Tips & Tricks: Kosher Salt

[runpunkrun]

Kosher salt—or kitchen salt—is a coarse salt used for seasoning meats and vegetables but also, more and more, in baking. Because its crystals are much larger than table salt, a teaspoon of kosher salt has less salt in it than teaspoon of fine salt, which means kosher salt and fine salt—whether it's table salt or sea salt—aren't interchangeable. If a recipe calls for kosher salt, you better use kosher salt.

That's pretty obvious. But what isn't obvious is that different brands of kosher salts can have different densities. That means one kosher salt might actually be saltier than another, and this is where we get into trouble. I use Morton kosher salt; Diamond Crystal—another popular brand—is much less salty in comparison. That means if I'm following a recipe that was developed for Diamond Crystal kosher salt, I'm going to end up using more salt than intended because a teaspoon of Diamond Crystal salt might be just right, but a teaspoon of Morton salt is going to be too much.

In savory cooking, this is less of a problem if you're familiar with how much salt you need and you're salting by feel—like salting a chicken before roasting, or a bunch of veggies. This is one of the things kosher salt is really good for because you can grab some and actually hold onto it, unlike fine salt, and over time you get a feel for how much salt is enough. The Salt episode of Samin Nosrat's Fat Salt Acid Heat on Netflix goes into this in detail. It changed the way I use salt while cooking, and I recommend watching it if you can.

But any time you're following a recipe that calls for a precise volume of kosher salt, there's a chance things could go wrong. Maybe it'll just be that your chili isn't salty enough, but that's easily fixed at the table. It's much harder to fix a lentil loaf that could double as a salt lick. And in baking, the amount of salt can be crucial, particularly in yeasted breads, so not only will your bread be salty, you could kill your yeasts and suffer structural failures as well.

So what can we do? If you use kosher salt in a recipe you're sharing here, be sure to tell us what brand you use, or even better, give us a weight in grams. If you're reading a recipe online and it calls for kosher salt, check the comments to see if anyone's complaining it's salty. If you're developing a recipe you plan on sharing, avoid the problem entirely and use a fine salt, like table salt or sea salt. Unless, of course, the kosher salt is being used as a finisher. Coarse salts are great on top of things like brownies, fudge, or cookies. And this is where it pays to know the salt you're using, because if a recipe tells you to sprinkle your brownies with coarse salt, you'll know the right amount to use to give your brownies just enough of a salty bite.

Here's a good article on the problem: The Kosher Salt Question, by Mari Uyehara.

Comments

[celli]

I had no idea! Thank you!

[runpunkrun]

I discovered this by accident while Googling about for Diamond Crystal. I'd been thinking of trying it because Samin Nosrat likes it, but after reading that article I decided to stick with what I know.

[nerakrose]

huh, the more you know. i always just thought kosher salt was some kind of american jewish invention (since it only appears in american recipes) but it's just...salt processed a bit differently?

i use flaky sea salt in everything, and since it's a lot lighter than fine/normal salt i've learned to adjust for it. a half tsp of normal salt usually means a heaped teaspoon of the sea salt i use, though for baking i'll put it through a grinder to get something approximating fine salt...

going by weight seems like the best option really :'D

[runpunkrun]

Kosher salt has fewer (or no) additives like iodine or anti-caking agents. It's just coarse salt that was used to dry-brine meats--a Jewish practice--and picked up the name from there. It's not necessarily kosher, or even Jewish for that matter.

I'll have to test my scale to see if it'll register small amounts of salt. It really is the only way to know how much salt is called for, especially since people are using a lot of specialty salts these days, like your flaky sea salt.

[nerakrose]

sounds a bit like what we call rock salt, then!

my scale gets Problematic with such small amounts but i've usually managed ok down to 5grams. :''D

Salt fiends check this out

[jesse_the_k]

Just stumbled on The Spice Store mail-order establishment, which offers 22 varieties of salt!

Re: Salt fiends check this out

[runpunkrun]

I'm fascinated by the smoked salts and the Porcini sea salt, and the Vulcan's Fire Salt makes me think of my beloved Spock.

Re: Salt fiends check this out

[jesse_the_k]

Our Beloved Spock, however, would no doubt be mystified by how spicy eating is a competitive sport here on Earth.

Re: Salt fiends check this out

[runpunkrun]

He would for sure. Competitive eating in general. Something he discovers when Jim takes him to the Iowa State Fair.