Difference Between Kosher Salt and Sea Salt

No kitchen is complete without salt and pepper.

There are very few recipes that do not call for salt. Until recently, the type of salt was not specified, as most cooks only had table salt available. With the increase in popularity of specialty foods, many recipes now make a distinction among table, kosher and sea salt.

Varieties

Regardless of variety, edible salts are primarily crystals of sodium chloride. Probably the oldest seasoning known to man, naturally occurring salt is found in the sea and underground. Before refrigeration and other preservation methods, salting fresh meat and fish kept protein from decaying prematurely. Salt can be mined like other minerals from beneath the earth.

Kosher Salt

Kosher salt is different from table and sea salts in that it is made specifically with flat flakes. Originally used in the koshering of meat, the salt itself is generally not kosher (blessed according to Jewish dietary laws.) Kosher salt is also lighter and larger in volume than table salt crystals, so the salt will cling to foods like meat and dissolve more slowly than table salt.

Sea Salt

Sea salt is made by evaporating salt water. The flavors of sea salt are as varied as the oceans and seas from which it comes. The fabled and expensive French fleur de sel of Brittany is light gray or pink and moist because it is unrefined. Colors of sea salt vary from nearly white to black and pale pink to red. Crystal size is usually coarse and large when first produced, and is either sold in coarse form for use in a salt grinder or is ground from fine to coarse.

References

• What's Cooking America: Types of Salt
• Chabad: Kosher Salt