Table Salt vs Kosher Salt

Salt is the only rock directly consumed by man. It corrodes but preserves, desiccates but is wrested from the water. It has fascinated man for thousands of years not only as a substance he prized and was willing to labor to obtain, but also as a generator of poetic and of mythic meaning. The contradictions it embodies only intensify its power and its links with experience of the sacred.
~ Margaret Visser

Salt is salt - well, that's what most of us had known till recently when a lot of discussion over the differences between and the respective properties and benefits of table salt, sea salt, kosher salt and iodized salt over each other have been making the rounds of various health journals and nutrition related websites. So, what is it that separates table salt vs kosher salt (let's leave out the other salt types mentioned in the preceding sentence for the time being) from each other? Is it taste? Do they differ in texture? Is it about any inclusion/ exclusion of a particular additive? Well, let's get to know each a little closely to understand the differentiating factors better.

Difference Between Table Salt and Kosher Salt

Composed primarily of sodium chloride, salt is an essential nutrient which, besides imparting edibility to cooked food and salads, allows our body to replenish its sodium reserves to the required levels. In absence of appropriate amounts of sodium, which is a primary biological electrolyte, the body is unable to regulate the balance of water and other fluids within itself. Most salts in their edible forms contain at least 95%-98% sodium, the rest being additives like iodine, anti caking agents and the presence of tiny quantities of other electrolytes and minerals like potassium, magnesium and calcium. Edible salt can be classified under two broad categories - refined and unrefined. Unrefined salts include hand harvested sea salts and mineral rich rock salts. Refined salts include table salt, iodized salt (which is table salt with added iodine content) and kosher salt.

Table Salt
Refined salt which contains as much as about 99% sodium chloride and is commonly used for conventional cooking and food seasoning purposes is known as table salt. This kind of salt is white in color and usually has iodine and anti caking agents added to it to make it free-flowing so that it can be easily used out of salt shakers. The grains of table salt are extremely fine in texture and are very small and more or less evenly shaped. Table salt tastes saltier than most unrefined salts and may often have a slight metallic flavor due to the presence of iodine.

Kosher Salt
Kosher salt is identified as different from standard table salt by the larger, flat and platelet shaped grains which assume such an appearance due to the pressure they undergo during the evaporation process. This shape is forced upon the crystals and does not occur naturally. Unlike table salt, kosher salt does not have any additives contained in it. However, it may occasionally contain certain anti-clumping agents in very small amounts so as not to affect the taste and the kosher properties of this type of edible salt. Kosher salt gets its name from the Jewish dietary rules in accordance to which it is procured and processed. Kosher salt tends to be somewhat less saltier than standard table salt and lacks the metallic taste due to the absence of iodine additives. Due to its purer taste, most chefs and culinary experts prefer kosher salt over table salt for seasoning their recipes. Since kosher salt absorbs more fluids than table salt, it is commonly used to make meat kosher by rubbing meat with it to absorb moisture and clean away the blood from it before preparing it for cooking.

Table Salt to Kosher Salt Conversion

Since kosher salt is less salty than standard refined table salt (whether or not iodized), 1 tablespoonful of table salt can be substituted by 1 ½ to 2 tablespoonfuls of kosher salt. However, in a situation where you're substituting table salt with kosher salt, make sure you add more water to the recipe as kosher salt will tend to dry up the dish faster and more than table salt due to its superior water absorbing capacity. Also, if you add less water when using kosher salt, the salt will not dissolve completely. Therefore, it's not usually a good idea to use kosher salt for baked dishes.

So, as you can see, the difference is primarily in terms of texture and fluid absorption capacity with some slight differences in taste and salinity. As far as effects on health are concerned, if taken more than the recommended quantity, both salts cause damage to the body in similar ways like raising the blood pressure, causing water retention, increasing risk of stroke and cardiovascular disorders and eating into bone density. Therefore, keeping this fact in mind, it is better to use table salt as it is saltier, which means that you need to use less of it to get the right taste as compared to kosher salt.

Salt is something that cooked food just cannot do without, though it may miss out on other seasonings and spices. In the words of Margaret Visser, salt is the policeman of taste: it keeps the various flavors of a dish in order and restrains the stronger from tyrannizing over the weaker. While including it in your diet is necessary, you need to keep a strict eye over the quantity to reap the benefits without allowing this policeman to take over and play the tyrant.