Know Your Salt

Salts aren't just salts

Choosing the right salt for your health and cooking needs is getting tougher as salts are no longer salts. For cooking, seasoning, health or baking - meats, breads and cakes, there is a seemingly endless set of options for the discerning salt shopper. This is by no means a complete list, but it will give you the best basics to get you by:

Common (Processed) Table Salt

Refined table salt is the traditional western salt you buy in the plastic container at the supermarket and it is usually taken from underground salt deposits. It has the highest level of NaCl averaging 98 percent.  It is easy to find and buy, but be aware that it is more heavily processed than other forms of salt and contains anti-caking additives to make it fine and smooth. It also has added iodine.. 

Sea Salt

Sea salt is the most common salt produced in Australia and is harvested from sea water or salt lakes and uses a system of ponds and natural evaporation. It makes the purest form of salt with close to 100 percent NaCl.

Rock Salt

Most rock salt comes from deep shaft mining - a process that is pretty much like any other kind of shaft mining. These underground salt deposits are typically from old underwater seas.

Celtic Sea Salt

Celtic sea salt is also known as Sel Gris and is a coarse, moist sea salt produced as a second product in the salt evaporation process. It is harvested off the coast of France.  It is often used in baking and directly on finished food.  

Himalayan Salt

Himalayan salt is mined from ancient sand deposits in Pakistan. It has wide ranging uses dependent upon how you buy it and ranges in colour from white to red, although it is most often pink.

Himalayan salt is typically hand cut in slabs and then either crushed for domestic salt use. Along with Celtic sea salt, it is the most pure salt you can buy and contains a range of essential trace elements. Because of this, it is extensively used in personal healing and detoxing as well as culinary. 

Kosher Salt

Kosher salt isn't necessarily kosher. It is a coarse, flaky salt that is often added to finished food. Chefs like Kosher salt because it is easy to handle and absorbs moisture from food. Foodies like it because it add small, delicate salt bursts and crunch to the food wearing it.

See more at: Choose the Healthiest Salt.

Image: Shutterstock

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