It’s all just NaCl, right? It seems to me like the sea salt thing is more of a marketing gimmick trying to capitalize on the “natural food” trend.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
IIRC the claim is that sea salt has additional minerals in it that can affect the taste. I’m guessing it’s more a texture issue impacting impressions of the taste.
From the sea salt wiki.
One comes from the sea.
Or rather, once comes from the sea as it is exists now, and the other comes from rock salt, which came from a sea that existed far back in geological time.
As such, the 'regular 'salt is probably cleaner.
I am seeing an ad on this page now for “Real Celtic Salt” (so much tastier than that bland Anglo-Saxon salt).:rolleyes:
According to the Food Network, it’s mostly a texture difference.
My brother-in-law says the main difference between sea salt and regular salt is “Fish Poop.”
~VOW
Really, the difference is just between purified salt and unpurified salt. Sea salt can be purified, and mined salt can be unpurified.
The only differance I see is that sea salt doesn’t have iodine in it. Anybody who grew up before they started adding that to salt, has seen a lot of people with big goiters on their necks. So I don’t think I’d use it exclusively.
I was under the impression that ocean water was a natural source of iodine, which is why you don’t see many goiters on the coasts. Shellfish in particular is high in iodine.
~VOW
To me, one more example of hype over facts. Yes it has minerals we need as impurities, but very small quanties and we have other sources.
Pretty much, “sea salt” is not purified and has no additives such as iodine or anti-caking agents (“When it rains, it pours”).
A company that was at the forefront of “sea salt” was Real Salt that comes from, of all places, Redmond, Utah (don’t look for it on the map).
The sea salt does contain trace minerals which may be healthy. I know of no blind tests or scientific studies that would show that it either tastes better or is demonstratively better for you. If there are, please send them this way and I will willingly become a convert.
I think its a “feel good” product, not something that really means anything. It would be nice if it that was not the case.
Well, me personally, I exclusively use sea salt when I need a bit more flavor on my garbage food that is chock-full of sodium to begin with; not to mention all kinds of other sinister, nasty shit that I don’t even want to know about. :rolleyes:
Various types of salt, although they consist almost entirely of NaCl are indeed different. The key difference is the shape and size of the individual salt crystals, which will depend on the method of production.
On obvious way in which salt crystals differ is the way in which they cling onto solid foods. If you sprinkle the same quantity of very coarse salt and very fine salt onto your french fries, they will obviously taste very different.
A more subtle but almost as important factor is the rate of dissolution. Your tongue can only perceive salt ions, and thus any salt that is not dissolve by your saliva or by the water in your food will not contribute to taste. As it turns out, dissolution rates are dependent on the surface area of the crystals. Hence, for salt crystals of the same mass, some shapes will dissolve faster than others and are thus perceived as saltier. This is of great importance for companies that seek to market low sodium products.
Another factor that I think is often overlooked when talking about taste is temporal structure. Like all other senses, taste perception involves time-wise changes. A solid red shirt and a red-striped shirt aren’t the same thing. Similarly, eating a pretzel with big chunks of salt that crack under the teeth isn’t the same thing as eating a pretzel seasoned with a talcum-like salt powder. In a way, this is “texture”, but not primarily haptic texture. You could say that the shape of the taste evolves differently.
Apart from taste, different salt crystal will perform somewhat differently when it comes to curing and processing meat (hence kosher salt).
That being said, it should be noted that once salt has been dissolved, it’s all the same thing. That’s why many cooks keep “cooking salt” and “finishing salt”.
Unfortunately, the following article is behind a paywall, but it describes in great detail the issues I have raised above:
Eoin Desmond, Reducing salt: A challenge for the meat industry, Meat Science, Volume 74, Issue 1, September 2006, Pages 188-196
You’re Alton Brown, aren’t you?!
I don’t think it’s hype, so much as misunderstanding the subtleties that jovan pointed out.
I use standard table salt when I just want to add a bit more flavor to some food. Otherwise, I love sea salt for dishes and/or drinks (tortilla chips and margaritas, yurmm!) where it’s desirable to “feel” or be conscious of the salt as a primary ingredient, and not just to magnify the flavor.
ALL salt is sea salt-only the cheap stuff is from sea salt from 100 million years ago.
I prefer the older stuff.
I do like sea salt for raw foods like on top of a salad or something, but if you’re cooking, I can’t tell any difference.
The different salts do indeed have very different textures, I know this because I spent a good chunk of my first work experience mixing them up into the right balance for a salt water corrosion tank.
This point is worth stressing, especially as the vast majority of it is still plain old NaCl. No point worrying about texture of something that will dissolve, if you use it during your cooking process you aren’t going to see any difference.
Philly soft pretzel salt is a kosher salt, a larger crystal which disolves slower in the mouth. But this is special.
The only real difference is the cost and the snobbery associated with it. Once it’s in the cooking, it all tastes exactly the same. Larger crystals are nice for topping of baked goods and some ice cream (like caramel), as it gives you a salty punch that can be interesting.
If you like the texture of the larger flakes of sea salt, as opposed to the small grains of table salt, just buy a box of kosher salt. It is a lot cheaper than sea salt and offers the same large crystals.
I find that by sprinkling a small amount of kosher salt on food I get the taste I want while using much less salt than when using shaker salt.
I remember Alton Brown prefers Kosher salt over Sea Salt. He said Sea Salt is for Chef’s who drives a Porsche.