Foods and Ingredients - Salts

[j.carlos22]

Alright guys, need your help in helping me choose a type of salt to use. I have been trying to find the best salt to cook with...Ive heard french salt is pretty good and himalayan salt (http://www.ghchealth.com/himalayan-crystal-salt-fine.php) as expensive but beneficial, and then you have the sea salt and of course table salt. What have you guys used that works great for low carb believers like me! Thanks!
Regards,
Juan Carlos

[lpioch]

Dang! I never knew there were that many salt options!

I season my cooking with Kosher salt or sea salt.
If I need more salt once the food is cooked, I add Morton's Lite Salt ('cause it has half potassium). Food tastes much better seasoned during the cooking process than after. But it is hard to get salt into an egg for hard boiling. :)

I'll be curious to hear more about salts!

[Kisal]

I haven't tried anything except sea salt and kosher salt. I prefer the sea salt. I just read the same question on another forum, and the folks who have tried all the fancy salts seem to feel that they are for adding at the table, rather than for use in cooking. The one exception seemed to be Himalayan red salt, or something like that.

[Nancy LC]

There are different salts for different purposes. Sometimes it is best to use coarse kosher salt as it doesn't get absorbed immediately and can help make a good crust on a steak. Other times, finer salts are useful (like in pickling).

Fleur de Sel is supposed to be an interesting salt that fizzes on your tongue. I'm not sure when to use that.

I keep plenty of Kosher and I have some pickling salt too (in case I need it for pickling or brining), and regular table salt. I suppose I have some sea salt but I forget I own it.

[Legeon]

"Himalayan" salt has a lot of weird claims surrounding it, seems like a scam.

[Kisal]

"Himalayan" salt has a lot of weird claims surrounding it, seems like a scam.That wouldn't surprise me a bit, nor would I be surprised to learn that it wasn't actually from Himalaya. :lol:

I hardly ever add salt to my food, anyway, so I'm just going to continue with my sea salt. ;)

[awriter]

What have you guys used that works great for low carb believers like me!
Juan, before I started the LC WOE, I used many different kinds of sugars as flavorings in their own right. I had as many as a dozen different kinds in the kitchen. Now I treat salts the same way.

-- Kosher salt. It has a very clean 'palate' or taste. Unlike regular 'table salt,' which has iodine and bitter tasting (to me) anti-caking agents added to it. There are two different brands: Morton's and Diamond. Morton's is very coarse, has bigger flakes, and weighs twice as much as Diamond. If a recipe calls for a tablespoon of salt, I use 1 tablespoon of Morton's to 2 tablespoons of Diamond. I prefer Diamond, which is composed of lovely small, light flakes. I use this for adding salt to the pan while I'm cooking.

-- Sea Salt. There are actually many different kinds of sea salts, all with different textures and tastes. I keep a plain coarse sea salt in a ceramic-topped grinder and use it for after I plate a dish, like sliced avocado, for example.

-- Finishing Sea Salt, like Fleur de Sel (from France) and Malden Gray (from England). These have gorgeous and subtle flavors that cooking destroys, so they are best used to sprinkle on a special dish just before serving - like beautifully done asparagus, for instance. Or in the summer, on top of fresh tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. I also sprinkle Fleur de Sel on my LC Chocolate Fudge after it sets completely. The combination of biting into the sweet creamy fudge mixed with the texture and taste of the salt melting on the tongue is wonderful. When I still made caramels I did the same thing.

-- Smoked Salt. There are many, but I prefer Alderwood. With it's smoky undertones, it's perfect to give a subtle depth to dishes like chili, or scrambled eggs with goat cheese, or anything where you want a little extra oomph. It also creates a wonderful synergy when mixed with a spice like chipotle or smoked Spanish paprika. I haven't tried it yet with sweet dishes, but I'm sure I will someday.

-- Vanilla Salt. My own invention. I take the vanilla beans I use to make ice-cream, wash them well, dry them completely for a week wrapped in paper towels, and then very finely grind them with sea salt. I will now use no other salt in my baking, and a tiny bit is fabulous on fruits, and even some meats like lamb and duck. I also use it in salad dressings made with fig or balsamic vinegar.

I'm not quite up to a dozen salts yet, as I was with sugars - but I'm getting there! :)

Lisa

[27Peach]

Wow, Lisa - fabulous descriptions! The salt sprinkled on the LC fudge sounds divine - I'm a true believer in having a bit of salt with chocolate.

Personally, I use Celtic sea salt (usually the fine, but I've used the coarse as well - it's light grey in color) - I get mine at Earth Fare; I bet you can get it a Whole Foods, too. I just pinch it right out of the bag - no grinder/shaker or anything.

Other than that I use sea salt that I get at the grocery store, but I do prefer the flavor of the Celtic sea salt for anything that would taste better with salt on it!

I have NO iodized salt in my house as I believe it is very bad for our health.

[Nancy LC]

Lisa... you might be the foodiest foodie I've ever encountered!

[awriter]

Lisa... you might be the foodiest foodie I've ever encountered!
Hey, I resemble that remark! :lol:

I figure I was a Vegan in a former and wicked life, and am now being forced to eat (and enjoy!) everything that doesn't eat me first as punishment in this one. Next round, who knows - maybe I'll BE the salt. :)

Lisa

[j.carlos22]

Juan, before I started the LC WOE, I used many different kinds of sugars as flavorings in their own right. I had as many as a dozen different kinds in the kitchen. Now I treat salts the same way.

-- Finishing Sea Salt, like Fleur de Sel (from France) and Malden Gray (from England). These have gorgeous and subtle flavors that cooking destroys, so they are best used to sprinkle on a special dish just before serving - like beautifully done asparagus, for instance. Or in the summer, on top of fresh tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. I also sprinkle Fleur de Sel on my LC Chocolate Fudge after it sets completely. The combination of biting into the sweet creamy fudge mixed with the texture and taste of the salt melting on the tongue is wonderful. When I still made caramels I did the same thing.

I'm not quite up to a dozen salts yet, as I was with sugars - but I'm getting there! :)

Lisa

Whoaw! I really like your description of all of these salts! I did not know Fleur de Sel was more of a finishing salt - i sure could go for that chocolate fudge! Thanks lisa!

[catsrus]

Sheesh! I had no idea there was anything wrong with - actually I thought it best to buy - IODIZED salt. So tell me, or send me to another thread, the lowdown on what is wrong with using iodized salt? I have some sea salt I got for a recipe once, which I never made, so I've never used it. Should I use it when i cook? Why?

[capmikee]

I love sampling different kinds of salt. Our food coop gets different kinds sometimes - once they had "masu" sea salt from Okinawa, which contains minerals from coral. I like Redmond RealSalt, which is mined in Utah. It's kind of brown because it has so much clay in it. The clay is actually supposed to be good for you. I also keep some Kala Namak ("Black Salt") - it's mined in Pakistan and it has a high sulfur content. It's great to put in cold drinks on hot days, once you get used to the odd eggy flavor. It's often sold as a fine powder instead of coarser granules. The tiniest dab of it is usually enough.

The problem with iodized salt is that the iodine is not in an easily absorbable form. It's better to get your iodine from seafood and sea salt.

Some salt sold as "sea salt" is actually refined and it's not really any different in composition from kosher salt.

The important thing about kosher salt isn't so much what's in it as how it's shaped. It's made in flakes that stick to the surface of your meat and help draw moisture out.

[Nancy LC]

Sheesh! I had no idea there was anything wrong with - actually I thought it best to buy - IODIZED salt. So tell me, or send me to another thread, the lowdown on what is wrong with using iodized salt? I have some sea salt I got for a recipe once, which I never made, so I've never used it. Should I use it when i cook? Why?
I think it's more like a culinary thing versus health thing. These salts all have different attributes that make food more appealing, like Lisa posted.

[awriter]

Sheesh! I had no idea there was anything wrong with - actually I thought it best to buy - IODIZED salt. So tell me, or send me to another thread, the lowdown on what is wrong with using iodized salt?
Couple of things seem to have gotten mooshed together here. :) First, there's nothing wrong with IODIZED salt, per se. The problem is that MOST (but not all) iodized salt is plain "table salt" - and that is nasty stuff because of all the artificial additives that keep it 'pourable' in shakers, and prevent it from caking. I can taste it (like metal to me) on my tongue, on my food, and I never use it

If you can find iodized sea salt (it will have to say 'iodized' on the label) - that's great. Go for it.

I have some sea salt I got for a recipe once, which I never made, so I've never used it. Should I use it when i cook?
Depends on:

-- The kind of salt it is.
-- How big or small the flakes are. Can you shake it on, or do you need a salt grinder?
-- What specific dish you're cooking.
-- Whether your particular sea salt is better for cooking or for 'finishing.'

Asking if you should use 'sea salt' when you 'cook' is a little like asking if you should use 'cream' when you cook. Answer: it depends. :)

Lisa

[capmikee]

Even expensive salt is relatively cheap. Experiment! See what tastes good!

[Nancy LC]

I think Alton Brown uses kosher salt as finishing salt too sometimes. The big flakes give you a bigger salt taste without actually having to use a lot of salt. When you use a fine grained salt it gets dispersed and you actually taste it less.

I used pickling salt in my nasal irrigation solution (I have a sinus infection) because it has such a fine grain it dissolves very quickly.

[mina299]

I use a bunch of different salts, all from the Cape Herb and Spice Company. Pillar of Salt being my most necessary condiment from their lines of salts, though there are plenty of blends and other kinds that all have VERY unique flavors.

Actually, I'm currently trying to fill my kitchen with all of their spices. Even their sweeter toppings are fairly low-carb when used to simply sprinkle over some almond-flour pancakes or something. If you love to cook I suggest checking them out and trying to find their products--they are amazing!

[Edless]

I use a bunch of different salts, all from the Cape Herb and Spice Company. Pillar of Salt being my most necessary condiment from their lines of salts, though there are plenty of blends and other kinds that all have VERY unique flavors.

Actually, I'm currently trying to fill my kitchen with all of their spices. Even their sweeter toppings are fairly low-carb when used to simply sprinkle over some almond-flour pancakes or something. If you love to cook I suggest checking them out and trying to find their products--they are amazing!

This post was actually me, but my girlfriend was logged in on this computer. :)

[capmikee]

Pillar of Salt being my most necessary condiment from their lines of salts
Would that be Dead Sea Salts?

(NPR correspondent Bruce Feiler suggested that the salt formations around the Dead Sea are related to the story of Lot's wife - indicating that the Dead Sea was the site of Sodom and Gommorah)

[mina299]

This post was actually me, but my girlfriend was logged in on this computer. :)

Oh my. I was wondering why I kept getting emails about forum responses about salt.

Here is something: standard table salt is highly processed and stripped of nutrients due to those processes (exactly like white flour or sugar is). Not only will that salt (etc) drain your body's nutrient stores and potentially cause deficiencies, but they sometimes have additives like LEAD, which prevents clumping.

I would get something that is not processed, something you have to grate yourself. As long as it's rich with minerals, and unleaded (lol?) you will be doing your body a favor. :D

[27Peach]

Thanks, mina299 - I knew I had read that table salt can be bad for our health, but didn't know exactly where I had read that. Do you have a link to that information?

[Kisal]

they sometimes have additives like LEAD, which prevents clumping.Oh, how I would dearly love to see actual research that stated such a thing.

[Nancy LC]

Here's a description of the common ingredients in table salt: http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/table_salt.html

[capmikee]

Never heard of lead being added to salt. I would expect that to be illegal in the U.S., but maybe possible in India where lead is still used pretty commonly.

[SissyPoo]

I just buy the Mortons Lite Salt......Never had any problems with it keeping water weight on me either....Tastes good to.

[NrgQuest]

It's kind of funny this thread is bumped the same day this is posted.

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=392618

Salt is the happy mineral.