I very rarely use salt-salt. I don’t really like my food to get that salty anyway; the salt that’s already in the butter or whatever I’m cooking with is usually good enough. I’m planning to make some seared seafood tonight (marlin or ahi, probably), and I’m just going to coat it with ground peppercorns and nothing else before throwing it onto the heat.
When I do want salt, I typically use Tony Chachere’s cajun spice powder. It’s got salt in it, and a bunch of other good stuff besides.
A cheap pure salt for stuff like boiling potatos or pasta.
A refined sea salt processed like rock salt that I coarsely grind with a mortar and pestle for texture, used on stuff like steaks where the variation makes it more interesting.
A refined sea salt in flakes for when I want the warmth of sea salt without overwhelming the dish
and an unrefined Atlantic sea salt that is a lovely grey colour and has an amazing flavour.
I use the last one probably 80% of the time but salt doesn’t go bad so I like having the others in rotation in my pantry.
Where I grew up, there was quite definitely still a risk of goiter. I was and still may be at risk, though I’m sure I’ll be fine now I live in the states.
Does that make Australia a third world country? My mother tells stories of the days when the “country people” would come into town, a veritable array of thyroid deficiencies. Those days aren’t very long in the past.
However, that’s a side track. I am picky about eating a lot of salt on food. I like it seasoned just so - I use unsalted butter then add salt to taste when cooking. French fries, I do love plain old table salt on, everything else I use rock salt for. Mmm. Because of the big chunks. I like it so I get those bursts of flavour previously mentioned.
Emerill’s right about seasoning fried foods, esp french fries. Salt them right out of the deep fat. I salt them in the strainer, while tossing, on the way to the tray.
BTW; I double-fry my fries. Always have.
I suspect I could find many, if so inclined. Simply considering the diet of most Americans will tell you that we ingest tons of the iodized stuff on a regular basis. Canned foods, fast foods, etc. are all salt-added foods containing far more sodium (let alone iodine) than anyone really needs. Iodized salt is one of those holdovers from an earlier age.