I've often wondered about the eye-popping prices for things like Himalayan sea salt (for one thing, there's no sea in those mountains) and hand-gathered fleur de sel from France. I've never been energetic enough to buy some and taste-test it -- besides, I'm too cheap. Finally, an article by Harold McGee a couple of weeks ago reported on this topic offering to sort out the "whirlwind of obfuscatory hype" that surrounds the labeling and use of fancy salts.
Here is the bottom line: "different salts do indeed have different tastes, even when the solutions had the same concentration of sodium." That said, "the differences themselves were generally small. ... Tasters significantly preferred chicken broth and bratwurst made with an inexpensive white sea salt over the ones made with kosher salt. Batches of those two foods made with gray sea salt, or sel gris, and fleur de sel fell in between."
Although altogether the reported studies showed that the result of using various types of salt isn't highly significant, McGee still suggests that adventurous or curious cooks might enjoy experimenting. I appreciate his point of view, though I might still be too cheap to pay the eye-popping prices for the most hyped salts.
4 comments:
Interesting. I use the Trader Joe sea salt grinder, which I love. But you have to be careful -- the flavor is more intense and you can overdo it if you're used to general salting! Also about the recipe -- kosher vs. sea. I like using both.
I've often asked myself the same question. I bought my son-in-law a brand of sea salt and he seems to think he uses less of it.
I'm too cheap also, I suppose, except I'm glad bought it for Jason.
Thanks for the info Mae...
Trader Joe now has a salt grinder with pink Himalayan salt -- same price as the other grinder, $1.99 (though the ordinary salt weighs less for the same volume, so I guess pink is a better deal). At this price, I decided to try it.
If someone is doing a salt related science experiment in your kitchen, then you will be chastised if you don't have the fancy salts, since they are usually non-iodized. The iodized salt is all cloudy when it dissolves. Hard to get an accurate measurement of exactly how long it takes to dissolve compared to sugar. It has not as of yet been scientifically established in our kitchen whether that is also the source of the strong smell of the salt water. It has been established that the sugar water does not smell at all.
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