Boo hiss on Morton's Kosher Salt

[Jenise]

Had to buy some yesterday as suddenly, Diamond Crystal is nowhere to be found.

Gosh: https://food52.com/blog/16824-you-re-no ... nd-crystal

More than I ever thought I needed to know. I'm pretty sure the drumlin in the back of the spice cabinet has a big red cross on it so it's D.C.

Jenise, have you seen Field Day coarse sea salt up there in your area? I love it! Could not find the brand I liked anymore and went into the health section of the store and found it. I buy it all the time now. The company has a whole line of foods out now and I have liked all the ones I have tried.
https://www.fielddayproducts.com/produc ... 4256360083

[Jenise]

No re Field Day salt, though the brand is familiar for other things. It is in fact the
'house' brand for things like canned tuna and peaches at the Food Co-op where I usually buy Diamond Crystal but had to buy Morton's instead yesterday. Good choice for the Co-op because, as it says on their website: "What we leave out in artificial flavors, colors, and unnecessary preservatives, we make up for in pure deliciousness." But they don't carry the salt. I'd never deviate from Diamond Crystal if I didn't have to.

I always regard salt amounts in recipes as suggestions and bring my salt up to my satisfaction by tasting. We use Morton's but I have noted that Bon Appetit now seems to use Diamond Crystal in all their recipes.

Tell me what I am missing. I can source Diamond Crystal locally (Gourmet Warehouse) it it warrants it.

[Jenise]

I always regard salt amounts in recipes as suggestions and bring my salt up to my satisfaction by tasting. We use Morton's but I have noted that Bon Appetit now seems to use Diamond Crystal in all their recipes.

Tell me what I am missing. I can source Diamond Crystal locally (Gourmet Warehouse) it it warrants it.

Cut a tomato in half. Sprinkle Morton's on one half and DC on the other. Eat. You'll see the difference immediately. Morton's is stronger, saltier, and has an industrial hardness. DC is milder, with more delicate texture and a brinier, seawater taste. And then there's this fact: 1 tblsp DC = 1.5 tblsp of Morton's. So when you salt with your fingers from a salt pot like I do, the feel in my fingertips equates to a certain expectation of flavor. With the Morton's, I'll probably be oversalting for a bit until I get used to it. But I don't want to get used to it. If I weren't putting up jars of pickles yesterday I would have waited to find DC somewhere else--although there's actually a danger of not finding it again soon, because that's what happens these days.

Thanks - will make a point of picking up some DC to try.

I'm pretty sure the drumlin in the back of the spice cabinet has a big red cross on it so it's D.C.

What am I saying? It's Red Cross brand and it's table salt, not kosher.

[Jenise]

OOOPS! Attention Bill: I misspoke. This: "And then there's this fact: 1 tblsp DC = 1.5 tblsp of Morton's" should have read "1 tblsp of Morton's = 1.5 tblsp of DC". Morton's is stronger, and stronger isn't better. Which is why "So when you salt with your fingers from a salt pot like I do, the feel in my fingertips equates to a certain expectation of flavor. With the Morton's, I'll probably be oversalting for a bit until I get used to it."

I haven't paid much attention to which salt I use. I checked my salt box and it's Morton's kosher salt. Checking the ingredients list it contains salt and yellow prussiate of soda (sodium ferrocyanide, also known as yellow prussiate of soda), an anti-caking agent approved for use in salt. This additive is presumably the innovation behind Morton's advertising slogan, "when it rains, it pours."

I thought that kosher salt had to be pure salt, with no additives? Apparently not, as the label claims "kosher for Passover".

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

As predicted, last night I oversalted a salad. Damn I hate Morton's! Hate the feel of it too--little rocks. Like gravel.

To Bill: thinking it over, it might not make much difference to you. You mention working from recipes--I rarely do. I'm the 'a pinch here and there' type. Even though Bon Appetit is, as you say, calling out type/brand of salt (because almost every chef on the planet has the same preference), most recipes in the world written five or more years ago aren't specific so you're on your own anyway and personal judgement is required. So just use less Morton's, and you're fine.

Yup- that's what I do - work my way up t what I think the salt should be by taste. I seldom trust recipes - do the same for other seasonings.

[Jenise]

I oversalted a salad last night again--damn that Morton's. A big difference between you and I is that I make salads daily, no recipes involved. Just doing it by the feel of that pinch between my fingers. The extra potency and unpleasant texture of Morton's is a real problem.

Would a brief grind with a mortar and pestle mitigate the texture problem somewhat?

I was out shopping yesterday and this discussion spurred me to buy a box of Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. My supermarket carries both Diamond Crystal and Morton's. The first thing that jumped out at me is that the Diamond Crystal box is 50% larger than the Morton's box even though both have a three pound net weight. So indeed the Diamond Crystal salt is only 2/3 as densely packed as the Morton's. I was also very pleased by the ingredients list for Diamond Crystal, one ingredient: salt. No sodium ferrocyanide as an anti-caking additive.

In cooking, where the salt dissolves and thus the texture of the grains doesn't matter, it should be possible to compensate for the density difference by adjusting the amount used. For a recipe where you'd use one teaspoon of Diamond Crystal, you should use 2/3 teaspoon of Morton's. Similarly, for a recipe where you'd use one teaspoon of Morton's, you should use 1-1/2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal. Of course the texture becomes important when using the salt as a final seasoning or a table condiment.

I don't know if the difference in intensity of taste is entirely due to the textural difference of the crystals or if the chemical composition of the salt has some effect. I plan to do a side-by-side tasting of dissolved solutions of each salt, with the aforementioned compensation for density taken into account. No culinary salt, especially sea salt, is 100% NaCl. Traces of other compounds can matter.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Good job. You won't go back to Morton's, I promise.

And yes, "Similarly, for a recipe where you'd use one teaspoon of Morton's, you should use 1-1/2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal" is the common way to express equivalency.

I also noticed that the Diamond Crystal box has the circle-U with P kosher certification mark indicating that the contents are kosher pareve. Morton's says "kosher for Passover" on the label but I didn't see the circle-U anywhere.

-Paul W.