The Salt Thread

I disagree with Rose about this. Table salt isn't the tastiest, but it'll work.

A box of coarse Kosher Salt is only an extra buck or two. That is what I usually to bake with and it tastes fine. Perhaps a Supertaster could tell the difference, but I can't.

You know,  I have read so many people praising superior qualities of breads made with sea salt that last week I bought a small container.  The salt itself definitely tastes different and better.  Bread - not so much.  In fact, I think I wouldn't be able to tell the difference to save my life.

I highly recommend delicious sea salts for cooking and I found a wonderful company that I love to buy from called Saltworks.  They have a great variety and their customer service is excellent.

http://www.saltworks.us/shop/category.asp?idCat=1

I usually keep 3 – 4 various sea salts on hand at all times and always use sea salt for cooking with fish and seafood or making any kind of tuna salads to eat alone or in a sandwich.  I love Saltworks Le Tresor salts in both fleur de sel and coarse grey salt.  They might seem expensive but they really do last a very long time as the flavor is so much better and you don’t have to use a lot of it. 

They have a fabulous “velvet” very fine grey sea salt I use on popcorn and it is wonderful.

http://www.saltworks.us/shop/product.asp?idProduct=134

There is another fine grain, not quite so fine as the velvet, that I thought would be fun to try as well here:

http://www.saltworks.us/shop/product.asp?idProduct=265

I have used this velvet salt in bread many times.  What it does do is melt into the dough very quickly and might be really nice for those who love to knead dough by hand.  Other than that I simple cannot detect any difference in the flavor of my breads no matter what salt I use and I often wonder how anyone else actually can. This goes for pastry baking as well.   I feel I have pretty good taste buds and am very particular about how my food tastes but in bread I just don’t notice the difference.

I bake and cook almost exclusively with kosher salt (I always use kosher for meat and poultry), in fact, I did not even purchase table salt for about 3 years until I started baking bread and before I bought my scale.  Often books specify table salt as the accurate volume measure for their recipes but if not for that I would have never used table salt at all. (Another great reason to use a scale.) I just don’t care for the flavor and it is treated with an anti-caking agent so that it can easily be used to sprinkle from salt shakers which I think can make it taste a little bitter.  Even so I can’t honestly tell you that it makes a difference to me when I use it in my breads.

Unrefined sea salt is not only better in taste, but also in nutrition.  The regular salt that is bought in grocery stores does have additives and they will not dissolve in water.  So, they do not just disappear in your body either.  Your body deposits them in your arteries and hardens them and also, in your kidneys.  Natural sea salt will not give you kidney stones, but the grocery store salt will.   I recently came across the Himalayan pink salt.  I am not a salt lover, but this salt is very good.  It is the most costliest salt that I have ever bought, but I enjoy it, which says alot for me, because like I said, I am not a salt lover, although I buy good sea salt.  This salt is stated to be bio-chemically "alive" and contains the same 84 key trace minerals as our bodies, so it is easily metabolized.  I never cook with salt, because I was taught by someone in the health world for over 30 years, that salt changes it's chemical makeup when cooked and should not be used in cooking.  I add salt to my cooking afterwards.  I gave in to using it in my doughs though, because I became convinced by others' advice, that it is needed to make a good bread.  Simple things like salt can make a big difference in peoples' diets, believe it or not.  It may cost a little more, but it is worth it, not only the pleasure of the flavor, but the health benefits also. 

For years I've cooked with kosher salt, simply because it's easier to add with my fingers at the stovetop. It recently occurred to me that this isn't real smart for one with low thyroid function, especially one who doesn't eat ocean fish and seafood on a frequent basis. So I've been using regular table salt again. Once I find a sea salt with nice large flakes that doesn't cost a small fortune, I'll use it at the stovetop.

It's my understanding that while sea salt is not iodized it has naturally occurring iodine, along with several other minerals.

There are plenty of fine grained sea salts available as well, so I'll probably get that for baking purposes.

EDITED TO ADD -  A quick look at Wikipedia indicates that the amount of iodine in sea salt is actually quite low.

just because of this thread I decided to see if I could detect a difference between table salt and kosher salt.

The kosher salt actually tasted better! 

I've been using regular table salt in my bread (with decent results), but next time I'm going to try the kosher salt.

On a one to one with table salt, does sea salt retard yeast bread development more than table salt? I'm a beginner and been using fine ground sea salt. I'm guessing that many recipes may be using coarse salt and just not mentioning it. This would explain when I use the recommended salt amounts my breads lacked the rise. Any similar experiences using cookbooks?

Thanks