So it seems all the Kool Kids are promoting Kosher salt nowadays, from daytime TV cooking shows through to the uber-cool websites: it has to be KOSHER salt or nothing.
But why? Does kosher salt have different/better qualities/taste compared to ordinary sea-salt? As a goy, is there any practical reason for me to buy kosher salt?
(FTR, I do understand why kosher salt is kosher, I just don’t get why it is promoted so heavily via all the cooking websites that are not otherwise kosher).
(where’s the little jewish smiley-fella when you need him?)
Kosher salt is relatively coarse, table salt is very finely ground and thus packs more densely. If you use a tsp of table salt when the recipe called for a tsp of kosher salt, your dish will be to salty.
Besides possibly being larger, the grain of kosher salt is specifically designed to adhere onto the surface of foods. The “big” difference however is that sea salt usually contains minerals and other trace nutrients that can impart their own flavors.
The flakes are tabular (flat) not cubic, so better for surface coating.
Any other times people are insistent over using it are just them subscribing to some hipster fad. Shows what they know - pink Himalayan salt and black Hawaiian salt is the real hipster salts.
I keep normal salt in a shaker, and kosher salt in a little salt dish. I use the kosher 95% of the time while cooking, because it’s a hell of a lot easier to pinch up some kosher and sprinkle it in a dish, or grab a measuring spoon and measure out a bit of it.
Nothing at all to do with taste or texture. Everything to do with it’s easy to pick up.
I don’t know if “Hawaiian” is the same stuff, but my vegan friend picked up some black salt the other day so she could make her tofu taste like scrambled eggs, and it worked amazingly well (yum!) So that one at least, I’ll defend from the “hipster” label - the trace sulphur really does its stuff.
Sea salt have such a small percentage of trace elements, that they don’t make any difference in the flavor.
The only difference is the kosher salt has bigger grains and is easier to sprinkle. Once salt hits moisture, there’s no difference in taste except that which is explained by the amount of salt added.
I love salt, and like to point out to anti-salt fanatics they are prolly getting cretinous from the lack of iodides — they are as miserable as anti-smoking fanatics — but I don’t think I have ever seen Kosher Salt over here, and I look out for Israeli Halva, so see the specialty foods every now and then. It seems to be an American fad — even rare in Israel.
Additives are fine in most instances. Not so much in those hideously bright coloured sweets probably.
Naah, that sounds like Kala namak. Hawaiian black salt/“lava salt” is salt with added charcoal. It’s used for decoration, I wouldn’t cook with the stuff.
