To buy: Look in your local supermarket. Use it for: Adding a pungent burst of flavor to just-cooked foods. These crystals will complement anything from a fresh salad to a salmon fillet. Texture: Fine or coarse. The size of the irregular crystals affects how fast the salt dissolves.
It varies in color, depending on the minerals it contains iron-rich red clay, for example, gives Hawaiian sea salt a pinkish hue. These natural impurities can add subtly briny, sweet, or even bitter flavors to the salts.
To buy: Check gourmet shops or on-line thespicehouse. Use it for: Bringing a complex flavor to steamed vegetables or shellfish. Take a pinch, crush the crystals between your fingertips, and let them fall on freshly cooked food. This salt will add a hint of briny flavor. Rock salt — large crystal salt with a gray color, due to minerals not removed from normal table salt.
This form of salt is available in most grocery stores, and also through hardware stores. Popcorn salt — very fine grained salt which is flakier version of table salt. Iodized salt — contains a small amount of potassium iodide and dextrose as a dietary supplement to prevent thyroid disease. Seasoned salt — table salt with herbs added like onion, hickory smoke or garlic. Kosher salt is an additive-free coarse-grained salt. This salt was developed for the preparation of kosher meats in accordance with Jewish dietary laws.
The salt itself is not kosher, but this is where the name comes from. The difference between table and Kosher salt is that during the evaporation process it is raked to give it a block-like structure which allows the salt to draw the blood out of meats. The raking makes Kosher salt coarser and flakier than table salt so it disperses more easily.
This makes it lighter and less dense than table salt. It is also recommended to use Kosher salt for cocktail glasses for drinks like margaritas. Since it is a lighter salt, there is less after taste with it. Today many cooks and chefs prefer it over table salt when cooking with salt, as it dissolves fast and its flavor disperses quickly. Kosher salt weighs less by volume than table salt, so you must increase the amount of salt used in a recipe when substituting for table salt.
This is a great all-purpose salt. Sea Salt is just that — salt made from ocean or sea water, which contains trace minerals not in the mined salts. The process is more costly then the mining process. Sea salt is typically less refined than other salts.
Depending on the seawater used, you also get a variety of minerals in the sea salt resulting in numerous types of sea salts. Here are a few:. It is used in Indian cooking. Grey salt, Celtic salt, Sel Gris — Harvested from the light film of salt which forms during the evaporation process.
The gray or light purple color comes from the clay in the region of France where it is harvested. Collected using traditional Celtic hand methods. Hawaiian sea salt — Has a distinctive pink hue from the Alaea added to it. The Alaea is volcanic red clay with a high content of iron oxide.
Coarse salt, Gos Sel, Gale Grosso — Is a larger grain salt which resists moisture and is intended to be ground. Uses include flavoring for soups and salt crusts on meats. Flake salt — Shaped like snowflakes, the brine is made using the sun and wind for evaporation. Then the brine is slowly heated to create the flakes.
Fleur de Sel, Flower of Salt, Flor De Sal — Skimmed from the top of salt ponds early in the process of evaporation, this is considered a great condiment salt; also good on grilled meats, in salads and on vegetables.
The flavor, like wines, varies depending on the region it is harvested from. Typically it is from France though some is produced in Portugal. French Sea Salt — Processed less than American salt, retains more of the mineral content gained from the Atlantic seawater it is harvested from.
This usually includes natural iodine. A coarse salt, this is good for salads, vegetables and grilled meats. Grinder salt — Large dry salt crystal which can easily be put through a grinder. With a salt grinder you want to avoid metal as the salt will corrode the grinding mechanism. Italian Sea Salt, Sicilian Sea Salt, Sale Marino — Harvested from the lower Mediterranean sea by hand using traditional methods of natural evaporation, this salt is high in iodine, fluorine, magnesium and potassium.
A delicate salt which is good on salads and in sauces. Smoked Sea Salt — One other derivative of sea salt is a smoked sea salt. The salt is smoked over real wood fires to add the flavor to the crystals.
These can be used in soups, salads, pasta and also in grilling foods like salmon. Organic Salt: Organic salt has different standards than organic livestock or botanicals. Some organizations have started to set up guidelines to ensure the quality of water and production process. Lite light salt and salt substitutes: These generally do not have a great flavor.
Lite salt uses potassium chloride to reduce the sodium level in the salt. Salt substitutes have little or no sodium in them. Typically only people who have a medical reason use these because the flavor is not as good when cooking with salt. Sour Salt: There is a product called sour salt which is not made up of salt at all, instead it is citric acid. This is used to prevent browning when canning fruit. It can also be added to rye or sour dough bread to make it more tart.
When cooking with salt, you may not have available some of those listed above or a recipe may call for one type you do not like. Substitution may become necessary. Here are a few suggested substitutions:. Kosher salt — a non-iodized coarse table salt or a coarse pickling salt but make sure you read the label and there are no additives. When making this substitution use about half the salt called for in the recipe.
Pickling salt — substitute Kosher salt which is free of additives that can turn your pickle brine cloudy. Table salt — Kosher salt but use twice the salt called for. Different salts offer different qualities based on how they are used. Here are a few hints on cooking with salt types. Fine salts — use for baking unless a recipe calls for something different. The texture and size of a fine salt is smaller and more dense than a more coarsely ground salt.
Kosher salt — is great to use while cooking as the size of the salt is easier to see how much is being added. Hand-harvested salts — avoid using during a cooking process unless it is a very quick process like with salmon. If used during the cooking process the flavor and texture can be lost.
Since most salt is produced in relatively the same way, there is little difference when it comes to health benefits in which type is used. Salt is plentiful in most foods even fruits and vegetables.
Processed foods have an alarmingly high level of sodium so it might be best to avoid those if on a salt restricted diet. Typically salt is made up of sodium and chloride. Sodium cannot be produced within the human body so it is important to the diet. Sodium helps regulate water balance ph and osmotic pressure.
Chloride is equally important in the human diet for it helps the blood to carry carbon dioxide; potassium absorption; helps in digestion; and conserves acid-base balance.
Iodine is added to most North American salt in an effort to reduce Iodine Deficiency Disorder IDD , which causes mental retardation, miscarriage, goiters, brain damage in infants and can impair growth and development. This effort has been highly successful in North American nearly wiping out the problems associated with IDD. The use of dye may change the taste of the recipe to slightly odd.
So, before choosing any such substitute you must go through a taste test to ensure that the dyed salt does not interfere with the taste. Red Diamond sea salt has a stark white appearance because of its harsh refining process.
It is a crushed salt that is extracted from deep within the earth. The unique color of this salt is mainly due to the presence of 50 natural traces of minerals. You can use this alt as an alternative for pretzel salt. Rock salt is a type of salt, that is formed when the saltwater of the sea or lake evaporates, so the colorful crystals of sodium chloride are left behind. Rock salt is a combination of several minerals like zinc, nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese.
The color of rock salt is due to the presence of these minerals. The addition of rock salt in food will help in avoiding low sodium levels that cause poor sleep and seizures. Morton salt is composed of calcium silicate, sugar, sea salt, and potassium iodide. Iodized Morton salt supplies iodine which is essential for the appropriate functioning of the thyroid. Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:.
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