kosher salt

[bakingcupcakegirl]

im from the uk, can you help me out? WHAT IS KOSHER SALT???? why do you use it? whats special about it? thank you.

[Becca Porter]

It is salt that is traditionally used to kosher meat. It has a unique shape of the crystals that help it pull out moisture in meat quicker. It is also easier to pick up in pinch form, and it is purer that iodized table salt.

[bakingcupcakegirl]

thanks for that Becca, we use maldon sea salt which is harvested locally,has a very soft feel and is great for both table and cooking, its good to know.

[rcallner]

Maldon salt is fabulous - truly my favorite, but the shape (flaky) is different than kosher salt which tends to have a rockier, crystalline shape. Kosher salt is very nice when you're grinding up various things with it in a mortar and pestle, or when you'd like something like a rock to spike your meats, etc.

[smtucker]

I much prefer the Diamond brand to the Morton. Better flavor and texture. For table salt, look for Baliene in the blue bottle for an affordable sea salt.

[ozhead]

Morton and Diamond crystals are shaped differently, which is probably why the textures are different. Here's a good explanation, from Melinda Lee (http://www.melindalee.com/recipearchi...):

"Kosher salt is ... sweeter and more pure than ordinary table salt.... Kosher salt is available in two varieties. The most common is flaked salt (example: Morton Kosher Salt) which has been pressed into flakes by rollers. The other type is a four-sided crystal (example: Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt). The crystal-shaped salt measures differently because of its shape. Use about 25% (one quarter) MORE crystal salt than flaked salt when measuring for ... recipes. The formula is: 1 tablespoon of regular table salt is equivalent to 1 ½ tablespoons flaked kosher salt, or 2 tablespoons, diamond crystal kosher salt."

[Louise]

It also measures differently than table salt, for when you cook.

[addictedtolunch]

Been using kosher salt as table salt all my life. Because of its size, the texture is often discernible to the tongue on certain foods, unlike regular salt, which can be interesting. I actually end up using less salt this way and not more, even though the crystals are much larger.

[mariekeac]

it's a lotless salty than regular table salt. so it's a little harder to over salt

[C. Hamster]

It's not less salty.

Kosher salt has larger crystals, as explained above.

All salt is 99+% NaCl, so they are equally salty.

But a teaspoon of kosher salt will have less salt in it than a teaspoon of table salt.

[noshstalgia]

Much that's been said I agree with - but, with regret I have to differ with Becca's observation about this product's tendency to rapidly draw moisture from meat or other foods. Actually, the larger crystals will dehydrate foods more slowly than regular table salt. This is a valuable attribute of kosher (or other comparatively coarse) salt and explains why it is the preferred product for use on salad greens - it will not cause wilting as regular salt will do so quickly. Similarly, when salting meat - e.g. in a rub before grilling - kosher (or otherwise coarse salt) will not quickly dehydrate and toughen the meat like regular table salt. The principle in operation here is simple - it has to do with the ratio of surface area to mass. Fine crystals - as with regular table salt - provide much more "available" salt than the coarser variety. The crystal morphology also directly accounts for the variation in "saltiness" discussed earlier. If you weigh equivalent volumes of the various salts in question you'll find, as ozhead observed, that the kosher salt weighs as little as 1/2 as much by volume as common table salt.