Iodized Salt Vs. Kosher Salt

Salt comes in many varieties, out of which tablet salt or iodized salt, kosher salt and sea salt are some of the popular varieties that can be used for cooking, food preservation, as well as for some other purposes.

What is Iodized Salt?

Iodized salt is the regular salt or table salt enriched or fortified with the mineral iodine. Salt including, iodized salt is basically sodium chloride. The reason for fortifying salt with iodine is the importance of this mineral in preventing thyroid diseases like, goiter. Even now deficiency of iodine affects a large number of population throughout the world. Iodine is primarily required by the thyroid gland for synthesizing the thyroid hormones, insufficient production of which can cause thyroid disorders and other health problems.

So, the main benefits of adding iodine to table salt is that it can provide iodine for maintaining the health of the thyroid gland. Though iodine can be abundantly found in sea vegetables and seafood, iodized salt seems to be the easiest way to get enough iodine for common people. Nowadays, iodine is also added to sea salt to make iodized sea salt.

What is Kosher Salt?

Like iodized salt, kosher salt is also chemically sodium chloride, but it usually does not contain additives like, iodine. Some brands of kosher salt can however, contain a small amount of anti-clumping agents. Compared to tablet salt, the grains of kosher salt are much larger. Kosher salt is not refined, and is basically a type of coarse salt. It is also known as rock salt. The salt got its name 'kosher' due to the fact that, it is used for curing meat or making meat kosher by drawing blood from it. Kosher foods are those that conforms to the Jewish dietary law.

Comparison Between Iodized Salt and Kosher Salt

The main difference between these two salt is that, kosher salt is unrefined, coarse and does not contain additives, unlike iodized salt. Kosher salt is usually considered as a pure salt, and compared to iodized salt, its flavor is said to be milder. This is the reason why it is preferred over iodized salt by many cooks. Professional chefs prefer kosher salt over iodized salt mainly for seasoning. It is especially suitable for curing meat, as the coarse, larger and flaky grains of kosher salt do not dissolve and so, adhere to the skin of meat, fish and any other surface like, glass. Therefore, kosher salt helps to draw out blood or fluid out of meat more effectively.

Kosher salt can be used for nearly all those purposes for which table salt is used, except for baking, especially when the recipe requires the use of only a small amount of liquid. The grains of kosher salt are larger and hence may not dissolve properly in a small amount of liquid. In such a case, table salt is a better option than kosher salt for baking. But, in recipes where you can use enough liquid to dissolve kosher salt, you can use both iodized and kosher salt, whichever you prefer. Apart from cooking, kosher salt has some special uses. As for example, it is used for lining margarita glasses, as well as for making salt crust on meat and baked fish.

Kosher salt is also more preferable for pickling, as it does not contain iodine. Use of iodized salt for pickling or food preservation can cause discoloration of the food, which can be avoided by using kosher salt. Moreover, kosher salt can be more effective in extracting moisture from food, as its grains are larger than the grains of iodized salt. Along with kosher salt, you can also use pickling salt, another type of pure salt that does not contain iodine for pickling foods. On the other hand, the main benefits of using iodized salt in cooking is that it can provide the mineral iodine. The fine granules of iodized salt also makes it ideal to be used as table salt and for baking. But, people undergoing radioactive iodine treatment and those having thyroid cancer may be required to follow a low iodine diet, in which case, one may need to avoid iodized salt. Such individuals can however, use kosher salt.

Hope this article provided the important information to make a comparison between these two, and helped you to understand more about these two types of salt, their differences and applications.