How good is the salt in your food? Sure, it adds flavor. Do you know what else it does? It promotes health as well! Do you know what is kosher salt? Spend a few minutes with me, and we can find out why and how kosher salt is better than other types of salts!
If not for salt, our meals wouldn’t turn out as stimulating on the tongue. Composed of sodium and chloride, the ingredient certainly drives the word ‘boring’ away from our meals.
Salt is available to us in myriad forms. Bet you never tested the Himalayan pink variety yet. Some others include,
All types of salts are not equal, and their differences lie in,
The salt you and I use in our food continues to receive unwarranted comments. The minute a friend catches me adding more salt for extra flavor, I am admonished. “It’s not good for your health,” she says.
In fact, sodium and chloride are essential to our bodies, particularly for nerve impulse conduction and brain function. Isn’t that food for thought? Salt, by itself, does not cause heart diseases. It binds to water in our bloodstream, raising blood pressure. Hence, if you avoid unhealthy processed foods that contain excessive sodium, salt will not harm you (1).
Speaking of sodium, kosher salt wins over table salt since the sodium in kosher salt is lower when compared to the table salt. sodium content. While table salt has 2,300 milligrams in 1 teaspoon, kosher salt contains only 1,800 milligrams. An adult can have a maximum of 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day (2). Need more flavor? Add more kosher salt.
Kosher salt is procured from land salt mines. The variety is not processed as much as table salt. For all intents and purposes, all salt varieties are similar in chemical structure once iodine is removed from the mixture. However, kosher salt does not feature the artificial additives that make table salt flow freely.
Table salt may slip through your fingers, but kosher salt enables easy cooking. Its long crystalline structure and coarse texture make it effortless to sprinkle over simmering dishes. Kosher salt also weighs lesser compared to table salt.
Coarse, mineral containing salts have a deeper, fuller flavor on the tongue. Kosher salt gives more taste in smaller amounts by virtue of its less processed nature. You can halve the quantity of salt in your recipes by switching to kosher. Goodbye, high blood pressure!
Ok, so you’ve added the salt but did not mix it evenly? That is one cooking mistake you can avoid easily with kosher salt. It dissolves better with food, adhering to it easily (3). I would particularly prefer it if I want to cook in a hurry.
Did you know where the salt’s name comes from? Its crystals do not dissolve as quickly on raw meat, making the flakes stick to the surface. The salt effectively draws out the blood from the meat, making it ‘kosher’ for religious purposes.
Natural salt, like kosher salt, is considered better than processed salt for pickling purposes. The salt crystals do not dissolve as readily as table salt in the pickling solution, making kosher salt a better option.
And here is the icing on the cake.
Kosher salt is not hard to find and doesn’t burn holes in your pockets either. Now, how cool is that?
Did I manage to clear any misconceptions about salt? Kosher salt is a good choice even if you don’t want to increase the salt in your diet. Just don’t decrease salt intake, as our bodies need it.
If you have something to share, please do leave your comments below.