The salt you use matters. And we’re not just talking table versus kosher.
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images courtesy brands, design: Eatingwell
Reviewed by Dietitian Annie Nguyen, M.A., RDReviewed by Dietitian Annie Nguyen, M.A., RD
Before I knew a thing about food, I thought I knew everything there was to know about salt. It came in a little glass shaker in tiny granules and tasted slightly like metal. The purpose of salt was to make food taste salty. Beyond that, salt and all it stood for held little value to me. Why season food with salt when you could just as easily use hot sauce or soy sauce or a spice rub?
Related: 10 Delicious Salt-Free Seasoning Blends to Help You Cut Down on Sodium, According to a Food Writer
I was, perhaps, never more wrong about anything in my life, though I also used to despise seltzer water, too.
What was I so wrong about? Multiple things, but the first being the presumption that all salt was the same—namely, iodized table salt. That’s the stuff you find in the shaker that tastes like metal (it’s the iodine, in case you were wondering). My second mistake was selling salt short—an easy thing to do when you know nothing about it or how it works.
Related: Sea Salt vs. Table Salt: What's the Difference?
It would be quite a few years until I was let loose into the heat of the kitchen and learned—rather quickly—that the purpose of salt is to enhance and bloom the natural flavors of food. I certainly never imagined I’d be so particular about salt that I’d be writing an article about its undoubtedly most versatile and most important form: kosher salt.
What Is Kosher Salt?
Kosher salt gets its name from its historical use in koshering meat—drawing out blood according to Jewish dietary laws. Unlike table salt, kosher salt is composed of larger, flat flakes that are easier to pick up and sprinkle. In a restaurant kitchen, you’ll never see salt poured from a box or bottle directly onto food. It’s poured into a vessel like a salt box or a plastic deli container first so that it can be plucked and sprinkled from the pinch of the fingers.
Kosher salt doesn’t contain iodine, like table salt does. It tastes clean and bright, and as Samin Nosrat, author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, says, “Hopefully like the summer sea.” This clean flavor makes kosher salt the only choice for most seasoning purposes for the pros.
Related: What Is Kosher Salt and How Is It Different from Table Salt?
How Kosher Salt Is Typically Used
Kosher’s big grains give this salt a more consistent distribution, which is key when seasoning meats or roasting vegetables. The size and texture of the grains make it one of the best forms of salt for grabbing by the pinch. It helps you tactilely control how much you season your food and allows you to truly “salt to taste.” It’s versatile enough for seasoning just about everything, from salting water for pasta to seasoning meat before grilling to baking cakes.
It dissolves much more quickly than dense table salt. The quicker your salt dissolves, the quicker you’ll know how seasoned your food is. With quickly dissolving salt, you run a much lower risk of overseasoning your food, because you know almost immediately how much salt is in your food.
Related: 7 Things That Can Happen to Your Body When You Eat Too Much Salt
Diamond Crystal vs. Morton: A Tale of Two Salts
When it comes to kosher salt, Diamond Crystal and Morton are the two dominant brands in the market, each with unique properties that affect their performance. Though both are kosher salts, they couldn’t have more different crystal shapes, textures, flavor intensities and salinities.
Shape and Texture
Diamond Crystal’s flakes are produced through a patented process called “rolling evaporation,” which creates large, irregular and hollow flakes. The flakes are light and airy, which makes it easy to grab a pinch and distribute evenly. The softer, more delicate texture of Diamond Crystal makes it ideal for seasoning food directly with your hands.
Morton’s kosher salt is made through a compaction process that forms smaller, denser crystals. The grains are more uniform and harder than Diamond Crystal, which makes Morton feel coarser to the touch. Because the crystals are compact, Morton tends to fall through your fingers less easily, making it slightly more difficult to gauge the quantity by feel.
Flavor Profile and Salinity
Believe it or not, the crystal structure of your salt determines how salty your salt tastes. The structures of Diamond Crystal and Morton are night and day.
Diamond Crystal is like snow with its light, fluffy flakes. Its crystalline structure makes it less salty by volume compared to Morton. This makes it forgiving when seasoning dishes—if you’re a little heavy-handed with Diamond Crystal, the saltiness won’t be overwhelming. Its milder salinity profile allows for a gradual buildup of flavor, which is often preferred by professional chefs.
Morton kosher salt has denser crystals, which means it is saltier by volume. You’ve got to be feather-fingered when you’re using Morton to season a dish. If a recipe calls for a tablespoon of kosher salt and you use Morton instead of Diamond Crystal without adjusting, you could end up with an overly salty dish. But the increased salinity can give you a leg up and save you some money when you need a punch of flavor quickly.
How to Use Each Brand
Given its light texture and less aggressive saltiness, Diamond Crystal is great for seasoning meat, finishing dishes and baking. It’s easy to control and extremely forgiving. I’ve added more Diamond Crystal than I should have on more than one occasion, and the final dish still came out just fine. If you prefer a salt that gives you a bit more leeway, Diamond Crystal is the horse to bet on.
Morton’s denser crystals are well-suited for situations where you need a more concentrated salt flavor in a smaller volume, like when you find yourself brining, curing or salting water for pasta. Measure Morton carefully and use it conservatively.
Substituting Diamond Crystal and Morton Kosher Salt
If a recipe specifies Diamond Crystal but you have only Morton on hand (or vice versa), you’ll need to adjust to avoid oversalting. Here’s a conversion rule I follow if I ever find myself in this situation:
- 1 cup Morton’s Kosher Salt = 241 grams = 1¾ cups minus 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
- 1 cup Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt = 137 grams = ½ cup plus 2 teaspoons Morton’s Kosher Salt
When in doubt, err on the conservative side. You can always add more salt, but you can’t take out what you’ve already put in.
Expert Tips for Using Kosher Salt
I won’t lie to you. I’m biased. If I’ve got the choice between the two, I’ll choose Diamond Crystal every time. Its malleability and flavor are unmatched by any other salt on the market. Its texture between my fingers is one of the most satisfying feelings I can think of.
That said, Diamond Crystal is noticeably harder to find in grocery stores (I order mine online). That might make it less practical for you.
You’ll have a much easier time finding Morton, and it’s not a bad choice. Generally speaking, it can be a better choice than Diamond Crystal when you’re making something that requires aggressive salinity.
Chefs tend to have strong preferences for one over the other, and I’ve worked for those of both camps. You won’t find anything but Diamond Crystal in the dry pantry at the late and great James Kent’s Saga and Crown Shy in Lower Manhattan. On the other hand, we worked only with Morton when I was getting my chops on the line at Michael Gulotta’s Maypop in New Orleans.
Either way, as long as you’ve got either of these boxes in your pantry, you’re cooking with gas. But kosher salt is no different to any good tool: just make sure you know how to use it.
Read the original article on Eating Well.
