Author Topic: Sea Salt?  (Read 2676 times)

Basil

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Sea Salt?
« on: 29 November, 2018, 07:07:32 pm »
Every recipe I read these days calls for sea salt.
So, what is the difference between that and rock salt? Is there a difference in taste, strength, anything?

I guess sea salt contains traces of plastic these days.  :demon:
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #1 on: 29 November, 2018, 07:10:13 pm »
Every recipe I read these days calls for sea salt.
So, what is the difference between that and rock salt? Is there a difference in taste, strength, anything?

I guess sea salt contains traces of plastic these days.  :demon:

This appears to address both the question and the suggestion
https://casaveneracion.com/whats-the-difference-between-sea-salt-and-rock-salt/

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #2 on: 29 November, 2018, 07:33:04 pm »
Fish poo and slightly more iodine, iirc.

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #3 on: 29 November, 2018, 07:47:44 pm »
There are all 99% NaCl with varying amounts of impurities thrown in. Can you taste the difference? Maybe if you haven't dissolved it in something with a strong taste as any real taste difference is very very slight.
The main practical difference I think is that the crystal shapes / sizes are different in all of them which has two results:

1) They may have  a different mouth feel if we are talking about just sprinkling them on chips or something rather than using them in cooking
2) They will have different densities due to the flake / crystal sizes differences. A teaspoon of table salt will contain far more salt and less air than a teaspoon of kosher salt for example which make sit easy to over or under salt a recipe if you aren't careful.

If its for something like dipping the radishes in before eating them then I would go with a flaky salt as table salt would be too saltly. But for cooking I would use whatever fell to hand and adjust the quantity appropriately. Unless its baking its not an exact science so it doesn't really matter.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

ian

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #4 on: 29 November, 2018, 09:22:14 pm »
Well, all salt is from the sea originally.

Salts do taste a lot different – some are more minerally etc. and as mentioned, there's a lot to do with texture and size. The Japanese actually make salt out of seaweed because they're wacky like that.

Ben T

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #5 on: 29 November, 2018, 11:25:42 pm »
Yeah what salt isn't sea salt?  ::-) ;)

ian

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #6 on: 30 November, 2018, 09:59:37 am »
If you have Netflix, it's worth catching SaltFatAcidHeat (or whichever way around it goes) – or read the book. Perky chef goes through the four elements of cooking and makes you hungry in the process. As the title suggests, there's an entire episode on salt.

(While you're at it, they have the full run of Parts Unknown.)

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #7 on: 30 November, 2018, 12:39:21 pm »
Now c'mon we all know that you have to send someone up into the Himalays these days for your tea time salt.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #8 on: 30 November, 2018, 12:44:36 pm »
One of Alan Bennett's characters says something like "I don't want any of that cheap salt with all the goodness taken out".

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #9 on: 30 November, 2018, 04:29:41 pm »
I remember visiting an archaeological site open day with an extensive exhibition on the history of salt production over the past 1500 years or so. Evaporation of sea water was one of the earliest methods, mining came later but is larger now, numerous variations.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #10 on: 30 November, 2018, 04:36:36 pm »
I remember visiting an archaeological site open day with an extensive exhibition on the history of salt production over the past 1500 years or so. Evaporation of sea water was one of the earliest methods, mining came later but is larger now, numerous variations.

Budleigh Salterton is named after the industry based in the adjacent Otter estuary.

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #11 on: 01 December, 2018, 01:01:05 am »
Sea salt comes from sea water that was dried out recently.
Rock salt comes from sea water (whole seas) that dried out hundreds of millions of years ago, after which it got buried by sediments which turned to rock.

I dare say the fish were different then, and so would their poo be, and there wouldn't have been any microplastics.

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #12 on: 01 December, 2018, 07:23:05 am »
"Sea salt" in recipes is off the same shelf as the one that says "free range eggs", a shorthand way of saying "I know what I need to say to be right on"

There are differences in flavour and intensity, which come down to texture and odd minerals and bird poo. it's one thing to sprinkle a couple of grains on an egg or a slice of toast and (unsalted) butter but I would defy anyone to tell the difference once it has been used to season.

There's also the question of useability, coarser lumps are easier to control the quantity but (slightly) harder to amalgamate. I keep a salt pig of sel de guerande (that's bird poo salt one upmanship if ever there was) for ease of use, but when I can, eg for bread baking, I dissolve and pour off leaving the sediment behind. (What? and miss out on all the good stuff ??!? )

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #13 on: 01 December, 2018, 09:05:36 am »
I once had a German waiter at Frankfurt airport explain to me in great detail that their salt needed to be eaten in a very detailed and orderly fashion, which he proceeded to demonstrate.

It tasted like salt, with bread and olive oil.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #14 on: 01 December, 2018, 10:43:03 am »
May contain traces of herring gull.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #15 on: 01 December, 2018, 11:09:50 am »
I use sea salt but only the cheapest, I think it does taste better but it could be just psychological.

Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #16 on: 01 December, 2018, 11:42:40 am »
Because chefs and amateur cooks are usually pretentious knobs. Sprinkling a load of sea salt flakes in the pan (from a height of course) with a certain amount of flamboyance will no doubt impress your moronic guests/YouTube video watchers/TV viewers no end....

There is a box of Maldon sea salt in my cupboard though  :P
Those wonderful norks are never far from my thoughts, oh yeah!

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Sea Salt?
« Reply #17 on: 04 December, 2018, 02:30:27 pm »
In a park in the suburbs of Warsaw there's a wickerwork structure dating back a couple of hundred years (it might have been repaired once or twice... ) which water from a mineral spring trickles over, leaving a sediment of salt. Just a tourist attraction now but once an actual salt factory. Not quite rock, not sea.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.