Salt is a lot more than sodium chloride. If it was just sodium chloride then there would be nothing to choose between different brands. I have encountered this point of view often. People will scoff at the idea that one brand of salt might be better than another and say, "Bah! It's all just sodium chloride anyway!"
This might be true of standard commercial salt to some degree. Most of them are industrial grade sodium chloride packaged along with free flowing agents, anti-caking agents and other adulterants most of which are by-products of the aluminium industry. Such cooking and table salts are very harsh on the tongue and are indeed essentially industrial chemicals. But in nature there are many different salts and sodium chloride is only one constituent in them. Almost always, sodium chloride is found in combination with a wide range of other mineral salts, and consequently different combinations have different tastes and different properties. Good chefs know their salt. Quality cookery deserves quality salt. The industrial grade stuff won't do.
The best general purpose salt I've found is macrobiotic sea salt. Locally it is available under the Lotus Brand label. (See picture above.) This is a high grade sea salt that has a complex flavour on the tongue. By analysis it contains magnesium, iron, potassium, calcium and other trace minerals as well as sodium chloride. It is an unrefined sea salt that has been extracted from sea water by the natural processes of sun and wind. The drying process is gentle and leaves about 5% moisture by weight in the finished product. It has no additives whatsoever: no flowing agents or other chemicals. It is slightly grey in colour. It hasn't been bleached. This is always a good sign in salt. Avoid salts that are stark white.
What about pink salts and others? Much depends on where it comes from. Very often novelty salts are just scams carrying a high price. The popular pink salt comes from salt mines in Pakistan and is not really worth the money. It is attractive but it is 99% sodium chloride and is coloured pink by iron oxide. You should certainly question anything labelled "organic" salt! But there are local salts in various locations that may be worth trying.
It is important to learn how to use salt. Many chefs don't know how to do it - they throw in huge handfuls of poor quality cooking salt into just about everything they cook. Salt is used to cover a multitude of sins. Conversely, many health-conscious or science type of people fear it and regard it as a demon based on simple-minded science thinking. In perspective, salt is the most ancient, most traditional and most universal of all flavouring agents in human food - using it properly is a lost art in our times. It is especially important in grain-based diets because it makes our wholegrains more digestible, as well as acting as a catalyst for flavours. It renders food more alkaline. The traditional Japanese diet is high-sodium and yet the Japanese are among the longest lived and healthiest people on earth. Macrobiotics is generally regarded as high-sodium cuisine, but it is undoubtedly healthy, especially regarding cardio-vascular health.
It is impossible to make generalisations regarding salt. Meat eaters generally eat too much common salt - refined from inland deposits - to compensate for high meat consumption. This type of salting is no doubt very injurious to health. Moreover, adding salt at the table, rather than in cooking, has a very different outcome - it is always best to add salt to food during cooking because of the transformations that occur at higher temperatures. Covering food with salt at the table is no doubt a bad business. Then there is context. Salt is best taken, in most contexts, combined with sea vegetable (kelp) or sesame seed (gemasio). It is an art. I will add more posts about salts and using salt in the future.
What about pink salts and others? Much depends on where it comes from. Very often novelty salts are just scams carrying a high price. The popular pink salt comes from salt mines in Pakistan and is not really worth the money. It is attractive but it is 99% sodium chloride and is coloured pink by iron oxide. You should certainly question anything labelled "organic" salt! But there are local salts in various locations that may be worth trying.
It is important to learn how to use salt. Many chefs don't know how to do it - they throw in huge handfuls of poor quality cooking salt into just about everything they cook. Salt is used to cover a multitude of sins. Conversely, many health-conscious or science type of people fear it and regard it as a demon based on simple-minded science thinking. In perspective, salt is the most ancient, most traditional and most universal of all flavouring agents in human food - using it properly is a lost art in our times. It is especially important in grain-based diets because it makes our wholegrains more digestible, as well as acting as a catalyst for flavours. It renders food more alkaline. The traditional Japanese diet is high-sodium and yet the Japanese are among the longest lived and healthiest people on earth. Macrobiotics is generally regarded as high-sodium cuisine, but it is undoubtedly healthy, especially regarding cardio-vascular health.
It is impossible to make generalisations regarding salt. Meat eaters generally eat too much common salt - refined from inland deposits - to compensate for high meat consumption. This type of salting is no doubt very injurious to health. Moreover, adding salt at the table, rather than in cooking, has a very different outcome - it is always best to add salt to food during cooking because of the transformations that occur at higher temperatures. Covering food with salt at the table is no doubt a bad business. Then there is context. Salt is best taken, in most contexts, combined with sea vegetable (kelp) or sesame seed (gemasio). It is an art. I will add more posts about salts and using salt in the future.
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