You're cooking up dinner and the recipe calls for 1/2 tbsp. Kosher salt, so you measure it on out and pour it on in without even reading the label on it. Salt is salt, right? It's all white and grainy, and isn't table salt just the casual term for Kosher salt, anyway? Like, colloquialism and all? Nope—table salt and Kosher salt are seriously different, ladies and gents, and if you've been using them interchangeably, you could be totally screwing up your recipes. But there's no time like the present to turn all that around.
First of all, let's establish that "table salt" isn't a cute little nickname or anything. They are definitely two different salts, and they get mixed up a lot in cooking. It's not you—that overly salty dish you ended up serving and basically poisoning your guests has been all of us at some point or another. But a video posted on Digg breaks down the difference between the two, so the struggle is no longer real. First of all, they actually do look different. Kosher salt has larger and flakier crystals than table salt.
So how does that affect cooking? When you weigh the exact amount of the two salts, 1/4 cup of table salt weighs almost twice as much as Kosher salt, which is why you seriously need to use the type of salt called for in the recipe, or you'll end up with some pretty inedible meals.
But what about when they specify "salt, to taste?" Then literally do just that—add it to taste. It doesn't matter which one you use, because all salts taste the same. Watch the video to learn everything you need to know about salt.
Who knew?
[h/t Digg
Follow Delish on Instagram.
