Kosher Salt: What, Why, When, and How to Use It
The question “Why do you specify kosher salt in recipes?” came up a few times during the recipe testing process for my first cookbook, Classic Snacks Made from Scratch, so I figured there were a few other readers wondering the same thing. Time to put our nerd glasses on, kids!
Truth be told, I didn’t know anything about the whys and wherefores of kosher salt when I started using it instead of table salt in my kitchen.
I saw all the big-boy chefs doing it on Iron Chef America and figured if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for me.
All salt–whether it’s kosher, sea, table, smoked, Himalayan, or whatever variety fills your cabinets–is composed of the mineral sodium chloride, or NaCl for those of you who remember your periodic tables with fondness.
The difference between the salts comes from how they’re harvested (e.g., mined from mineral deposits, harvested from seawater salt beds, etc.) and what happens to them once they’re in crystal form.
What is kosher salt?
Kosher salt is so-called because it’s traditionally used for koshering, or salting, meat to remove blood and impurities under Jewish doctrine.
It’s more coarse than table salt, so it “sticks” to food more evenly. Sprinkle kosher salt liberally over a steak before you throw it in your screaming hot cast iron pan, and you’ll see its koshering properties in action.
The crystal size and shape of kosher salt flakes helps them dissolve quickly and evenly in liquid, which makes kosher salt a good choice when preparing a brine.
Kosher salt’s also not iodized, meaning it’s not treated with potassium iodide, a trace element that’s important for regular thyroid function.
Ifyou’re looking at charts of high-iodine foods and seeing a lot of milk, yogurt, eggs, and cheese on there, it’s because iodine is often added to commercial animal feed. Just an FYI for vegans or those of us who get our eggs and meat from CSAs or small farms.
Do you absolutely need to use kosher salt for cooking?
Nope! In fact, most bakers hate kosher salt because of its large crystal size. They want a finer dissolving salt, so they’ll go for non-iodized table or fine sea salt.
I’m super lazy, so I just use kosher for everything and have never had a problem. (The exception proves the rule!)
However, if a recipe calls for a large amount of kosher salt (more than a teaspoon) and you only have table salt in the pantry, the general rule of thumb is to reduce the amount of salt the recipe calls for by half, then taste and adjust to your preference.
Tasting and adjusting is a good rule to follow in any case, yes?
Is all kosher salt the same?
There are two major brands of kosher salt, and they’re shockingly very different from one another!
Diamond Crystal is typically the box you’ll find in most chef kitchens and its crystalline structure is like little jagged pyramids.
Morton kosher salt is made by rolling salt crystals into large flakes, and contains an anti-caking agent (yellow prussiate of soda, AKA sodium ferrocyanide).
Because Diamond is less dense than Morton, the two salts have different weights–about 5 ounces per cup for Diamond, and about 8 ounces per cup for Morton’s. (By comparison, a cup of table salt weighs 10 ounces.)
This doesn’t matter too much when you’re using a pinch here and there in your food, but when brining or measuring large quantities of salt, go by weight instead of volume.
Which brand of kosher salt should you use?
I can’t answer that for you, as it truly depends on your own taste.
But here’s my story: I actually love the texture of Morton’s and honestly prefer its taste (and do remember, I love anything that tastes like a salt lick, which is why I wrote a whole book on Doritos, Cheetos, etc.)
However, I know that most professional recipes are developed using Diamond Crystal, so I’ve reluctantly switched over.
And the reason I specify kosher salt for my recipes because it really does have a different weight and volume than table salt, so I feel it’s important to note.
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Casey Barber
Casey Barber is the owner and founder of Good Food Stories LLC and a visual storyteller whose work often focuses on the intersection of food and culture. She is also the author of the cookbooks Pierogi Love: New Takes on an Old-World Comfort Food and Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats, and she couldn’t get anything done without the help of her executive assistant cats, Bixby and Lenny. Her favorite color is obviously orange.
I still feel really new the world of salt beyond typical iodized table salt. I only started using kosher salt about 4 years ago, and then it was always Morton’s, because that’s the table salt I used. I recently switched to Diamond Crystal, and honestly, I prefer Morton’s too.
I can’t wait for your sea salt post, because I haven’t got a clue!
And then you have snooty salt-snobs, like me, who only use expensive sea salt. ;)
Girl, if you have the budget for sea salt, go for it! You know about my obsession with The Meadow…
I started using kosher salt because Alton Brown did! And The Meadow – I fell in love with that place and I’m super stingy with the salts I purchased from there. I think I need a refill.
Put on our nerd glasses? I never take mine off!
Good to know that there are differences between the brands, I never thought to take that into account. I usually have Sysco brand in my cupboard–I wonder where that fits in?
Also, I still keep Morton’s table salt–for popcorn!
I love kosher salt! I use it all the time, along with pickling salt. :-)
What I really want to know…why have they spoiled a good product? I have been using Table salt for years,…now I have bought 3 different boxes,because they have changed it….thinking I got the wrong kind
got 1 more…well its all to course…why did they change it?? I even bought a box of sea salt….hate it…please go back…Thank you…