# Sea Salt vs Rock Salt **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2007, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429 "2007-04-17T04:23:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AlvySinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8c91f0/32.png) [@AlvySinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlvySinger)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/1 "2007-04-17T04:23:35Z")
What are the differences between sea salt and rock salt? ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/2 "2007-04-17T04:53:34Z")
Realistically? Mostly the price. The grain structure is likely going to be different too–the rock salt is more likely to have the classic cubical structure, but due to how the sea salt is made, it’s more likely to have a “flaky” or “aggregate” texture. This will affect how the salt tastes if you sprinkle it on prepared food in such a way that the salt doesn’t dissolve before you eat it. (If you stir it into the dish so it does dissolve, you won’t taste the difference.) There will also likely be minor variations in trace minerals. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/3 "2007-04-17T04:58:00Z")
Oh, but if you’re thinking about just going down to your local Agway to buy a fifty-pound bag of rock salt to meet your kitchen needs for the next thirty years, don’t–occasionally you’ll find bits of other crud in there. Just get the regular stuff. ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/4 "2007-04-17T06:54:25Z")
I use both kinds of salt, but I find the taste of sea salt or of kosher salt is far superior to that of the regular salt I use. Regular salt has a bitter, almost metallic taste. Sea salt has a cleaner taste. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/5 "2007-04-17T07:10:18Z")
[QUOTE=MoodIndigo1] I use both kinds of salt, but I find the taste of sea salt or of kosher salt is far superior to that of the regular salt I use. Regular salt has a bitter, almost metallic taste. Sea salt has a cleaner taste. [/QUOTE] The bitter taste you may be experiencing is that of the Iodine added to Iodized salt. More common in Table salt, but Sea Salt can also be Iodized. Usually, most dudes can’t taste it when used for cooking but quite a few can taste it directly. Otherwise, the two salts taste exactly the same when dissolved, like in a soup. However, when placed undissolved in the mouth, the two dissolve quite differently, making them “taste” different. More of a “mouth feel” thing, however. In other words, more or less what Hunter Hawk said. There is a type of very rare sea salt called “Grey Salt” which is greyish with tiny little black specks. Must be harvested under strict conditions, it is also very expensive. Not being pure NaCl it does taste a little different. Clearly it is also not Iodized, even though there can be trace amounts of iodine in this kind of sea salt. This is _not_ the kind of “sea salt” you see on labels of prepared foods. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/6 "2007-04-17T12:05:33Z")
And to learn more about the fascinating subject that is salt, I recommend the New York Times bestseller _Salt: A World History_ by Mark Kurlansky. More than you ever thought you could know about the only rock we eat. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/7 "2007-04-17T20:17:00Z")
Often its the crystal size. Here, the most popular sea salt(Alaea) is reddish brown from the clayey soil added. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/8 "2007-04-17T22:28:39Z")
I often see (and buy) “Pacific Sea Salt”. But why is our beloved Atlantic being left out? Can I buy “Atlantic Sea Salt” or what?? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/9 "2007-04-17T23:15:06Z")
Look, rock salt IS sea salt. It’s just that the sea dried up millions of years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2007, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/10 "2007-04-17T23:19:21Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Look, rock salt IS sea salt. It’s just that the sea dried up millions of years ago. [/QUOTE] and that sea salt was rock salt before it was washed to the sea. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/11 "2007-04-18T11:46:18Z")
There’s this pale gray stuff made from seawater called _nigari_ (bitter) in Japanese. It’s made of the minerals occurring in seawater–minus the salt. Mostly magnesium chloride. It’s used to curdle soymilk to make tofu. It’s dissolved in the liquid which is removed in the process, so the tofu does not wind up tasting like it. Because I tried a pinch out of the jar once, and nigari is some of the worst nastiest tasting stuff in the world. So trace amounts of this are part of sea salt and might account for a slight tang. Maybe the gray salt that **DrDeth** mentioned has a higher proportion of nigari in it, or maybe the gray color is from something else. The pink salt (which they call “hill salt” in Malaysia) is of terrestrial origin and has iron in it, so it’s believed to be good for health. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/12 "2007-04-18T13:19:15Z")
[QUOTE=Hunter Hawk] The grain structure is likely going to be different too–the rock salt is more likely to have the classic cubical structure, [/QUOTE] The cubed shape of rock salt is a result of the maufacturing process [QUOTE=Common Tater] Can I buy “Atlantic Sea Salt” or what?? [/QUOTE] I know that LA BALEINE brand of salt is Mediterranean Sea salt. I think that there may be some French salts that are from the Atlantic. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/13 "2007-04-18T13:29:35Z")
There is such a thing as food grade rock salt. I have recipes that call for that. Sea salt comes in several varieties and its purity varies. Some of it gets its flavor from other minerals that are allowed to remain with the NaCl so purer is not necessarily better. Kosher salt, that is salt used for koshering meat, at least the kind I use, is pure NaCl. BTW: I don’t kosher meat for the purpose of keeping kosher, I just follow the process in a few recipies like salt crusted beef roast. I use the kosher salt as table salt in salt grinders as I prefer its flavor and texture to iodized table salt. Flavor variation can be a result of shape as well as mineral content. The fleur de sel that I have tastes yummy, and that seems at least partly due to the shape as it supposed to be fairly low in non-NaCl content. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/14 "2007-04-18T14:21:50Z")
The part of salt that is actually salt is always the same chemical NaCl. The differences are, as noted above, the shape and size of the crystals, and other stuff mixed up there like anti-caking agents and iodine, or other minerals in the case of some sea salts. My cooking teacher (a French chef who runs L’Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Md.) swears by sea salt, claiming he was skeptical at first but now won’t use anything else. Food chemist [Dr. Robert Wolke](http://www.robertwolke.com/) wrote a series of articles for the Washington Post in 2000 about salt. The articles are not available for free now but here are some excerpts. > [@Robert Wolke](#): > > in on-the-tongue taste tests, the flaky, irregularly shaped crystals of many sea salts dissolve instantly, giving a quicker rush of saltiness than do the small, compact, slow-dissolving little cubes of shaker salt. But it’s not the ocean that made that difference; it’s the shape of the crystals. > > When sprinkled on relatively dry food such as asparagus or a slice of tomato just before serving, they deliver bright little explosions of saltiness as they hit the tongue and dissolve, or when they are crushed between the tongue and the hard palate or crunched between the teeth. That’s how the savviest chefs use them. These sensuous little bursts of saltiness have nothing to do with the salt’s nautical origin. > > The crystallized salt (called solar salt) that is harvested by solar evaporation of ocean water is therefore about 99 percent pure sodium chloride right off the bat. The other 1 percent consists almost entirely of magnesium and calcium compounds. Virtually all of those other 75-or-so “precious mineral nutrients” are gone. > > Let’s not forget that mined salt is also sea salt, because the underground salt deposits were left by ancient seas that dried up. It therefore has a very similar composition–minerals and all–to today’s sea salt. And how about this little-known fact: Your “sea salt” might not even have been taken from the sea, because manufacturers don’t have to specify their sources and according to industry insiders I have talked with, fibbing does occur. Two batches of salt may be taken from the same bin at the mine plant and one of them labeled for sale as “sea salt.” Well, of course it is. It just crystallized a million years earlier. > > Many sea salt enthusiasts deceive themselves by thinking that there are only two kinds of salt: mined salt in the shaker and sea salt in the fancy packages. Not only may the “sea salt” have come from a mine, but on the West Coast the salt in the shaker is most likely to have come from the sea. The point is that a salt’s characteristics depend much more on how the raw material has been processed than on where it came from. You can’t just generalize. There are probably a dozen brands of genuine sea salt with crystals of a variety of sizes, shapes and degrees of purity. Some are straight solar salt, while some have been purified further. These quotes are just from the preview versions that I could see without paying. I believe the full articles contain more straight dope about myths and truths of sea salt. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/15 "2007-04-18T15:22:57Z")
_Proper_ rock salt, of course, goes up to 11. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/16 "2007-04-18T15:38:24Z")
[QUOTE=Johanna] It’s dissolved in the liquid which is removed in the process, so the tofu does not wind up tasting like it. [/QUOTE] Yeah, heaven forbid anything be put into tofu that might give it some FLAVOR! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-salt-vs-rock-salt/400429/17 "2007-04-18T16:42:55Z")
Rock salt is any mined salt, right? Just because the big lumps we spread about in the winter are called rock salt doesn’t mean that non-sea-salt salt isn’t also rock salt? What about the stuff you put into water softeners (if that’s even HCl)? That leaves us with either sea salt or rock salt, if I understand correctly (although as pointed out above, there can be some fibbing). I always like to bring back sea salt from Cuyutlan if no one minds making the detour from Manzanillo. Cheaper than normal salt here at home, the texture and moisture content makes it a perfect replacement for kosher salt, and it tastes better (or at least the psychological effect is it tastes better). When working in Ontario I bought something called “large grain salt” or similar wording, because the grocery store didn’t have anything labelled kosher salt; what a mistake. It was hard to control, didn’t dissolved, and everything tasted way the heck too salty. I used it on my driveway at home instead. For cooking, nothing has beaten kosher salt in my estimation; thanks to Alton Brown for enlightening me of this early on.