Want to drastically improve your cooking? Use the right types of salt
Salt is often the difference between a good dish and great dish. To season with it right and well, it’s helpful to understand the different types of salts and the best ways to use them.
Where does salt come from? All salt comes from the sea in some form, whether it’s taken from the water or pulled out of the ground where seas were long ago. The distinctions between the types we use for food lie in their source and processing.
True “sea salt” is harvested from shallow marshes, ponds or other low-lying areas. It comes from either sunshine and wind evaporating the water and leaving behind the salt or from raking salt off the surface of still water.
Other cooking salts come from solution mining. After water dissolves salt deposits, the brine solution is evaporated and purified. The salt left behind is then dried and refined, ending up as almost entirely sodium chloride.
The harvesting and processing determine the shape, size and taste of cooking salts. Here’s a guide to the most commonly used types:
Kosher Salt
Kosher salt was originally made for use in kashering, which involves salting meat to draw out its blood according to Jewish dietary laws and traditions. Its coarse grains work best in that process and also in other forms of cooking and baking. Now it is the de facto salt of most professional kitchens and cookbooks.
Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt: My go-to salt for nearly everything. Diamond Crystal stands out among brands of kosher because its crystals are large enough to pick up easily for sprinkling, but still dissolve readily. Most importantly, it tastes less salty than other brands of kosher salt. This is the brand you should use for any measured amounts of kosher salt in recipes by me and my colleague Ben Mims _ and it is the brand used by almost all professional cooks we know.
Morton’s Kosher Salt: This bluebox brand may be easier to find, but I don’t recommend it because the larger crystals taste much saltier and don’t dissolve as easily, sometimes making food taste salty in an unpleasant way. If you have it and want to get rid of it without wasting it, use it to salt boiling water for pasta. If it is what you can find at the store or prefer, use 3/4 teaspoon for every teaspoon of kosher salt called for in our (and most) recipes.
Fine salt
The sandlike grains of fine salt dissolve the most readily.
Iodized salt: I grew up shaking the white fine-sand salt that came from Morton’s blue cylinders. You probably did too. They sell a regular table-salt option and one with iodine, which is added to prevent deficiencies that can affect thyroid function and because it is an anti-caking agent (i.e. it won’t clump in the salt shaker.). Unless you need the extra iodine, you can skip this salt’s metallic taste. If you do use it, 1 teaspoon is the equivalent of 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
Fine sea salt: If you prefer the more mineral taste of sea salt, you can use fine sea salt for cooking and baking. It dissolves quickly and is good for last-minute sprinkling when you want to add saltiness but not texture.
Salt flakes
Salt harvested from the sea can come as flakes or in other coarse textures that are ideal for finishing dishes with an extra hit of flavor and a bit of crunch. Large crystals need to be ground before use; I prefer flakes.
Sea salt flakes: The delicate crunch and mild taste of pretty snowflake-like salt are ideal for sprinkling on dishes after cooking. Maldon is the most readily available brand and options from Jacobsen Salt Co. are easy to find as well.
How to salt
Once you’ve stocked your pantry with salt, you need to use it properly. Regardless of what you have on hand, you want to follow these steps to seasoning food.
1. Get to know your salt. Even if using my recommended option (Diamond Crystal kosher), know that salt can vary in its saltiness. Whatever you’re using, taste a tiny bit by itself first. If you happen to have multiple brands, taste them one after the other (with lots of water in between) to understand their differences.
2. Keep tasting. Every culture and cook salts food differently. Some go heavy from the start, some sprinkle throughout the process and some season only at the end. Many do a mix of all three, but whichever method you’re following, keep tasting your food as you cook. Start by nibbling ingredients that can be tasted raw and taste at every stage when it’s safe to try the food (avoid raw poultry and the like). Remember that you can always add more salt but you can’t take it away, so taste, sprinkle, taste, sprinkle.
3. Strive for balance. Salt doesn’t work alone to make food taste great. Its role is to enhance the natural flavors of whatever you’re cooking and to tie everything together. When you’re tasting for salt, ask whether you also want more umami, richness, acidity, heat or freshness. If you are going to add more umami (a dash of soy sauce), fat (like another pat of butter), acid (a squirt of lemon juice), heat (a pinch of chile) or freshness (a handful of herbs), do that first, then taste and season with salt. You can do this throughout the cooking process and be sure to do it just before serving. And a little dish of sea salt flakes to pass around the table never hurts either.
Salted Chunky Peanut Butter Cookies
Time: 35 minutes/ Yields: Makes about 4 1/2 dozen cookies
These cookies have a deeper richness when baked with peanut butter that’s made with only peanuts (ideally roasted) and salt. Be sure to get the salted variety; unsalted can be bland at best and beany at worst. Sometimes it’s labeled natural or old-fashioned, but there’s no industry standard, so checking the ingredient list is the only way to tell. Peanut butter spreads loaded with extra sweeteners, fats and stabilizers may give you more consistent results but lack the earthy nuttiness of the pure stuff. Laura Scudder’s all-natural old-fashioned nutty tastes extra toasty and Whole Food’s 365 crunchy has a nice proportion of chopped nuts. Try those or whichever you like enough to eat straight out of the jar.
1 tablespoon salted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup natural chunky peanut butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg, room temperature Coarse sea salt, such as kosher, Maldon or fleur de sel, for sprinkling
1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts, chopped
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Smash and mix the butter into the brown sugar with a wooden spoon in a bowl until the butter is no longer visible and the sugar resembles wet sand. Add the peanut butter, vanilla and egg and mix until well combined. Lift the spoon out of the dough. If the dough drips off in globs, refrigerate or freeze it until stiff. Cold dough will bake into taller cookies too.
3. Drop rounded teaspoons of dough onto the prepared sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Sprinkle the tops with salt and then with peanuts.
4. Bake one sheet at a time until darker brown around the edges and dry on top, 9 to 11 minutes. Cool completely on the sheets on a rack.
VARIATIONS: VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES: Mix 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds with 1 tablespoon cold water. Let stand until thickened, about 5 minutes. Substitute coconut oil for the butter and the flax mixture for the egg. Proceed as above.
PB&J SANDWICH COOKIES: Spread a thin layer of thick jam on half the cookies and sandwich with the others.
Peanut butter and salted caramel ice cream sandwiches: Sandwich small scoops of salted caramel ice cream between cookies and freeze until firm.
MAKE AHEAD: The dough can be refrigerated for up to two days. The baked cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week and in the freezer for up to one month.
Radishes With Sesame Salt
Taking inspiration from the simple radish-butter-salt treatment, I created this easy appetizer, swapping in coconut oil and sesame seeds to double up on tasty fat while keeping these bites plant-based. Because coconut oil liquefies at room temperature and hardens when chilled, it clings to radishes in a thin sheen while holding the seeds and salt when refrigerated. That makes these ideal appetizers for entertaining. You can make them ahead of time and simply keep them in the cooler until guests arrive. They can pick up the radishes by their stems and enjoy them in one or two bites. You can do the same for a snack.
1 bunch radishes (10 to 12 ounces) 3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, white or black or a combination
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt, such as fleur de sel
1. Wash the radishes well and rub dry with paper towels. Discard any yellow or wilting leaves, but keep the stems intact. If the radishes are larger than 1 inch in diameter, halve or quarter lengthwise.
2. Melt the coconut oil either by heating in a small saucepan over low heat or microwaving in a small bowl in 5-second increments.
3. Line a large plate or rimmed baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Dip the bottom half of a radish into the oil, shake off excess, then sprinkle the oil-coated half with some sesame seeds and a tiny pinch of salt. Put on the prepared plate. Repeat with the remaining radishes, oil, sesame seeds and salt.
4. Refrigerate uncovered until the oil hardens, at least 5 minutes. Serve cold.
MAKE AHEAD: The radishes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days.