A Guide to Salt at the Grocery Store (And When to Actually Use Them)

Yes, it matters which one you grab. No, you don't need a culinary degree to figure it out.

Two years ago my wife and I were on a boat in the Mediterranean celebrating our ten year anniversary. Italy. The actual Mediterranean Sea. It was one of those moments where everything feels a little unreal in the best possible way.

And within minutes of being out on the water I noticed it. This thin layer of flaky sea salt settling on my arms straight from the sea air. I licked my wrist like a complete feral human and thought — this is it. This is what salt is supposed to taste like.

I have been a sea salt person ever since. But here's what that trip taught me beyond just my own personal salt loyalty: salt is not just salt. Where it comes from, how it's processed, how coarse or fine it is, it all affects how it behaves in your food and when you should be reaching for it.

So let's talk about it. Because the salt aisle is more confusing than it needs to be and you deserve a straight answer. 

First: Why Does Salt Even Matter Beyond Just "Salty"?

Salt does a lot more than make things taste salty. It enhances every other flavor already present in a dish — it literally makes food taste more like itself. It draws out moisture, which is why you salt vegetables before roasting and meat before cooking. It affects texture in baking. It balances sweetness, cuts bitterness, and rounds out acidity. It's basically the "mom" of the dish if you will.

The type of salt you use affects all of this. Different salts have different crystal sizes, different mineral contents, and different levels of salinity. Using the wrong one at the wrong moment doesn't ruin dinner, but using the right one can make a noticeable difference.

The Salts Worth Knowing About

Table Salt (Iodized Salt)

This is the one in the little blue cardboard cylinder that has been sitting in kitchens since approximately the beginning of time. It's heavily processed, very fine, and has iodine added to it which is actually why it exists in the first place. In the early 1900s iodine deficiency was a serious public health problem in parts of the US, so manufacturers started adding it to table salt as a way to get it into the general population. Public health win, honestly.

The problem is that all that processing strips out the natural minerals, and what you're left with is a one-note, flat, slightly metallic tasting salt that doesn't do your food any favors. Don't believe me? Next time you're in the kitchen pour a few grains into your palm and taste it, it's rather eye opening. The cheap salt is cheap for a reason. It gets the job done in a very basic way but it's not doing anything special to your food.

Best for: Baking where you need very precise measurements and a fine grain that distributes evenly. That's about it.

Skip it for: Seasoning anything where the salt is going to be a prominent flavor. You'll taste the difference.

Kosher Salt

This is the workhorse of the professional kitchen and honestly it should be the workhorse of yours too. Kosher salt has large, coarse, flat flakes that are easy to pinch, easy to control, and dissolve beautifully into food. It has no iodine, no additives, and a clean straightforward flavor.

The name comes from its use in the koshering process of drawing blood out of meat where the large flakes are ideal. But home cooks love it because it's easy to work with, widely available, and very affordable.

One thing to know: different brands have different size crystals which means they measure differently by volume (a table spoon of one doesn't equal the tablespoon of another). Diamond Crystal and Morton are the two most common and they are not interchangeable cup for cup. If a recipe calls for kosher salt and doesn't specify a brand, Diamond Crystal is generally the industry standard.

Best for: Seasoning meat before cooking, pasta water (salt it like the ocean — kosher salt makes this easy and economical), general everyday cooking and seasoning throughout the cooking process.

Skip it for: Baking recipes that call for table salt specifically as the grain size difference will throw off your measurements. 

Sea Salt

Here's where my Mediterranean boat story becomes relevant professional advice and not just a humble brag about our anniversary trip.

Sea salt is made by evaporating seawater — which means it retains the natural minerals from the ocean. Depending on where it comes from, those minerals give it a slightly more complex, nuanced flavor than table salt or even kosher salt. It's less processed, more natural, and in my completely biased opinion, just tastes better.

Sea salt comes in both fine and coarse varieties which makes it very versatile. Fine sea salt works well as an everyday cooking salt. Coarse sea salt is great for finishing dishes, rimming cocktail glasses, or crusting meat before cooking.

This is the salt I reach for most often in my kitchen. It's what we use in the WRM kitchen and it's what I recommend as your everyday salt upgrade if you're only going to make one change.

Best for: Everyday cooking and seasoning, finishing dishes, marinades, roasting vegetables, and anywhere you want a clean mineral flavor without a lot of fuss.

Skip it for: Large volume tasks like brining a big batch of something — the cost adds up fast. Use kosher for that.

Pink Himalayan Salt

Let's be honest about Pink Himalayan salt for a second. It is beautiful. It looks incredible in a little pinch bowl on a kitchen counter. It photographs extremely well. And the wellness world has made some very large claims about its mineral content and health benefits that are, let's just say, not entirely supported by the science.

Pink Himalayan salt comes from ancient sea beds in Pakistan and gets its color from trace minerals including iron oxide. It does contain more minerals than table salt, which is true. But the amounts are so small that eating it versus regular salt is not going to meaningfully change your health outcomes. The main difference is aesthetic and the very mild flavor those minerals add.

That said, it tastes good. It's a perfectly fine cooking salt. And if it makes your kitchen feel fancy and your food feel intentional, that is a completely valid reason to use it. You do you boo. Hell, I even sell it in affordable pouches here. 

Best for: Finishing dishes where the pink color adds a visual element, cooking salt if you love the aesthetic, and salt blocks or slabs for serving and cooking if you want to get adventurous.

Skip it for: Spending extra money based on health claims. The benefits are real but modest. Buy it because you like it, not because someone on the internet told you it would change your life. (Honestly, just take this advice into just about everything!)

Flaky Salt (Maldon and Similar)

This is the fancy one. The finishing salt. The one you sprinkle on top of something right before it hits the table and suddenly everything looks and tastes like it came from a restaurant.

Maldon is the most well known brand. It's a British sea salt with large, pyramid shaped flakes that dissolve slowly on the tongue and give you these little pops of clean, bright salinity. It's delicate, it's beautiful, and it does something to food that no other salt can replicate at the end of cooking.

The key word is finishing. You do not cook with Maldon. You do not put it in your pasta water. You sprinkle it on top of something right before serving like a piece of grilled steak, a chocolate chip cookie, avocado toast, roasted vegetables, a slice of really good bread with butter (this happens to be my kids favorite snack these days with our homemade bread). It's the punctuation mark at the end of a great dish.

Best for: Finishing absolutely anything. Baked goods especially. If you have never put flaky salt on a fresh chocolate chip cookie you are not living your best life.

Skip it for: Cooking, baking, or any application where it will dissolve and lose its texture. The texture is the whole point. Lil' crunchy bits :)

Fine vs. Coarse: The Quick Rule

If you take nothing else from this post, take this:

Fine salt dissolves quickly and distributes evenly. Use it during cooking, in baking, and anywhere the salt needs to incorporate fully into the dish.

Coarse salt dissolves slowly and gives you more control over how much you're adding. Use it for seasoning meat before cooking, finishing dishes, and anywhere you want a little texture or burst of salinity.

When in doubt — fine for cooking, coarse for finishing. That's it.

The WRM Salt of Choice

Sea salt. Always. It's what's in our kitchen, it's what informed the recipes in the cookbook, and it's what I've been cooking with ever since a boat in the Mediterranean confirmed what I already suspected — that less processed, closer to the source is almost always better.

If you're ready to upgrade your spice situation beyond just salt, you know where to find us.

 

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or dietitian. Any health related information in this post is general in nature and not intended as medical advice. Always consult a healthcare professional for specific health concerns.