Why Most Recipes Ask for Kosher Salt (and When Its Really Necessary)

If you've started to really dig into cooking for yourself, you've probably found that a lot of recipes ask specifically for kosher salt rather than table salt. Food genius Kenji L?pez-Alt
over at Serious Eats explains why this is, and how important that instruction really is.

There are a lot of reasons chefs like kosher salt (like the fact that it draws moisture out of the food its used on), but the top choice is that it's easy to handle:

The biggest reason why chefs love to use kosher salt is that it is much easier to pick up between your fingers and thus gives you tighter control over your seasoning. Think about this: how many times have you gone to a restaurant, reached for the salt shaker, shook it over your food and realized that almost no salt was coming out? And how about the opposite? How many times have you accidentally over-salted your food trying to use table salt in a shaker?

In the end, there's actually little difference between the two beyond the size of the salt grains (except for iodine, which?as many of you note in the comments?is a noteworthy difference if, say, you're allergic to iodine). You can substitute table salt at any time, but if you do, you should use half as much, since table salt can fit much more densely into your measuring cup (or spoon, or whatever).

That's just the beginning, too?table salt has a few other advantages, and you've probably even seen sea salt called for in recipes. Hit the link to read everything you could possibly need to know about salt and how best to use it in your cooking.

Ask The Food Lab: Do I Need To Use Kosher Salt? | Serious Eats

Photo by stlbites.com.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/rAHj5d5jPpI/why-most-recipes-ask-for-kosher-salt-and-when-its-really-necessary

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