First of all, let's get one thing straight: Chemically, there is virtually no difference between table salt, kosher salt, and fancy sea salt. A

Do I Need to Use Kosher Salt? | The Food Lab

submited by

Style Pass

2024-10-11 11:30:01

First of all, let's get one thing straight: Chemically, there is virtually no difference between table salt, kosher salt, and fancy sea salt. All of them are close to 100% pure NaCl (sodium chloride), with a few trace elements thrown in. In the case of table salt, those ingredients are there to prevent it from caking (hence the old "When it rains, it pours" Morton's slogan), while with sea salt, they come along for the ride when the salt is harvested from the ocean.

Dissolve those salts in water side by side, and the differences between them become nearly indistinguishable, just as they are when you use them to season your food.

First off is bulk density, or the amount of mass within a given volume of a granular solid. Regular table salt is comprised of many minute, regularly shaped cubes. This allows the granules to pack together tightly in a given space. Kosher salt, on the other hand, forms large, craggy flakes that don't fit together very well. Put them into a container, and you also end up with plenty of air space. What does this mean for cooking? It means that if you are measuring by volume, different types of salt are not interchangeable. A cup of table salt will have twice the salting power of a cup of Diamond Crystal kosher salt.

Thus, if a recipe calls for Diamond Crystal kosher (as most of our recipes do) and all you've got is table salt on hand, you'll have to halve the amount by volume to get similar results.