table salt vs. sea salt

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 1:37am

so I was reading that it's really a preference thing and there's no difference health wise... but i was wondering what you all preferred for cooking and seasoning... table or sea salt and why?

[~tiny~]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 2:13am

Kosher Salt. It's big crystals and you don't have to use much to bring out the flavor of your food. I use Sea Salt, too. Not sure if there's a health diff.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 5:37am

I don't find there is any difference to my palate. So I use regular table salt.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 6:06am

One sounds fancier.

[After Eight]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 6:42am

The flavor of sea salt is stronger and more concentrated, so you have to use less of it. I think it tastes much better.

"One sounds fancier."

Ain't that the truth. :).

Then there are different categories of sea salt, and different colors, too. There's a salmon pink one that would look very nice on the table. But as far as fancy goes, you would want to serve your guests "fleur de sel," the ne plus ultra of French sea salts ---- that is, if you want to spend an arm and a leg on a pretty name.

[Jane2]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 8:21am

I use grey sea salt from the Island of Re, in France. I have to use much less salt with this one, and because of health reasons, I researched the different salts. I also use unrefined salt.

Price, name and color don't mean a thing to me. Health does.

I taste a sharp difference between say, Morton's and the salts I use. The Morton's tastes much saltier.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 8:21am

All salts are pretty much sea salt, because they pretty much all come from the sea. (Unless they come form inside a volcano....see below.)

Table salt is processed to remove all the elements and trace minerals, which are actually good for you. They add iodine back in, but nothing else.

Pink Himalayan salt and Indian black salt are both unrefined and have different and stronger tastes than processed salt.

The ultimate salt experience can be had at the beginning of one of the most expensive meals in New York: at Thomas Keller's Per Se in Columbus Circle.

With the bread and butter, the waiter puts down a "selection of Artisinal Salts," which includes six salts: one from the Dead Sea, one from Iceland, one from Bolivia and the one that came from inside a volcano in Hawaii.



Here's an interesting (if typically pretentious) article by Mimi Sheraton on searching for salts.
SMITHSONIAN: Mimi Sheraton's Tasting Tour of Salts Around the World

[Jane2]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 8:31am

Mimi Sheraton just talks about flavor. Personally, flavor shmavor. I'm only concerned with the health aspect, as I have blood pressure issues.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 9:47am

One thing to keep in mind is that if a recipe calls for 1 tsp of kosher salt (for example) you will not want to use 1 tsp of table salt. Since table salt comes in a much finer grain than kosher salt you will be putting a whole lot more salt into your recipe than what the creator/author intended and it could really throw off the flavor.

I typically vary between sea salt and kosher salt. I will almost always use sea salt to salt my pasta water (pasta, according to one Italian who taught me a lot about cooking, should always be cooked in water that tastes like the sea). Kosher salt is typically what I'll have out on the table for adjusting the flavor of dishes once they are done.

[artscallion]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 10:58am

I consider table salt and kosher salt as cooking salts. I use these for cooking, baking, salting pasta water, etc. As AEA says, there is a difference in measuring. They are not interchangeable without adjusting the amount. I generally use kosher because it has a cleaner taste to me.

I consider sea salt to be a finishing salt. In other words, something to sprinkle on a finished dish either before serving or at the table. Sea salt can add color, flavor, a great crunchy texture and occasional bursts of salty taste on your already seasoned dish. I have many varieties of sea salt. But my favorite, like Jane, is grey sea salt from France. Nothing like it! I never use sea salt in cooking. Seems a waste to me.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 12:15pm

I like sea salt.

It makes me feel like my fries are being served by mermaids or something.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 12:21pm

I love the salty bite you get from sea salt, as opposed to table salt, especially if I bite into a flake. I think artscallion's suggesting is spot on, there's something about topping brownies with caramel and then sprinkling some sea salt on it that makes it so delicious. I have oversalted a lot of things using sea salt though, so just be careful with the amount you use.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 2:01pm

thanks for the responses! the thought just never crossed my mind until a friend of mine used sea salt to season his foods and he just said it was better then regular salt... but yes... one does sound fancier! ha

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 3:58pm

I use sea salt a lot when cooking. There are some wonderful flavored sea salts here that I discovered at IKEA, of all places. (They no longer carry then since they stopped stocking authentic Swedish food, opting instead for IKEA brand generics.). The first I got was Karl Johan mushroom flavored and it remains my favorite. It's wonderful in creamy pastas and with meats. Currently, I have natural, chipotle, wild garlic, oak and hickory. They are all great. Hickory is wonderful with pork.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 5:25pm

Okay, I am not a chef and I'm not trained at all, I just cook a lot. I've read *a lot* of cookbooks and professional chefs do say sea salt (but especially kosher salt is better). In terms of sea salt, I've always wondered, if I made something that was damn good and well seasoned with regular table salt, would people really be able to tell a difference? Maybe more sophisticated palates could answer this question, but my mom cooked so much with table salt when I was growing up, and I've been to some 4 star restaurants where the food couldn't touch my mom's, so it does make me wonder about this idea of sea salt being "better."

[Addison D.]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 6:40pm

(My last David Rakoff post of the day...)

from 'Don't Get Too Comfortable':

"...Subtleties of flavor previously thought non-existent or at the very least nonsensical are now the subject of earnest interrogation. In the food section of 'The New York Times', Amanda Hesser, a generally very fine journalist, writing about Fleur de Sel, had this to say about the sea salt that is harvested in France and available in NYC for $36 a Kilo: "As I ate them, fine crystals of salt sprinkled on the potatoes crackled under my teeth, releasing tiny bursts that tasted of the sea and its minerals. There was no sting at the back of the mouth, no bitterness, just a silky, salty essence wrapping each bite of potato." Sting at the back of the mouth? Bitterness?? What has poor Amanda Hesser been doing all these years to add savor to her food? Licking undeveloped Polaroids?..."

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 7:23pm

"I like sea salt.

It makes me feel like my fries are being served by mermaids or something."

I loled.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 11:35pm

Jane--not sure if I believe all the hype but they say the pink and black salt have less sodium and so are "better" for you than table salt.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 11:43pm

now for those that use sea salt.. do you always have to use a grinder or can you get some already ground...

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/4/13 at 12:00am

Trader Joe's has sea salt that is already finely ground, amongst other varieties.