Salt
Black Salt: Also known as Kala Namak, Sanchal.
Black salt is an unrefined mineral salt. It is actually a pearly pinkish gray rather than black, and has a strong, sulfuric flavor. Uses: Use in authentic Indian cooking. Available in very fine or coarse grain.
Celery Salt: Is a classic mixture of fine-grained salt and ground celery seed.
Sprinkle a little celery salt on hard boiled eggs, pork roast, beef roast, vegetables, potato salad, tomato or vegetable juices. Rim your glasses with celery salt to make a great Bloody Mary.
Celtic Salt: A natural, solar-evaporated sea salt that's been hand harvested, from the Atlantic marshes in Brittany, France, using a 2,000 year old Celtic tradition.
Coarse Salt: Coarse salt granules enhance many dishes. A good salt mill can make those granules into a size that is more suitable for your intended use and for your taste. From a coarse size for pretzels, to a super-fine size for table service.
Cooking Salt: This comes in the form of small crystals and is used to season food while cooking. It should be kept within easy reach in a vessel with a lid, to prevent it from becoming damp.
Finishing Salts: Premier salts that are grown in special areas around world and are known for their unique textures which allow them to quickly dissolve when applied to food at presentation. These salts bring out the depth of natural flavors of any dish.
Garlic Salt: Is garlic powder blended with salt.
A versatile all purpose seasoning salt it is great with hard boiled eggs.
Grey Salt: Also Known as Sel Gris, Celtic Sea Salt.
Grey Salt is a “moist” unrefined sea salt usually found on the coastal areas of France. Its light grey, almost light purple color comes from the clay found in the salt flats. The salt is collected by hand using traditional Celtic methods. Grey Salt has gained great fame in the mainstream culinary world in the last few years and is considered by many to be the best quality salt available. It is available in coarse, stone ground fine and extra fine grain.
Grinder Salt: Are typically large dry crystals suitable to a salt mill or grinder. The white salt crystals are easy to grind in the mills and the lower moisture content allows the salt to flow through with little hassle. Uses: For flavoring foods at the table when the host determines that a finer, higher grade finishing salt is not required. Note: Always use a salt mill with a ceramic or plastic grinding mechanism. Metal, including stainless steel, will corrode and adversely flavor the salt.
Halite: Halite is the salt that is used on roads to melt snow and ice. It, is not food grade and should not be used in food preservation. This form of salt is also frequently called rock salt, but is not suitable for food use.
Hickory Salt: An American condiment consisting of sea salt mixed with smoked, finely powdered hickory wood. It has a slightly nutty taste and is used for barbecues.
Hymilayan Crystal Salt: Is salt in its native form, with all its vibrational energy intact and it helps promote a healthy balance in your body. Promoting balanced electrolytes helps to keep your body in homeostasis -- the balance of chemicals that is conducive to the body's function.
There are many varieties of this salt, don't mix the bath and the cooking salts.
Found at most health food stores and can be used in place of regular salt and is actually better for you than regular salt and other salts including sea salt and rock salt.
Iodized Salt: Is table salt with added Iodine (Sodium Iodide) particularly important in areas that lack natural iodine, an important preventive for hypothyroidism.
Kosher Salt: Is regular salt that is so named for its use in the preparation of meat according to the requirements of Jewish dietary guidelines. It contains fewer additives, and has a more salty taste than ordinary table salt. It generally comes in flakes rather than granules. The flakes dissolve easily, and have a less pungent flavor than table salt. Due to the shape of the granules, there is simply less salt in a pinch of kosher salt than in a pinch of table salt. This is the kind of salt most often used on top of pretzels and on the rims of margarita glasses. It is important to note that all Kosher salt is not necessarily sea salt. Kosher salt comes in fine and coarse grain.
Kosher salt is preferred over table salt for canning and pickling. Like pickling salt, Kosher salt is free of iodine, which can react adversely with certain foods. Since it's not as dense as pickling salt you'll need to use more, but it varies by brand. For best results, it's best to measure by weight rather than volume to avoid this problem.
Lovage Salt: A table salt flavored with dried ground lovage root. It has more body than celery salt and is used in soups and sauces, particularly in Germany.
Natural Salt: is quite delicious. Unprocessed, the grains may be of different sizes, but you get the benefit of this salt's full, original flavor. Naturally left to partially or fully dry in the sun, it melts more quickly than commercially dried salt.
Organic Salt: Although salt is not certified organic by the same standards as botanicals, agriculture or livestock, there are at least three organizations that have set up rigorous guidelines for the production of salt. This includes ensuring the purity of the water, cleanliness of the salt beds and strict procedures on how the salt is harvested and packaged.
These certifications include:
Nature & Progres - France
Bio-Gro - New Zealand
Soil Association Certified - Wales
Pickling Salt: Also called Canning Salt. Kosher Salt can be used if you can't find Pickling Salt. This is pure salt and nothing but salt. It can usually be found in the canning supplies section of most stores. This is the preferred salt for most food preservation or storage uses. It is generally about the same grain size as table salt.
Rock Salt: Also called Ice Cream Salt. Comes from underground mines and is the purest of salts. After mining, it is ground to size and sifted. Pieces of rock salt are referred to as corns.
Warning: While natural rock salt comes close to being intact and is more valuable than industrial table salt, from a biophysical as well as bio-chemical perspective, it holds little value.
The elements contained in rock salt lack sufficient compression to be included in the crystal web, but are only attached to the surface and in the gaps of the crystalline structure. It is the considerable pressure that brings the elements to a colloidal state - where your cells can readily absorb them. The valuable elements found in rock salt are useless because your body cannot absorb and metabolize them.
Saline Salt: Comes from underground mines, and is then boiled to remove impurities.
Salt Substitutes: These are various other kinds of metal salts such as potassium chloride used to substitute for the ordinary sodium chloride (NaCl) salt we are familiar with. They have their uses, but should not be used in foods undergoing a heated preservation processing, as they can cause the product to taste bad. Even the heat from normal cooking is sometimes sufficient to cause this.
Sea Salt: Is a broad term that generally refers to unrefined salt derived directly from a living ocean or sea. It is harvested through channeling ocean water into large clay trays and allowing the sun and wind to evaporate it naturally. Manufacturers of sea salt typically do not refine sea salt as much as other kinds of salt, so it still contains traces of other minerals, including iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc and iodine.
Proponents of sea salt rave about its bright, pure, clean flavor, and about the subtleties lent to it by these other trace minerals. Some of the most common sources for sea salt include the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean (particularly in France, on the coast of Brittany).
Sea salt is thought to be healthier and more flavorful that traditional table salt.
Available in coarse, fine & extra fine grain size.
Warning: Many people believe sea salt is a healthy alternative to table salt, but this is no longer the case. The oceans are being used as dumping grounds for harmful toxic poisons like mercury, PCBs and dioxin. Reports of oil spills polluting the sea are becoming more frequent. With some 89% of all the sea salt producers now refining their salt, today's sea salt simply isn't as healthy as it used to be.
Seasoned Salt: Contains one or more seasonings, or spices, to give it a different flavor.
Solar Salt: This is also sometimes confusingly called "sea salt". It is not, however, the same thing as the sea salt found in food stores. Most importantly, it is not food grade. It's main purpose is for use in water softeners. The reason it is called "solar" and sometimes "sea salt" is that it is produced by evaporation of sea water in large ponds in various arid areas of the world. This salt type is not purified and still contains the desiccated remains of whatever aquatic life might have been trapped in it. Those organic remains might react with the proteins in the foods you are attempting to preserve and cause it to spoil.
Sour Salt: Also called Citric Salt, is extracted from acidic fruits, such as lemons and limes. It's used to add tartness to traditional dishes like Borscht.
Spiced Salt: A mixture of dry table salt, white ground pepper and mixed spices in the proportions 10:1:1. It is used to season forcemeats, pies and terrines.
Table Salt: This is by far the most widely known type of salt. It comes in two varieties; iodized and non-iodized. There is an ingredient added to it to adsorb moisture so it will stay free flowing in damp weather. This non-caking agent does not dissolve in water and can cause cloudiness in solutions if sufficiently large quantities are used. Should not be used for canning.
Tenderizing Salt: Ordinary salt containing 2-3% papan, used for tenderizing meat.
