Salt Choices Add Flavor to Food

By Barbara J. Avery

(Originally published in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)

When Barney Fife spoke of his salt and pepper, he meant his favorite dance floor suit that was “great for dippin’.”  In the kitchen, salt and pepper have very different meanings.   Salt is not just the fine grained flavor enhancer that resides in tabletop shakers. There are at least twenty varieties of salt available including eleven types of sea salt.  What is being cooked or preserved determines the type of salt you should use. Cost, too, will help you make your decision.  Salt prices range from less than a dollar for a pound of table salt to over $35 for a couple of pounds of pink flake sea salt. Here’s a look at the most common salt types.

Salt, also known as sodium chloride, is either mined from dried salt lakes around the globe, or is evaporated from sea water.  The two most common types of salt include table salt, a fine grained salt with free flowing additives added to it, and Iodized salt that provides important iodine in the diet. Kosher salt is coarse grained and is used by cooks for its larger size and flavor.  Sea salt, popular in ancient times, is favored by gourmet cooks for its types of grinds, fine or coarse, and its more subtle taste.  Sea salt is more expensive than other salt because the evaporation of sea water to obtain it is a more expensive process than mining.

Then there’s Celtic salt.  The Food Lovers Companion tells us that Celtic salt is so named because it is hand harvested from the Atlantic marshes in Brittany, France , using a 2,000-year-old Celtic tradition.  Rock salt is not as refined as other salts, and its large crystals are ideal for serving under baked oysters and for making homemade ice cream.  Pickling salt is used to brine food, sour salt is derived from citrus fruits and used in dishes to add tartness, and seasoned salt is table salt mixed with other flavored salts and seasonings, hence “seasoned salt.”

No matter which salt you choose, it is wise to heed Dan Coudreaut’s advice as posted in the Nation’s Restaurant News tips for cooking. “When using salt, remember different grinds deliver more or less actual salt.  For example, a tablespoon of table salt delivers more salt by weight than a tablespoon of kosher salt.”