Salt enhances the flavor of anything it touches, and the trick of the professional chef is to keep adding salt to a recipe until it tastes flavorful and rich. Salt can sometimes have the same effect as sugar, too.
Whether it’s on the rim of the glass of your favorite margarita, the finishing touch on your famous green beans or a sprinkle on top of those homemade caramels, salt can be the finishing touch that makes friends and family want to know your secret ingredient.
All salts are not created equal. With different mineral contents and flavors, there are literally thousands of different choices.
The Big Three salts are: Table Salt, Kosher Salt and Sea Salt. It’s obviously useful to know when to use which, and why!
1. Table Salt
Heavily processed to eliminate trace elements, table salt is mined from underground salt deposits and is bleached, heated and contains an additive, calcium silicate, to prevent clumping. Imparting a “sharper” flavor than kosher or sea salt, its fine crystals are considered *saltier than kosher salt.
Iodized table salt means that iodine has been added. When buying table salt I always recommend iodized.
Cooking with table salt: Because table salt is quite inexpensive and contains iodine, I do use it on occasion. Specifically I use it to salt the water when I boil pasta or potatoes.
Learn about other types of salt on the next page …