I volunteered to help in a layer cake baking class this past week, and the issue of salt came up. There seems to be some confusion and disagreement about when to use certain types of salt in the kitchen. It's time to change that.
Kosher or regular? Can you bake with sea salt? Maldon salt? In April's issue of Everyday Food, Martha Stewart discusses different kinds of salt you need in your pantry and I agreed with each of her choices. When it comes down to it, you really need three types of salt to get you through any baking or cooking project. Sure, you can spring for fancier salts like truffle salt or lavender salt, and we certainly have a few of those splurges in our pantry. But when it comes right down to it, a fine table salt, a coarse kosher salt and a finishing salt like Maldon sea salt will set you straight for pretty much any recipe that comes your way.
• 1) Table Salt: I like using table salt when I'm baking as it really integrates into recipes the easiest due to the fine crystals (for this reason you really never want to bake with Maldon sea salt). It's inexpensive and what most folks fill their salt shakers with.
• 2) Coarse Sea Salt: Sea salt is wonderful for most savory cooking. I love using it when roasting vegetables or preparing chicken or fish because the larger grains often hold their shape and you get a slight crust on the outside.
• 3) Large-Flake Finishing Salt: We use Maldon sea salt at home to sprinkle on top of dishes like eggs or baked potatoes, and I love using it in salad dressings. Whenever you see salted caramels in the stores now, they're using a thicker-flake salt so you really notice the flavor right away.
Related: All About Salt: How to Choose, Cook With, and Store It
(Image: Emma Christensen)
5 Things Paris Taught Me About Travel
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Linen Napkins from ...
Apartment Therapy's Sofa Shopping Guide
Nikki’s Sweet and Cheery Print Studio
Morton's makes a fine sea salt table salt. It's a teeny bit coarser grained than regular table salt, but I find it a lot less metallic tasting. It's also iodized sea salt, for all of you worried about iodine deficiencies. I use it in just about everything.
I have a coarse sea salt I use sometimes, but I just find the grains to be too big and a crunchy explosion of salt has never been my thing, even on caramel and chocolate, unless the salt is partially melted from the heat of something.
But yeah, I've never had a problem baking with fine sea salt.
I use Trader Joe's Fine Sea Salt for everything, and I've never noticed a difference in baking. That said, I have been meaning to start using Maldon for finishing a dish. And a few flakes on top of a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie.
Is Kosher salt a sea salt? I didn't think it was.
Also, it's important to note that if a baking recipe calls for coarse salt, such as Kosher, and you substitute fine table salt, you'll want to reduce the amount since the large grains of a coarse salt create more air pockets in the measuring spoon.
Kosher salt and sea salt are not synonymous.
I second MDorthy's comment. It is so important that it needs a second (all in favor......)
I get by with just kosher salt and finishing/large flake salt(s).
I've never had a problem baking with kosher salt. I'm sure there could be minute chemical differences, but it doesn't negatively affect the finished product. If you want it to be saltier that it turns out, next time use more.
I believe "wordkt" was commenting on this proofreading error:
"• 2) Coarse Sea Salt: Kosher salt is wonderful for most savory cooking. I love using kosher salt when roasting vegetables or preparing chicken or fish because the larger grains often hold their shape and you get a slight crust on the outside. "
Like wordkt above, I was confused that #2 says "coarse sea salt" and then talks about kosher salt, which is certainly *not* sea salt. Rather, it is coarse crystals of uniodized sodium chloride. I use it for everything except table salt (we don't have much opportunity to use "finishing salts", but I do have some sea salt around for the rare occasion.)
I keep table salt in a shaker (which rarely gets used), cooking salt (for salting water for cooking pasta & potatoes) and malton or sea salt flakes for seasoning stews, sauces, meat etc.
Any kind of salt can be Kosher - "Kosher certified salt" is salt that has been deemed Kosher by an appropriate religious body.
Kosher salt typically refers to Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt and it's flakey texture, and is a sea salt harvested from drying ponds around the world.
I put sea salt in almost everything (except bakery, I use regular salt). I've discovered recently pink, spicy and even black salt; I'm dying buy those and try them. Any idea how to use them?
At one point, I had both table and kosher salt in the cupboard. Then, in order to save some space in favor of more spices, I decided to skip table salt and use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt even when baking, and I never experienced any problems.
@caseoftornados - While you are correct about Kosher CERTIFIED salt, my experience is that when people are discussing Kosher salt, they are talking about the large, chunky salt... not the salt that has been deemed Kosher, but rather the salt that will make a piece of meat kosher by removing the blood. (From Wikipedia).
@neilw , @wordkt @Mdorothy @Greybeard @ AllisonNF Thank you all for noticing this small proofing error. We've not fixed it -- #2 refers to sea salt although truthfully it could refer to kosher salt as well. Both have those nice, large irregular grains that are great for savory cooking. Thank you all for your astute comments. Salt away!
@caseoftornados - I believe you are incorrect. Kosher salt is *not* sea salt; it is plain old sodium chloride.
@MELBEE85 - colored salts are generally finishing salts, you'll want to sprinkle them on top of your finished dish, they're really best used on small things - appetizers - or - perhaps scrambled eggs that had been put back into their shell. Spicy salt is a blend and can be used as an ingredient or finishing salt. The colored salts are colored due to mineral content - or - they've been mixed with another ingredient as in the case of Hawaiian red salt which is mixed with clay. I have about 18 different salts, for awhile friends and I traded them as gifts, but instead of being a valuable pantry ingredient they mostly look pretty lined up in jars on my kitchen shelf... I'm far more likely to use one of the 3 listed above or a particular smoked salt that I like that reminds me of something my mother used when I was a child.