Having grown up using plain old table salt, I'm unlikely to change at this late date. But it's good to see experimentation detailing precisely why the more expensive options actually are worthwhile in various use cases, and not just celebrity chef opinions.
Crystal structure is a very specific term used to identify the packing and identity of the atoms in a crystalline material. The crystal structure of sodium chloride, because its so ubiquitous, is called the sodium chloride structure and is a lattice of alternating Na+ and Cl- atoms in x,y, and z direction. The crystal structure of NaCl does not change, what Helen is talking about here is the particle morphology, which changes how the particles pack and how it feels in the hand and its macroscopic density. I just want to clarify so people dont think that there are different types of sodium chloride out there. If it says its salt, its all the same thing!* *except for salts with intentional impurities like other minerals or adulterants (sea salt minerals, smoke, iodine, etc.) Im a Mortons fan. I like the big chunks.
Thanks! I came here to see if someone had pointed this out. Your explanation is clear and concise. I personally like the sea salt I bought off a roadside stand in Thailand. It is chunky and doesn't dissolve easily (heterogenous indeed!) and I like those chunks of salt on top of foods. For brining and making salad dressings, I use the cheapest salt available since it is all NaCl. With a friend who is allergic to shellfish, I avoid the iodized salts when needed
Thank you so much for this video Helen! I am a believer in the theory that the better quality ingredients you use in your food the better your food will taste, but with the recent skyrocketing price of EVERYTHING, I am having to cutback and be more selective on what I am willing to splurge on. This was so informative.
Here in Canada a 3lb box of Diamond Crystal costs $26 on Amazon (and it's not available in stores). I attribute price increases like this to an explosion in the popularity of a product thanks to chef recommendations!
In Vancouver, lots of small groceries have it. Generally, the boxes are marked "not for retail sale" but there they are on the retail shelves. Last time I checked - about a year ago - about $16 for the 3# box.
@@calmeilles Please watch the video. This story isn't about table salt, it's about flaky Kosher salt of the kind preferred by chefs and home cooks. This salt is much more forgiving and easy to control, due to its crystal shape and low density. For the same reason it also dissolves rapidly instead of forming a crunchy crust!
Here are some thoughts from Sweden. 1. Here in Sweden I think it is most common to use tablesalt to season the food while cooking, and using fancier large flake seasalt for presentation. It's not easy to find coarse kosher salt at the groceries here. You describe the habit of grabbing a pinch of salt for seasoning. Well I have the same habit when it comes to table salt shaker (but not the small one that you actually put on the table). So the difference mostly comes down to habit. 2. The fine tablesalt would spread out more evenly (if applied correctly) on the food than a more coarse salt would. The difference might be negligible but still. If you want a more even, consistant penetration of salt in you protein -> table salt. 3. For soups, stews and pasta water, nothing dissolves as fast as table salt imho. Also important when baking bread. 4. If possible, ALWAYS go by weight. Never by volume. But you adressed this in a good way. What salt you use won't matter taste wise if you measure correctly. 5. Always taste your food for seasoning and leave some room for the guests to add more if prefered on their own plate. 6. It is only a matter of habit and price. If you can't change the price, change the habit ❤
I think dimond koser actually dissolves faster. Table salt is cubic, and koser is flake. Dimond koser in particular is a really thin flake. Also, if you got used to pinching a salt like mortons or diamond, you would never want to go back a shaker. It's so fast and satisfying.
It's the same in Germany. Most people just use regular finely granulated table salt. Even salt flakes on the table is kinda rare and 'fancy'. Most people will have a peppermill and a salt shaker instead. I've bought salt flakes a couple times out of curiosity over the years, but wasn't blown away, honestly. To me, it's more something you would do to look good in front of your guests (so to speak) than because it really makes a difference in the food 😅😎
It's obvious that they're just jacking up the price and trying to reframe their product as "premium." I've heard that you can still get it more cheaply at restaurant supply stores, but you might end up having to buy more than 3 lbs.
Interesting. I've always used Morton's, for the last 50 years or so, and have always been perfectly happy with it. I have thought about trying DCK, but I'm not paying that kind of money for it.
@@tookitogo I do use salt for pasta water. And baking bread. And preparing meats. And cooking vegetables. And curing bacon. A 3lb box of Morton's lasts me probably 3 months, less if meat curing is involved, so cost IS an issue.
@@JamesRook You misunderstand their point, they aren't saying you shouldn't salt breads and pastas and cures. They are saying don't use DCK for those applications. I am like you and use a lot of salt, so I keep both Mortons and DCK on hand. The Morton's is perfectly fine for brines, cures, blanches, and pastas, and I use it to my heart's content for those purposes. That way my box of DCK lasts 6-8 months easily, if not much more. It really depends on how you cook obviously. And $26/box is WAY on the extreme end of pricing for DCK. Most people can find it for half that price or less.
@@dirtyketchup What I got from the video was that Helen Rennie doesn't like Morton's and uses DCK as her salt of choice and is what she recommends using, not that she uses different salts for different applications as you seem to be doing.
@@JamesRook You misunderstand me. I certainly am not saying “don’t salt your food”! (I love salt - I joke that when I die, they won’t need to embalm me because my body will be salty enough that they can just set me out in the sun to dry like jerky! 😂) What I _am_ saying is “don’t squander DCS on applications where it doesn’t make any difference” - use cheap table salt for those - and just use DCS for the things where its properties _do_ make a difference. I moved from USA to Europe 15 years ago and brought a few boxes of DCS with me. I use ordinary table salt for most things, but use DCS as a finishing salt (as one of many finishing salts I have, including Maldon, French sel de Camargue, and moist gray sea salts from Guatemala, France, and Italy). When used this way, my boxes of DCS will last me for decades.
As a stubborn proponent of plain old iodized table salt for most applications, I find that getting an even coat of seasoning requires a totally different technique. You have your hand a good bit further away from the food, and the motion is a little quicker. It's all about what you're used to!
Oh Helen, Helen, Helen! You have no idea how crazily passionate I am about this stupid topic! Switching to DCK was one of the most impactful unlocks I had in my frustration of learning to cook. I will NEVER go back! And to all of those commenters who are saying they grew up cooking with table salt and are happy, just try one box! It isn't that expensive, and you owe it to yourself to at least see what it's all about. As for me, I saw this price hike coming a while back, and I did 2 things that have really helped me never live without my DCK. (1) I bought up a couple cases of the stuff because I love it that much! ($6/box back then) (2) To help justify the expense of DCK, I have a fantastic strategy to make sure I don't waste the stuff, and that strategy is… Morton's Kosher. I always keep a few boxes of Mortons on hand for any tasks where there is a lot of salt needed, and using DCK would be wasteful. Those things are mainly pasta water, wet cures, blanching, and brines. By using the MUCH cheaper Morton's for those tasks, I can save my DCK for the things that truly make the difference, and Helen, I pretty much agree with your assessment in the results. DCK might not always have a flavor or texture advantage in certain applications, but familiarity is key to consistency, so using DCK it still the smart choice for most anything that I ever need to season. Besides, you use SO LITTLE in those instances that any cost savings with the Morton's would be de minimis (added my own Ragusea reference =). In fact, those boxes of DCK that I bought back in 2021 have lasted me almost 4 years, and I still have plenty left because of my Morton's strategy. And I will happily pay the new price once I finally run out! I still use DCK for most of my dry brines and seasoning proteins; it just does a better job at evenly coating and dissolving more readily while still offering a useful visual aid. Seriously Helen and friends, give it a try! Keep some Morton's lying around for all the pastas, wet brines/cures, and blanches. You will be amazed at how much longer your DCK lasts. And then you won't be tempted to be too stingy when those veggies and/or pasta need that salty boost!
This was really interesting! I’ve always kept both Morton and table salt on hand. Table salt I use for pasta water, baking, anything I measure with a spoon, really. (Bc it’s cheap + bc the iodine has a nutritional purpose!) I use Morton when I’m seasoning to taste with pinches. But this video convinced me to seek out some DCK the next time I need a box.
Yah, I couldn't believe the price when I went to replenish my supply of Diamond Kosher salt. The last boxes I bought (stocking up pre-covid) were $3.87 each. I vacuum packed them in 1 pound packages for use. I just used up the last one I had in stock. So now I have switched to Himalayan pink salt. Take that Diamond!
I think the DCK folks realized that their primary non-commercial consumers are very frequently affluent foodie types and therefore demand would be inelastic to price gouging.
When Diamond Crystal became impossible to find in our area I started using Ball Pickling Salt in salt solutions (spaghetti water, soups, etc). 100% sodium chloride no additives. The salt is super fine and dissolves quickly but is not usable as a sprinkling or finishing salt. Ball's label lists the teaspoon to weight equivalent is 1/4 teaspoon = 1.5 grams, Diamond Crystal lists 1/4 tsp = 0.7 grams, so I just use half as much of the pickling salt - easy math.. And pickling salt, whether Morton's, Balls or whatever is usually ridiculously cheaper.
You completely validated my thought. With the rise of diamond crystal price and lack of local store availability, I did exactly as you recommend. Cheap table salt goes in liquids and I use diamond crystal for pretty much everything else.
I usually try cooking without salt as much as possible, but when I do it's usually table salt for most dishes. My kosher salt mostly is reserved for sweating eggplants or cucumbers as I can easily remove most of the salt whereas table salt will make my eggplants/cucumbers salty.
Great video! Aside from boiling pasta water, the other application I've switched to table salt is for bread baking (and pizza dough making). I generally warm the water a bit and then add the salt and stir to dissolve, so it's always dispersed evenly, and since I'm weighing the salt, it's always the right amount. I bake either bread or pizza at least a couple times a month, so leaving that 30-ish grams of salt in the Diamond Crystal box makes it last a while longer!
Very interesting. I also heard the iodine gives food a metallic taste but I am not surprised that you couldn't detect a difference. Since we do need some iodine perhaps it is a good idea to use iodized salt in pasta water and other such applications. Certainly, it makes sense to use the cheapest salt you can when most of it is going down the drain. Thanks for doing this, Helen! Fascinating!
You can buy non-iodized table salt these days pretty easily anyway. I love table salt specifically for certain baked goods where you want the salt not to clump, but you also benefit from a nice little hit of dense salt crystals (depending on how/when it was mixed into the recipe). Chocolate chip cookies come to mind.
I have a somewhat different take on this. I find that Diamond's crystals are a bit too big for finishing at the table, and figure that any salt is fine for seasoning cooking water, soups stews, most things, though I do understand that having control of salt in recipes like breads, etc is important, and we've all made way over or under seasoned fails. I've preferred to use Morton's especially for finishing, because the flakiness and relatively fine grain gives control when salting meat for searing, for example. My family has some who are salt sensitive, we tend to season quite lightly during cooking, with a little salt-pinch of Morton's on the table allowing us to season our food individually. The info Helen provides that Morton's dissolves more slowly might be a positive, just a few tiny flakes of salt, a bit sharp on the tongue with a bite is nice, and a little goes a long way. If the crystals large, it overloads the taste with sharpness.
I use table salt. Sometimes, craft salts made by local salt makers here in Japan. I NEVER USE Diamond crystal salt. I wish every recipe developer would give the gram amounts.
I love how mortons stays solid through the cooking! There are certainly situations where it is bad to have salt chunks though. I also like that when you are done salting, your hand is clean.
Not all table salt is iodized! In the US one can by plain salt (small cubical crystals) in both with and without added iodine in any supermarket. Some people can taste the iodine and the iodine may cause cloudiness in pickle brines.
Consider using pickling salt. It is non iodized and does not have anti caking additives present in table salt. The crystal size is the same as table salt, so no issues with considering volume when substituting for table salt, or use same conversion factors for kosher salts if going by volume rather than weight. It is available in 3 lb. Boxes (Morton’s brand) for under three dollars in Northern Virginia. I have used it for many years so don’t find it difficult to sprinkle evenly over foods. Have used it mostly for wet and dry brining, seasoning meats and vegetables prior to cooking. Not able to comment on use in salads, ‘cause I prefer adobo seasoning and add it to the vinaigrette!
It's funny, how this is really a cultural/trend thing. In Germany, no one cares what salt you use. Like, seriously. Everone just uses plain table salt from the grocery store.
I'm pretty sure all of the recipes on the King Arthur Flour website are still developed with iodized table salt. All of the pure salts taste the same. Sea salts that still contain contaminants may have unique flavors.
@@the_rzh I was using the colloquial 'salt' (as its used throughout this video) ie sodium chloride +/- other elements or compounds that affect flavour or appearance. The 'salt' I use is evaporated from artesian water. Not sure if you mis-stated but , chemically speaking, a salt doesnt need to be sodium chloride. Happy?
DCK is owned by the Cargill family, not the Koch family. That's not to say that they aren't terrible people too, but what do you expect? All business owners are like that.
If you research everything you buy, you'll eventually find someone in the supply-production-distribution-retail chain that you disagree with. Either you're just virtue signaling or you spend most of your time crossing purchases off your list.
Thanks for the comparison testing. I've been using DCK for a decade based on chef and food magazine recommendations. I sort of reached your same conclusions without a testing program. I use plain table salt for seasoning liquid foods and cooking water and DCK where it shines, not because of price, but because DCK was, and still is, kind of hard to find.
Thank you Helen. Once again, you've done the research so we don't have to. I started using dck at your suggestion, however, I still use table salt in all those applications you mentioned salting water for vegetables, salting, soups, etc. And gravies as well for hand on seasoning of meats. You're absolutely correct. Diamond Crystal kosher outperforms the others.
I use celtic sea salt for adding to drinks and on meats. I wouldn't use it in pasta water, though, as it's too expensive for that. The reason I spend on Celtic Salt is the mineral content and the potent salty flavour. The mineral content is a great electrolyte. Keeps you well hydrated and all the other benefits, including bone and dental health.
I've always used 3 of the 4 salts shown for different purposes. But lately, as there has been a rise in fine grain sea salt that isn't expensive (it's even at dollar stores), I've dropped regular table salt and only used Diamond and sea salt. The sea salt I use at the table or for pasta water and the Diamond is mostly my cooking salt
Thanks for the comparison. I made the jump from Morton's to DCS when my supermarket was out of Morton's for months. But I have always (and will continue) to use the inexpensive store brand table salt for pasta water and brines. Usually I'll buy the non-iodine store brand of table salt.
Here in Portugal we mostly use sea salt - I've found that using a salt grinder gives me better of salt levels - it's just not as intuitive and took a bit of learning, but if you're conservative and don't mind adjusting for salt a couple times the results are better
Table salt - for everything (from a shaker). Take the time to learn how to use it properly, like everything else in cooking. Save the expensive chunk salt for rimming margarita glasses. Cheers!
I feel validated! I came to very similar conclusions as you. It’s too bad DCK and Morton’s Kosher both have the word Kosher in them. They’re not the same at all!
👍 Interesting! In my part of the world 🇿🇦, we don't have the same brands that you do in the US. But for a long time, by law all our table salt _had_ to be iodised due to the threat of nuclear attack. But when we gave up our nuclear weapons, they relaxed the regulations to allow for coarse kosher and coarse imported salt to be iodine-free. It's been a bit frustrating to experiment with pickling, because so many recipes demand iodine-free salt which is expensive and difficult to find. But they claim that the iodine causes discolouration and flavour disturbances .. which I've never noticed in my pickles where I've used iodised salt.
I confess: I haven't measured salt in recipes for decades---other than by eye. Moreover, I've always considered a salt shaker to be an effective method for distributing salt over food---go figure. Finally, if I want the salt to crunch in the bite, I use pretzel salt.
I've been using plain rock table salt whole my life and it's fine. I got use to it, I intuitively know how much to use and don't see any reason to switch to fancy kosher salt.
This was really interesting! I might try DCK next time I run out and see if there's a difference. I usually use Morton's Kosher for when it matters and fine popcorn salt for popcorn/everything else.
I’ve lived in a lot of the USA and have never seen the dck brand anywhere despite hearing about it for years. That much money for a box of salt that isn’t Maldon’s is crazy to me.
I just got an American weigh gram scale for the very purpose of weighing light things like salt, yeast, sugar etc. in recipes. The reason they iodized salt in the first place was because it's an essential nutrients and people weren't getting enough. A bonus is it's the cheapest too and I have never noticed any "metallic taste" either. I think that was made up to sell more expensive salt. I'm slowly going to get used to weighing salt for my recipes and use regular table salt pretty much exclusively in the future. There is way too much preciousness with salt lately.
Those little grams scales are AMAZING for things like yeast and other powders. I have also taken to using it for things like extracts. As for weighing salt, yes I do it too, but really only in recipes where you can't season to taste and the salt is critical, like baked goods or dry rubs. Also, I love weighing my salt for pasta water. It has taken SO MUCH guesswork out of seasoning pasta. I highly recommend a 1% by weight to the water as a baseline. If you're cooking a pasta dish that you know has a super salty sauce with cheese and anchovy paste and whatnot, then you can back off to 0.75% or even less, but I find that 1% is right about the perfect baseline for most anything, and it give me the flexibility to taste/adjust at the end. I can just weigh the water right into the pot that I'm going to boil, and then do easy math. Same goes for most rice dishes. If I am cooking with absorption method, I'll typically weight 2% salt by weigh of the dry-uncooked rice weight.
@@dirtyketchup Yeah, I'm looking forward to using it right. I used it for the first time (well, the second, the first was to weigh a paper coupon which was 1.5g lol) to weigh 2oz of pasta last night. Obviously my regular scale is adequate for that, but what the heck. For dry rubs, I do apply salt visually, separate from the rub. That's one place course salt is useful IMO. Who knows how it will affect my cooking? I just want to be careful not to overthink things too much!
@@kenmore01 It's true that it can be tempting to overthink too much. I try to maintain balance of having high precision scales, but knowing when that precision isn't needed. I mostly just like not having to dirty up measuring spoons. It's so much easier to pop open a spice jar and shake some out until the reading is close, IMO. Besides, I have weighed what comes out of my measuring spoons just for fun, and it's scary how wildly different 2 measurements can be. Just the other day a recipe called for 2 tsp of ground coriander, and one scoop was 2.5g and the other was 2g. Might not sound like a big deal, but that's a 20% difference, which could make a serious dent in a recipe given large enough quantities.
@@dirtyketchup It's funny you said that about dirtying measuring spoons. That's a big motivator for me to use scales, besides the precision. I never measure flour with measuring cups anymore, and I usually eyeball oil because it's usually adequate and no cleanup. I agree with you about the inaccurate spoons. You should figure out which set is off, and discard or repurpose them. That should be easy enough with water.
what kind of water did you dissolve the salts in? if it was tap water it's unlikely you would notice the iodine, but you might notice it with distilled water
I use iodized table salt for pasta water and baking. Due to lack of availability of Diamond, I use Morton´s kosher salt for normal seasoning and coarse crystal sea salt in my salt grinder for when sea salt is called for in recipes. Due to this video I think I´ll try keeping my kosher salt in my little mortar and pestle and just grind out a batch every so often to use in everyday seasoning. We´ll see how that works.
I’ve always looked at expensive salt as “expensive, but it lasts a year”. There’s so many other places we should penny pinch before we decide to do it for salt.
In my home kitchen I do nearly all my preparation on a counter top AND I use many salts and seasonings. I mounted two inexpensive, directional, LED strip lights on the back wall above my work space BUT below my chin level (when I'm standing). This provides "back lighting " which makes it so very easy to see the salt crystals, ground herbs and spices as they fall - these lights also produce slight shadows and highlights on the product I have already seasoned! this has worked so well that all of my salts, spices and seasonings are now put in identical spice containers (from bulk containers) and I can sprinkle just the amount needed :) I hope this helps - it has helped me with my aging eyes!
Wow, what an interesting comparison. I've seen on-line chef's using DCK (a new term for me), but my local store didn't carry it, so I bought Mortan's thinking it was still kosher so close enough. Wow, guess I've been way off on that assumption, especially the weight/volume comparison. I found it interesting too that the iodized salt didn't give you the metallic taste, as I've heard that too for a really long time.
I like Diamond because I use a crock and its easier to control salt levels in most dishes by hand and not measure. I usually bake and use a scale so I don't worry about what salt I use in that instance but will typically use sea salt packaged like table salt but with no additives. I know they are all the same, so pretty much it's the delivery method anymore that drives usage. At least for me.
I must be a borderline supertaster or something, because I can taste the iodine faintly in table salt. I use kosher for savory cooking, fine sea salt for baking, and fleur de sel de Guérande or Maldon for finishing/condiment. I can taste a difference between all of them too, at least when sampled alone (not used in food). I prefer both the texture and flavor of FDS, but Maldon has the visual factor.
I only use table salt. It's cheap and the iodine is important. For measuring, I want about 0.5-1% salinity, so I add 0.5-1 teaspoon per 600g food. Any variation in that range isn't enough for me to notice a big enough difference. For any application where I don't need the salt fully dissolved, I just find it's not worth the price of having different salts.
Yknow, I never actually considered that the crystal structure of salt would make any sort of difference. I just assumed they'd all be literally identical.
Thank you 🙏 I thought I was losing my vision when I picked up the box in Honolulu supermarket…$18 !!!! For one box ! Then I quickly switched over to “the blue box” so affordable from Costco too! 😢 perhaps the slow melting process on the tongue … harsh and very salty to my taste ! Even the “non iodised” table salt (which I regularly used for baking ) is less “harsh” 😮 with all these “blue boxes” I am having 😏 I use it to salt vegetables for small batches of kimchi such as radishes etc… oh yes … for salting large pot of boiling water 😂 thank God, DKS developed a slight conscience so the price is back down to $7 ~$9 per box instead of last June’s price?!?! 😂
Thank you! Will continue to use table salt. Hubby likes Morton's Kosher because he can see and feel it. Now, I am curious about the nutritional benefits of different salts, and the environmental and humanitarian aspects of its removal (mining, dehydrating, etc.) and production. I have always been told pink Himalayan salt has sooo many nutritional benefits; but are they worth the trouble and price?
Seems the crystal kosher salt is becoming very rare in my area 😢 so I hoard my DCKS (👀😮) for meats and baking, now use Himalayan pink as table salt and iodine salt for pasta and veg water... DIAMOND...BRING BACK CRYSTAL KOSHER SALT🙏
DCK is so frustratingly imprecise to use. Everything is always under seasoned. Morton’s has always been preferred and had a much better texture. The main takeaway here is that people will do better with what they are accustomed too. Cooks who have spent decades using Morton’s know what they’re doing and will experience problems trying to make the switch in the other direction - I know, it happened to me.
Salts are rarely pure sodium chloride. The usual additives in Germany are iodide fluoride and even folate. Pure salts would clump in normal humidity, so there are some additives to ensure separation of the salt grained that don’t need to be indicated on the package. A German manufacturer (frosta) for ready made frozen meals who tries to have as little additives and sugars as possible had a really hard time sourcing pure sodium chloride. Some cooks maintain that iodine in salt is bad for the texture of rice. I have doubts.
i have watched so many cooking videos. this one has been the most helpful. salt is so ubiquitous in cooking. and i frequently dry age and wet brine with salt. and i use other salty ingredients, such as soy sauce.
I use a lot of salt for another application...fabric dying where for any given project you use 100ml of salt per tsp of dye. Salt is a fabric relaxant and helps the dye penetrate. Thus, you need the salt to dissolve quickly and evenly. That's why I only use DCK. It is far superior to the others and when you are doing yards of fabric (that sometimes isn't cheap like silk) it's worth spending just a little more for a better consistent product. I am sure that applies to cooking as well.
Has anyone else noticed that the Morton's product has changed? The last box we got a year or so back, the crystals were basically like pretzel salt, completely different compared to the medium-fine flat flakes. I still have part of a box of the old Morton's, but when that's gone, we're not sure how to get more. I've seen similar tales on the net, as best as I can tell, Morton's has said that they haven't changed anything, so maybe it's a qc issue...
I don't understand why anyone would use anything other than fine grain salt to cook with. Kosher and other coarse salts are for finishing and presentation.
What is the DCK equivalent outside of America - I’m in the UK, where we have table salt, coarse sea salt or fine sea salt available fairly cheaply. Coarse sea salt is only used in grinders afaik. Is DCK like fine sea salt or more like Maldon flaky salt - which we also have readily available but it’s at a higher price point than regular salt.
I could never spend this much on salt. So far I'm satisfied with the bj's store brand kosher salt, which is similar to mortons except with the fine salt dust sifted out
Why would anyone choose to use a textured salt, like Kosher Salt, for anything other than finishing? You are paying for the texture, which goes away immediately when it is dissolved.
I think you missed the point of the video entirely. I love DCK because it does NOT give me texture. It dissolves instantly, but is easy to pinch and gives me a big margin of error.
@@helenrennie I just salt to taste unless I'm following a recipe (for baking for example), then I use the measuring spoons. But, like Adam, I do like to use textured salt for finishing, but not rock salt. That's just too crunchy.
In that scenario, I still user koser because I like pinching salt. shakers are bad if you need to add a lot, and pinching table salt is frustrating and makes a mess. Also I don't really want to buy 3 different salts. I have a pig of koser on the counter, and that's about all I use.
I have used diamond crystal salt and Morton salt more often now I just use sea salt at the Morton salt I have run through a food processor basically electric grinder I just made it into a finer crystal
❤I started using only pink salt years ago, but my daughter brought home 3 different package of salt from work so now we’ve been using each for different recipes. Quite interesting! Now what about pepper? That black dust in the can questionable so I tried making my own, but it took too many peppers so I just add chopped frozen peppers from the garden to recipes instead. 😊
I learned the other day that you should only add pepper to your food near the end of cooking because the heat makes the pepper bitter. I never knew that
@scpatl4now black pepper will scorch if it's on the outside of something that's dry cooked (roast, broiled, pan fried). Adding it to wet food like stew or soup, it won't change at all and certainly won't taste bitter
I don't know what has happened to Morton's the box of fine kosher salt that I bought a few years ago contained genuinely fine grains and was easy to distribute. The most recent box I bought was practically useless for even distribution in any application that didn't completely dissolve it.
I am finding the same problem, for 70 years salt was just salt, now it is a nightmare. The last bag of salt I bought was labeled fine but was more course them the course bag I had in stock. Our food quality has declined and the prices have gone way up. We are be I ng screwed over.
Diamond crystal doesn’t taste the same as years before. It’s not as salty. I know Morton’s is saltier, learned that years ago, but diamond crystal is bland now. Also, I have always used regular iodized salt in my pasta water. You would waste half a box if you used kosher salt.
I wonder if (plain) popcorn salt would be a possible alternative for proteins. I use it when I make something like a roasted nut mix because it coats better. It's only cheap (~$1/lb) when you buy it at a restaurant supply. But it comes in 10 lb buckets so it lasts forever. Just don't get the butter flavor by mistake :)
I've always wanted to purchase Diamond but I had never seen it where I do my shopping. I saw it on Amazon but the price with delivery was ridiculous. Now, I for sure, will never buy Diamond Kosher Salt.
With soy sauce and salt you have to remind yourself it's still not expensive to get the most expensive kind. All said and done I am spending 60 cents a month on salt. I am ok with that. Morton is great for salty pops in cookies.
