Refined features a different flavor than unrefined sea salt.
Both table salt and sea salt are made the same way: through water evaporation. But table salt comes from water driven into salt mines, while sea salt hails from seawater, mostly from the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Some professional cooks say blind taste tests convinced them that sea salt brings different, more subtle flavors to dishes than its table-based counterpart.
Table Salt
Table salt, the most common salt used in home kitchens, is refined once it's mined. That processing removes most of the salt's minerals until pure sodium chloride is all that's left. Many cooks say the refining process leaves the salt with a plainer, more-bitter unrefined salts. Makers of some table salts also coat the product with potassium iodide, an additive designed to prevent enlargement of the thyroid. Potassium iodide can give some dishes a sour flavor --- which is why some recipes call for non-iodized salt --- and react badly to other foods. Potassium iodide can inhibit the fermenting process of pickles and sauerkraut, for example.
Sea Salt
Sea salt refers to unrefined salt taken directly from an ocean or sea. Because it's not refined the way table salt is, sea salt carries natural traces of minerals such as iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, manganese and zinc. And though finer-grained sea salts are on the market, sea salt often comes in larger, flakier grains, which can help it melt better into foods. Because of these culinary advantages, many professional chefs advocate using sea salt wherever possible. The only exception is baking. Coarser salt grains can make it harder to measure the precise ingredient amounts important to the success of cakes, cookies and breads.
Smoked Sea Salt
Some salt makers treat sea salts in a natural smoking process that imparts an even stronger flavor than traditional sea salt offers. Smoked sea salt has been slow-smoked over wood fires to add flavor to grilled or roasted fish, chicken and beef. Some smoked sea salts are made with liquid-smoke flavoring, but the process can create a bitter aftertaste. Chefs recommend buying only naturally smoked sea salt.
Other Sea Salts
French sea salt is hand-harvested from Atlantic seawater and contains natural iodine. Grey sea salt is collected by hand using only wooden tools, which makers say preserves the salt's pure taste and gives it a moister texture than other salts. Hawaiian Alaea sea salt is enriched with volcanic red clay to add iron oxide and impart an earthier flavor. Black Hawaiian sea salt is treated with charcoal to give color and a smoky flavor. Italian sea salt is harvested along the coasts of Sicily. It's rich in the minerals iodine, fluorine, magnesium and potassium and has a lower percentage of sodium chloride --- and a more delicate flavor --- than table salt.
Nutritional Profiles
Sea salt and table salt have the same nutritional values, as both consist mostly of the minerals sodium and chloride. Nutritionists now say most Americans don't need iodine from table salt, because they obtain enough of the mineral from regular food sources, so iodized table salt is no longer considered an important dietary supplement. But sea salt isn't healthier than table salt. Nutritionists urge people to keep all salt consumption below 2,300 mg daily. People with high blood pressure and anyone middle-aged or older should stay at or below 1,500 mg a day.
Tags: table salt, flavor than, sodium chloride, , flavor than unrefined, Potassium iodide