What Are The Differences Between Kosher Salt, Table Salt, & Sea Salt?
There are so many varieties of salt on offer in the shops that it can sometimes be confusing trying to work out exactly what is what. Read on to discover what makes each salt unique.
Salt! Could you imagine a life without it? It is that one ingredient that can turn a bland meal into a well seasoned, delicious one.
When you head to the store you may be confronted with an aisle filled with a plethora of different types of salt ranging from Pink Himalayan, Sea salt, table salt, Kosher, garlic … the list seems endless.
The three most commonly used salts are Sea salt, table salt, and Kosher salt. So what makes each one different? Let’s look into it a little deeper.
Sea Salt
Sea Salt: Sea salt undergoes the least processing and refinement. The granular flakes are collected through a process of evaporating sea water and extracting the dried remnants. The texture of sea salt is quite coarse; therefore, a little bit goes a long way. One of the most commonly used ways of dispensing sea salt is via a salt grinder which is in effect the same thing as a pepper grinder.
As sea salt tends to be the most expensive of the three salts listed here, it is typically used as a finishing salt. A finishing salt can be a game changer and make all the difference to the final taste of the meal. The coarse yet light flakes give a melt in the mouth effect that table salt cannot compare too.
Kosher Salt
Kosher Salt: Kosher salt is less refined than table salt yet more refined than sea salt. It contains large flakes which do not compact together easily and is the most versatile of the three. It is an ideal choice for seasoning and adding flavor to food during all stages of cooking from before cooking begins, during, and after.
Kosher salt got its name from the way in which it used to be used to remove blood from meat, which is also known as koshering. While most people think of Kosher as being a Jewish dietary guideline, most of the kosher salt is actually not even Kosher, whereas many of the salts that are not called Kosher are indeed Kosher.
Table Salt
Table Salt: Table salt is probably the most widely used of all the salts and is possibly sat on your dining table right now. Table salt is the most refined of the three salts listed here and undergoes a process of finely chopping the crystals to the same size as grains of sand. Table salt is also likely to contain anti-caking agents and to be iodized. Unlike sea salt and kosher salt, table salt is not normally a by-product of seawater evaporation but from underground salt mining.
As the name suggests, table salt is usually found on the table and is used for last-minute seasoning of meals. It is also a good choice when it comes to seasoning soups, adding to the water used to boil potatoes and vegetables, and for sprinkling over meat to draw out excessive fluids before cooking.
Salty Conclusion –
So the next time you head to the store to stock up on salt, try to think of the ways in which you use it the most and buy the type better suited to your requirements. Remember that sea salt will be the most costly of the three due to its purity and flavor, while table salt will prove to be the most economical for general salting purposes due to its dense content and low price.
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