What is "so special" about sea salt?

[Mind_your_head]

I was asked that question today, b/c 'some in my sphere' consider me a "foodie"....well, yeah, next to THEM, I am....but I have no particular crecentials. I've never purchased/used sea salt. I talked a lil' bit about how I like kosher salt over regular table salt.....and then I was confronted with kosher salt doesn't contain the iodine necessary to prevent goiter.....

*sigh*

Can some of you wonderful cooking and baking group people enlighten/educate me about salt.

TIA,
M_Y_H

[Tesha]

1. from the Mayo clinic

Sea salt has a slightly different taste than table salt because of different minerals it contains. Many people prefer sea salt to table salt because they claim it has a more subtle flavor. Sea salt doesn't contain iodine or any other additives. However, if you use sea salt you typically don't have to worry about not getting enough iodine in your diet because iodine is available in many other foods, including dairy products, seafood and many processed foods.

[Warpy]

2. To me, salt is salt

but sea salt from the health food store lacks the anti caking agent that mineral salts in the supermarket often have. Since I live in the desert and don't have to worry about that (not that I ever did, beans in the salt shaker broke up the clumps), I prefer sea salt.

Kosher salt is mined salt with a coarser texture but again no anti caking agent. I use that to scrub out my cast iron pans when something sticks and from time to time in baking.

That brings me to the other consideration, texture. Sea salt has the finest grain and tends to stick better to things like French fries. Kosher salt has a very coarse texture and is wonderful for salt bagels and pretzels...and scrubbing out those cast iron pans when something sticks.

Then there's the fancy French sea salt from Bretagne, dried in clay beds and scraped up with a little clay still in it, called "fleur de sel," or salt flowers, odd people, those French. Some people swear they can taste a difference in their food when they use it but I can't. Somebody gifted me with a jar of the stuff and I really don't see the attraction. It's salt, albeit with a slight greyish cast. Once it's gone, I won't be repeating the experiment.

The final consideration is the salt grinder: don't bother. Salt is a mineral and contains no essential oils to be released on grinding. The salt grinder has got to be the most useless thing ever developed. Some can be turned into pepper grinders and used with exotic pepper. That's a much better thing to do with it.

[troubleinwinter]

3. Took me YEARS to finally try Kosher.

All the TV chefs used it and I thought it was ridiculous. I FINALLY tried it and never went back. I really do like it. And I like keeping an open dish next to the stove to pinch some. Not sure it really TASTES any different from regular, but I do notice I like it better on meats and eggs. Could be purely the texture.

I tend to use regular old Iodized salt in boiling water as for pasta... that iodine thingie. Also it's cheaper.

I agree with Warpy- Fleur de sal is OK, but not all it's cracked up to be. I'd never bother to pay the price.

I've never tried sea salt & wouldn't pay the price.

[elleng]

4. and Kosher or other coarse salt great for ICE!!!

AVOID BREAKING YOUR NECK on back stairs!

(Damn, house sold.)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Don't you mean rock salt?

That's what I grew up with in the Snow Belt, and what we always had in our car if we got stuck.

You surely wouldn't use rock salt in cooking, but using kosher salt on icy surfaces could get expensive, no?

[Mind_your_head]

5. Thank you all for the info about salt

As I mentioned in the OP, I already do use Kosher salt, which I like - never thought to use it to melt ice on the stairs though....I'll have to remember that next winter.

Sounds like there is no good reason to rush out and buy/try sea salt. Now if some one gave it to me as a gift, I'd try it of course.

Thanks again for all of the info!

[Warpy]

6. One thing to remember is that mined salt is sea salt

from ancient, evaporated seas. It's all sea salt.

The only differences are in texture and whether or not you want an anti caking ingredient in your salt.

I don't, so I use sea salt and Kosher salt. I use so little salt that the expense is not a consideration.

[hibbing]

8. Salt: A World History

Hi,
Just thought the salt fans might want to delve into this hefty book. It certainly was an interesting read. History, economics, culture and political aspects to it among other areas. The author is Mark Kurlansky.

I, like another poster went to kosher and never went back.

Peace

[Mind_your_head]

9. I saw/wanted to purchase that book !

when the kids and I took a road trip out to New England two summers ago. The teased me mercilessly about wanting to buy a book about salt. (Geeky mom, and all of that stuff.) I REALLY wish now I would have bought a copy. Thanks for the reminder....I'm going to see if my library has it, if not I will request it.

I told/reminded them of Gandhi and "The Gandhi Salt March, 1930"

<snip>
In 1930 in order to help free India from British control, Mahatma Gandhi proposed a non-violent march protesting the British Salt Tax, continuing Gandhi's pleas for civil disobedience. The Salt Tax essentially made it illegal to sell or produce salt, allowing a complete British monopoly. Since salt is necessary in everyone's daily diet, everyone in India was affected. The Salt Tax made it illegal for workers to freely collect their own salt from the coasts of India, making them buy salt they couldn't really afford.
<snip>

Thanks for the reminder about this book hibbing! :hi:

[wildeyed]

10. There is a children's book called The Story of Salt.

It is great, my kids loved it.

[wildeyed]

11. Sea salt may be healthier if it has more minerals.

I can't really taste the difference and happily use kosher most of the time.

[Warpy]

12. Two points

First, mined salt is sea salt from ancient seas that long ago evaporated.

Second, the other minerals present in sea salt and mined salt are in such tiny trace amounts that they are biologically negligible.

[TankLV]

13. It's supposed to be less "bad" for you - less "salt" than processed mined salt...

for the equivalent volume...

just "better" for you health wise...

so "the experts" say....

[kestrel91316]

14. I brought some Fleur de Sel de Camargue back from France a few

years ago - loved the texture as a finishing salt. Not sure I would be able to tell the difference with all the fancy salts out there now.......but I may eventually buy some again. I eat enough sushi rolls that I probably will never get goiter, lol.

I use kosher salt for finishing now sometimes, and of course in pickling. I still cook with Morton for now.