The Difference Between Salt and Salts
Salt has been a staple of food since the beginning of time. The earliest evidence we have for salt comes from the Egyptians, who used it as an embalming fluid. Early Greeks and Romans used salt to clean their bodies and reduce the effects of injuries, diseases, and poisons. Throughout ancient civilizations, salt was used for its medicinal purposes, in addition to being a means of preserving food. This wide-range history gives us plenty of reasons to use salt – but what are the best ways to use it?
There are two basic ways to use kosher salt in your cooking. You either coarsely chop it coarsely with a knife or, if you prefer, you can soften it with water or milk. Here’s what you should know about this difference between sea salt and kosher salt. While generally recommend that you keep both on hand for baking and cooking, you can also use them interchangeably as a matter of preference with some variations. In fact, there are so many ways to use kosher salt that I’ll be able to mention just a few in this article.
Most cooks are familiar with “normal” salt; the variety most people buy in supermarkets and natural food stores is table salt, which has an extremely salty flavor and coarse texture. It can be used for just about everything, although its most commonly used cooking agent is for removing excess liquid from the meat when it’s being cooked. Its texture makes it particularly suitable for roasting, sauteing, and even baking. As far as flavor goes, kosher salt does a better job of adding subtle flavors to your meals than does table salt. This makes kosher salt more appropriate for baking and cooking as compared to using regular table salt.
Sodium salt is often used in cooking to help bring out the flavor of certain foods, especially seafood. Many sea foods, like shrimp and fish, benefit from a high salt content, which gives it an appealing flavor. However, most seafood tends to taste better if it’s seasoned with pink salt or table salt, rather than sea salt. Pink salt (sometimes called “mental sea salt”) is made with all-natural, unrefined sea salt, without any additives, sugar or other ingredients. Because it’s all-natural and pure, it doesn’t have any of the excesses often found in commercially-prepared salt.
Table salt is often used as well, but it has a very poor texture. It’s basically sodium chloride. As it cooks, the salt takes on a metallic or “dusty” texture that some find unpleasant. This is actually a side effect of the salt’s high concentration of sodium chloride. As the salt heats up, it releases negatively charged minerals such as calcium and magnesium, creating a salt “tea-like” flavor. This is why it’s usually served after meals or as a finishing touch on table salt: to enhance the flavor.
Natural sea salt is created by electrolysis, which dissolves the salt’s minerals like calcium and magnesium into sodium chloride and other sodium ions. While this process occurs naturally in the oceans, modern salt production techniques tend to accelerate this process, which results in more concentrated salt, with a much cleaner texture and a much less “dusty” flavor. Today, sea salt can also be purchased in a variety of flavors, including salt brine, sea salt, kosher salt and unrefined sea salt, so there are many options for your salt needs. Many people even choose to make their own salt blend, using sea salt and rock salt (also known as sea salt).
Unrefined sea salt is just that – uncooked. Natural sea salt will have a slightly different texture than table salt, but it still has its natural flavor. Rock salt on the other hand is pasteurized and then treated with iodine. Iodine is important to the proper flavor of kosher salt, which is why it’s generally added at the curing process. As a result, the salt becomes darker, offers a different flavor and has a grayish color.
Whether sea salt or table salt is used, it is vitally important to understand that sodium chloride is one of the essential trace minerals needed to maintain a healthy diet. Without sodium chloride in our diet, we would not be able to absorb enough calcium to build strong bones, teeth and muscles. We would not be able to produce enough serotonin to send out positive brain signals to help us feel calm and balanced. And without the necessary trace minerals, no matter how many times we eat, we would always have that dull, iodine deficient food taste, just masking the taste of saltiness.