Tips for Cooking with Sea Salt

Sea salt adds a unique variety to any dish and can replace regular table salt in most recipes. When I say most, I mean most. Avoid some of the common pitfalls of using sea salt by following the tips discussed later in this article.

What makes sea salt different from table salt or kosher salt is the texture. Table salt is the finest and dissolves easily, while sea salt and kosher salt each come in larger chunks. The larger pieces add a little bit of crunch to a dish seasoned with either sea salt or kosher salt. I happen to like that crunch, but if you prefer not biting into pieces of salt, you should stick with the table salt.

Listed below are eight tips for cooking with sea salt. I am also getting ready to publish an article with three sea salt recipes. Stay tuned for those!

If you are baking, stick to table salt. Just because the flavor of sea salt is good doesn't mean the texture goes well with every dish. If you are baking, stick to the regular table salt because it dissolves easily. If you are baking cookies or brownies and use that sprinkle of salt, you don't want to bite into a chunk of it. You need it to blend.

Determine whether sea salt will add a welcome crunch to the dish. Sea salt works especially well with hearty, flavorful dishes. If a crunchy piece of salt is going to create an unexpected or undesired texture for you, your family, or your guests, use the table salt instead.

Think about nutrition. We all know that too much salt is bad for us. A nice thing about sea salt is that, with its strong flavor, you don't have to use as much of it. Think about that when you make a dish with sea salt. Try to overcome the urge to add a ton of salt. With the sea salt, you really don't need to add a whole lot to get a delicious flavor.

Avoid over salting. Another reason, besides the nutrition aspect, to avoid over salting a dish is because too much salt tastes bad...well, it's hard to put too much salt on anything for my tastes, but I know that when I cook for others, I have to refrain from adding too much salt. Again, with sea salt's strong flavor, you don't need to use as much anyway.

Buy sea salt in a grinder. I buy the McCormick's sea salt grinders so my sea salt will stay fresh and so it can easily be grinded down into as small of pieces as I need. It is easy to grind the salt this way instead of having to pinch pieces out of a bag or another container. The grinders are also fun for everyone to use and are not relatively messy.

Use sea salt in meat marinades. Sea salt works really well with meat dishes. By adding the sea salt to the marinade, you will give it time to penetrate the meat. This process will make the meat more flavorful and will keep it moist.

Sprinkle sea salt on top of fish before grilling, baking, or frying. Sea salt is delicious on salmon, cod, tilapia, and other types of fish. You can sprinkle a bit on one or both sides of the fish (along with other ingredients that you like) before cooking it. Similar to the marinade, by putting it on the fish before you cook it, more flavor will soak in to the fish.

Use sea salt on the rim of your drinks. If you enjoy margaritas or other beverages with salted rims, you can use sea salt in place of buying a "specially" made rimmer. Sea salt makes for a cheap and easy salt rim for any drink.