4 Types of Salts You Need To Know About

Those of us who still retain chunks of high school chemistry know that there are numerous salts that can exist due to the ionic bond interaction between a metal and a non metal, and could be found in various locations. However, most common edible salt (sodium chloride) is mined from large salt deposits by the salt lakes, globally. It is a mineral that is an indispensable part of our diet due to its integral role in our neurology and physiology.

Throughout the years, salt has been used for many purposes, primarily, for enhancing the flavor of foods. It is also particularly useful as a preservative. Salt can be used on fishes and meat to keep them fresh and edible for long periods of time. The rich saline environment prevents the growth of food spoilage bacteria such as clostridium botulinum

There are so many different kinds of salt out there. Let’s go through some of them.

1.      Table Salt aka Refined Salt:

This is our plain old table salt, produced through an extensive refining process that gets rid of impurities and trace minerals. The salt on your table is 97% sodium chloride or even higher. A majority of you are most likely aware of iodized salt too. Iodine was added to salt to counter and prevent iodine deficiency taking place among people in certain areas where people would not have any other means to include iodine in their diet. This fortification campaign was pretty successful and prevented many from iodine deficiency conditions including hypothyroidism and mental retardation.

2.      Kosher Salt:

Kosher salt is composed of coarser flakes of salt that has a different texture than regular table salt, even though they both taste more or less the same. Due to the flaky structure of kosher salts, chefs find it easy to pick them up and spread them over food manually. The larger and flaky texture of this salt allows it to extract all the blood from the meat efficiently. Extracting all the blood from meat before consumption is a Jewish custom. Hence, the name “kosher”.

3.      Celtic Salt:

This salt is usually grayish in color and holds some water in its crystals, making it a moist salt. It is lower in sodium content when compared to your regular table salt, but contains traces of minerals.

The Celtic Salt doesn’t come cheap. It is harvested from the Celtic Sea marshes in France through the 2000 year old method of solar evaporation. Talking about expensive salts, the fleur de sel is even more expensive, and is harvested from salt marshes in Guerande which only forms when winds blow from the east.

4.      Rock Salt:

Rock Salts are highly crystalline pure salts that come in large chunks. It is not the kind of salt you’d commonly sprinkle on your food but it is widely used in the ice cream industry and other food industries. Additionally, they are also used as effective ice melter salts or road salt to clear your driveway and pavements, as well as bath salts too.

Whether you are looking for road salt or rock salt for food additive purposes, you can count on Rock Salt USA to provide you with high quality product only.