting cooking water and making bread and cakes and suchlike, I use coarse sea salt in my grinder for putting on stuff (“finishing”, I suppose if you want to be fancy), and fine non-iodised salt (often the coarse stuff put through a food processor) for making cheese and cured meat things like salami. Our ordinary salt is all sea salt too – we don’t have salt deposits, but we have a lot of sea around us.

By: Max

Max — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:39:42 +0000

My brother turned me on to RealSalt. I was very skeptical at first, because the product marketing was really over the top (e.g. Made from an underground ocean that evaporated millions of years ago…), but I immediately got better feedback on my cooking after using it. I think it’s the trace minerals. It also claims to be naturally iodized. It’s a nice pinkish / gray color.

I also have used Maldon as a finishing salt, but the biggest noticeable difference in taste came from using RealSalt. Anyone else tried this?

By: Fred

Fred — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:41:00 +0000

Bob
The salt is the same sodium chloride, and it dried and crystallized in the same manner, so you are correct, there is no difference there. My point was that almost any salt, whether it is hand harvested in evaporation pools from the Mediterranean or mined from a halite deposit deep in the ground of Saskatchewan or Kansas, can be marketed as sea salt. I would think a lot of people who buy sea salt do so under the impression it is coming from a body of water that still exists, not one that evaporated thousands or even millions of years ago.

By: bob delgrosso

bob delgrosso — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:48:56 +0000

Fred
When someone wants to make sea salt one of the most common ways to do it is to isolate sea water in a a timber framed basin near the edge of the sea. Then they let the sun drive off the H2O and collect the salt crystals that coalesce at the bottom of the basin. How is this fundamentally different from salt that is created when a sea water is isolated by geological fiat? Is it not the same sea (s) that provides the salt water and the same sun that drives off the water and causes the salt to crystallize?

By: Fred

Fred — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:34:11 +0000

Not all “sea salt” comes from the sea. I believe it was in Kurlansky’s “Salt” where I read a bit about certain companies that were marketing salt that came from inland mines as “sea-salt”. The logic was that these deposits were left X million years ago by a body of water and therefore they were technically “sea salt.” By this logic your everyday table salt could be repackaged in a pretty blue or red cylinder, given a fancy French name and sold at a highly inflated price. If you’re going to spend the extra money on the fancy sea salt, its a good idea to know which sea it comes from.

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:57:08 +0000

Chef del Grosso:

I love you for so many reasons. Especially because I know you went away and weighed salt and came to scientific conclusions about sodium.

Did you see Metaxa’s comment vis-a-vis the additional additives that go into common place table salt in Canada (and the US because, that’s where we get it from)?

I think this is why my panties are in a twist. I always knew something was wrong with the salt that is sold to the masses but couldn’t put my finger on it.

I don’t think we are dealing with a sodium issue. I think we are dealing with an additive issue. What the fuck is in table salt really?

By: bob delgrosso

bob delgrosso — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:30:26 +0000

@Nancy
Kosher salt has about 15% less sodium relative to table salt >per unit volume<. However, when you weigh the two (as opposed to measuring teaspoons, tablespoons and other volume measures) they have the same amount of sodium. So, one weighed (or massed) ounce of table salt has the same amount of sodium as one weighed ounce of Kosher salt.

Okay, the answer to your question is "Yes." When you sub Kosher salt for table salt in a recipe that calls for a given volume of the former you need to increase the amount of Kosher salt by approx 15-20 %.

By: Natalie Sztern

Natalie Sztern — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:43:24 +0000

FYI table salt made into a paste with lemon juice or vinegar is a great cleaner…especially for the inside of copper pots…FYI

By: Natalie Sztern

Natalie Sztern — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:39:10 +0000

Metaxa : u are right!! just looked at my box of sel de table…(Quebec and all) and sure enough it has dextrose!!…but not my Kosher salt….

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:35:37 +0000

Metaxa:

This is excellent information! I am going to investigate this more.

What I know for sure is that the “Table Salt” that is sold in boxes (in Canada and I am sure, the US) is bad. It has been tampered with. It is not pure. I avoid it like the plague. It simply tastes awful.

As you know, salt is one of the, if not the most important ingredients in cooking.

We now know that large corporations are fucking with our food. There is hidden FrankenCorn in most everything and they are screwing with the wheat. I never heard of gluten intolerance before and now it is common. It must be the wheat! Somebody, somewhere, is screwing with it because 20 years ago, gluten intolerance was rare. Now, it is becoming commonplace.

Your comment led me to review Ruhlman’s previous post on salt and there was a response to me from JW, which I appreciated very much.

I want to learn more about this and will continue to read on the subject.

Thanks for the information.

Best to you,

Rhonda

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:40:50 +0000

So, should we use the Diamond Crystal now that we know it’s Cargill? I buy Diamond Crystal on sale at Supertarget for .99 cents a can.

By: What Salt Should I Use? « Stacey Adams

What Salt Should I Use? « Stacey Adams — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:05:44 +0000

[...] The link: What Salt Should I Use? [...]

By: HankShaw

HankShaw — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:12:14 +0000

In general I am with ya, Michael. But I will second those people who use smoked salt and the colored salts — I have not real use for flavored salts. I use smoked salt VERY sparingly, as it can take over. I also like the Hawaiian red and black salts for visual interest. A little red salt and fresh black pepper on a white food like fish really snaps the eye, IMHO.

One side note: Kosher salt is NOT pickling salt, as I am sure you know. Both are good, but pickling salt is finer so it can dissolve easier. I’ve had some bad experiences pickling with kosher from a recipe calling for pickling salt…

By: Nathan Pralle

Nathan Pralle — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:58:34 +0000

Like most home cooks, we used to use standard table salt and then some years ago were gifted with some sea salt. It was nice, but reaching for the standard shaker was easier than pulling out the little bag and sprinkling it, so we didn’t use it.

Then enter my current salt grinder, given by a friend, along with another bag of sea salt. Suddenly it was easy to use and we switched and have never looked back.

We now use kosher for everyday use as well and sea for more delicate flavors/applications. I have yet to find a fleur de sel around here that is anything decent; I really want to try making my own the next time I am in Australia on the beach, as in theory it’s very easy if you have ocean water, a pot, and a lot of time. Anyone else made their own before?

My wife still gawks in amazement about how much better “real” salt tastes and works in the kitchen, and I couldn’t agree more. For something so ubiquitous, why do so many of us insist on using crap?

By: Barbara @ VinoLuciStyle

Barbara @ VinoLuciStyle — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:57:35 +0000

I considered my salt collection to be pretty exotic once I added some grey salt to the mix but that was a couple of years ago when I used table salt for seasoning and kosher salt for making ice cream!

Now I have a variety of salts I love to use, mostly made possible by a local spice shop that stocks a variety of salts. Maldon adds a great visual appeal to food. I have some Hawaiian pink salt that tastes different but mostly I use it for salads when I just think the color will add a punch. I’ve got smoked salt that I love on salmon and…well, do get Diamond Crystal Kosher salt too Tom.

Although they are local, http://www.savoryspiceshop.com is also online and thought I would share with Priscilla what they say about kosher salt:

Kosher salt was a term that was created by kosher butchers referring to the size of the salt crystal rather than the fact of the salt actually being kosher. Kosher salt itself is not kosher, meaning it doesn’t conform to Jewish food laws, but instead is used to make meats kosher. This salt is not really a kosher product unless it bears the kosher symbol.

Who knew? (Not me!)

By: Priscilla

Priscilla — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:29:39 +0000

As a Australian I do not understand what Kosher salt is and neither do my Jewish firends

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:39:44 +0000

I wish my store stocked Diamond kosher salt if only so I could try it. Maybe I just need to do some more sleuthing