What salt should you use for cooking?

[@TasteOfButterflies]

Just mentioning that iodized salt was one of the most successful public health programs in history, eliminated an epidemic of iodine deficiency which causes goiter and birth defects, and single-handedly raised American IQ by several points.

[@Blacklight.2025]

Friendly reminder that IQ is not a real measure for intelligence, and there are more than 1 type of intelligence

[@superluminary9047]

PSA, several kosher and fancy salts are not iodized, as is a lot of salt used in packaged/processed goods, so make sure your diet has a source of iodine if your salt container does not specifically state that it's iodized. Talk to a doctor/nutritionist before starting a supplement, because too much iodine also has some pretty nasty side effects.

[@Cathowl]

I make sure to get iodized salt most of the time because I think my diet doesn't contain enough natural iodine. Like enriched flour it was such a boon to staving off what used to be common health problems. A very simple and very effective idea that was implemented well.

[@lohphat]

Don't tell the anti-vaxxers and anti-flouride idiots that.

[@jk_james7833]

she didn't mentioned that in the video and on top she recommened kosher salt which doesnt have any iod

[@sdspivey]

If you're adding the salt directly to water, then use the cheapest salt you have. Grain size/shape don't matter once dissolved.

[@JetstreamGW]

Might as well used iodized for things like brine, pasta, rice, etc. After all, we need iodine... And for some diets that's the only iodine they get :P

[@ConstantChaos1]

But volume to weight ratio is still important, I personally distill my own into massive crystals to add to various volumes of water but I'm kinda really into witchy vibes so adding a substantial crystal to my water as I cook my "brew" (usually pasta) makes me feel amazing and since I cook a lot I can reach into the bag and pull the right sized crystal by touch which makes me feel like a sorcerer from d&d so like the vibe is there Also iodine is still important so this advice only works for non-home based cooking where the nutritional content is not required for daily life

[@ConstantChaos1]

​@JetstreamGW I don't get how anyone can't eat more iodine but I also live in a landlocked beef state so I know I'd have twice as many paitents with deficiency as I do if table salt wasn't 🤦‍♂️

[@ferwiner2]

As long as the salt is ment to be eaten of course. The supermarket salt is. But the cheapest salt is ment to be used on driveways in winter and may contain harmful substances, so it should not be eaten.

[@sdspivey]

@@ferwiner2 I would not presume that "driveway" salt was even sodium chloride. My post was presuming that the salt in question was for consumption and NaCl.

[@chillsahoy2640]

The take-home message from this and other cooking-related channels I've seen is that, at least for home cooking, there are recommendations but no rules. It ultimately comes down to personal taste, and what you enjoy (and/or the people you're cooking for). Don't be afraid to experiment, try different ingredients, different proportions, different variants, and see what works best for your preference.

[@paulkanja]

phc and chlebowski to the rescue

[@otaku3OBSESSION]

I think that not just home cooks, but also career cooks and professional chefs need to have their experimental dishes, since the way to mastery involves really understanding how food works under a variety of conditions. It's easy to read a recipe and measure things perfectly. It's hard to know why that recipe works, and what you can do to improve it, without some scientific-like processing and experimenting.

[@JunSian1001]

1:02 the video used iron(II) oxide's formula FeO. Hydrated Iron (II) oxide is green. The red color of salt comes from Iron(III) oxide Fe2O3.

[@ARobberyShrub]

🤓

[@ConstantChaos1]

Ikr, kinda shoddy work

[@EternaSoSleepy]

@@ARobberyShrub oh no, did the science man saying big words hurt your brain?Poor fellow

[@aaronclement1266]

Advice for anyone taking the recommendation at the end to make coarse kosher salt their only salt: you need to account for the size of the grains. If you are salting food to taste, and that food doesn't have a lot of heat and moisture to dissolve the crystals quickly, your food won't taste as salty as it truly is until the crystals fully dissolve. Don't make the same mistakes I did in oversalting what was supposed to be a lightly salted frosting.

[@SirSpoofy]

3:02 Sora sure knows his salt. He hangs out with Donald a lot

[@therealteak]

Oh the memories kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2OTeXmggLWogJYsi=HR6zyCuIxr4WKlDY my ears hurt

[@Telar-The-III]

Good learning as always. Getting the like for the "simple and clean" reference

[@1224chrisng]

sea salt ice-cream will always be dearly beloved

[@GogiRegion]

I like to have both iodized and kosher salt. Fermentation often is inhibited by iodized salt but enhanced by non-iodized salt, but I do like having iodized salt for things like pasta water that don’t use that much and where grain size doesn’t matter. Plus, you don’t need to always use iodized salt to meet the dietary standards.

[@Doomroar]

Make sure it is iodized to avoid ending with a iodine deficient diet Most chain food are made with salt that is bough in bulk, and it is not usually iodized because it is cheaper, so if on top of that your salt for your home cooking is also not iodized, then you will be ending with problems

[@MinuteFood]

Most healthy people with relatively varied diets get all the iodine they need from their food these days! There are definitely some exceptions though.

[@ThongNguyen-fl9jp]

@@MinuteFood What I do is mix iodinized salt with sea salt to get the best of both worlds, and to hedge to make sure I get enough iodine.

[@SirLightfire]

I cook with iodized salt, and season with course ground himilayan pink salt. I'm pretty sure they take the same, but it makes me feel fancy

[@cinderheart2720]

I find that iodized salt has a flavour that you do actually want for certain foods. White rice for instance, is much better with iodized salt sprinkled on it compared to normal salt. For most cooking though, you want an un-iodized salt to keep control of your flavours.

[@dkhl65]

@Pulkit Jain They should eat seaweed for a natural source of iodine.

[@fran6b]

Powder salt is also a nice format to have in a toolbox. Great on popcorn, to name one.

[@TasteOfButterflies]

Is an average spice grinder able to grind salt to a powder? Or does it need to be bought?

[@fran6b]

@@TasteOfButterflies I just use a basic coffee/spice grinder to make mine. But, as Indian cuisine seems to use this kind of salt a lot, some store should have some, I guess.

[@insederec]

I use a mortar and pestle for popcorn and it works perfectly, don't need pounds just a couple healthy pinches plus it means I can keep using kosher for everything

[@alejandroojeda1572]

I Guess It makes sense that you Talk about kosher so much, but over here in Europe I don't think It's as Big as It is in the US. At least where i'm from we would use "fat" salt for sprinkling. we do have madon and It's fantastic.

[@MinuteFood]

Yeah, I think it's much more popular here in the US.

[@0ZeldaFreak]

I only have 2 types of salt. Regular table salt for cooking and then bigger salt in a grinder, for the texture.

[@triadwarfare]

In the Philippines, it's technically illegal to sell non-iodized salt. Most groceries don't carry Kosher salt, so coarse salt is sold with iodine. You have to use non-traditional sources like going online or under-the-table wet markets just so you can buy non-iodized salt. Kosher salt is pretty expensive, about a hundred times than I'm willing to pay for a salt that's supposed to be easy to source and make.

[@mth922]

This videos are always amazing, Kate. Do you think you could ever do a video on what factors go into foaming milks for cafe drinks? I can never get consistent, good stiff foam!

[@dontsueme]

3:16 *I THOUGHT SHE SAID COCAINEE* 💀💀 (i double checked with subtitles and she said cooking)

[@ElJosher]

Caught that sora and simple and clean reference.

[@convincingmountain]

would love to see someone go into depth about salt prices change with the type of salt... the expensive stuff is not only looser packed, but it's branded as 'fancy' salt just cause it's the oldest kind of salt we've been using. salt rocks bro

[@semicognitive]

One of my favorite channels Keep up the shorts too! 🎉

[@JoseluPicks]

Alex (the French guy) just did a wonderful series on salt as well, great follow up for a couple of ways to play better with your salts.

[@YouPlague]

No, don't use kosher salt as a default, it does not have any iodine. Iodized salt helped immensely to eliminate health problems.

[@mrkshply]

Yes it used to but these days we get iodine from many other sources so really we don't need iodinized salt anymore. But there's no reason to specifically not use it and it can help people who live in food deserts or are malnourished. It's good you pointed that out as it may apply to some people.

[@hukalakanakahakanakaheekal4886]

Love your videos as always Kate :) any chance you could do one on common misconceptions about food/nutrition?

[@aparthia]

MSG mixed 50% with any NaCl is the best! =)

[@jasonwalker9471]

No joke, it really really is. You can put shiitake mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon, soy sauce, and deep fried potatoes in every dish you cook... or you can just extract the salt those foods contain that makes them taste the special way they taste, and make anything have that special savory taste, from turnip to broccoli. Or even pretzels, which are salty but lack the high MSG content of potato chips, and lack that... special something. If you do use MSG (whether naturally in the food or added after the fact), make sure to reduce table salt proportionally. It's still salty like table salt.

[@angaj]

That intro to salt was really smooth! Great content as always.

[@bazoo513]

~ 2:55 - Finally, our favorite scientist talks about salt. Here is the central point - texture and subtle differences in flavor matter when you _sprinkle_ salt on finished dish, and that's all. I am irritated by people who should have known better, like J. Kenji López-Alt formerly of Serious Eats' Food Lab (and who delivered some extremely thorough, experiment supported treatises on things like steak seasoning or egg boiling), who explicitly specify kosher salt even when one salts water or soup "to taste", so no particular volume was suggested and crystals fully dissolve. OTOH, there is a good channel hereabouts where a retired English cook presents his bread recipes; to remove any confusion, his recipes specify everything, including salt, my mass (and he actually uses precise digital balances himself.) Well, perhaps that is a bit too "laboratory-style" for a home cook 😀 BTW, our (Croatia) few last artisanal sea salt works (if you swing this way, make sure to visit the one in Ston, a beautiful tiny medieval walled town, a kind of mini-Dubrovnik (which is nearby)) would not survive were it not for the market for _fleur de sel_ which, when packaged attractively, fetches entirely unreasonable prices, while it is simply the result of the first round of skimming the crystals from evaporation ponds.

[@TrashcatFW]

As someone who does lots of pickling and brining, I've gotten to the point of using whatever salt and just measuring by mass*. *Though even different salts still contain different sodium by mass - ie a himalayan salt may have on average 0.9x the sodium of non-iodized "table salt" due to the additional minerals

[@beskamir5977]

The volume measure issue doesn't exist when using metric. All recipes should be in grams by default. Far more accurate and results in less dirty dishes.

[@DandreAllison]

"Simple and Clean"! Can't hear that without thinking about Kingdom Hearts. Nice reference

[@PramkLuna]

Always wondered why Himalayan salt was pink, thanks minute food :)

[@dipdip7250]

Love the effort put into these videos. Love it!

[@jek__]

Explosions&Fire has a video where he taste tests a bunch of different kinds of salt! It's basically entirely useless because the guy is a chemist not a chef so he's tasting things like rubidium and potassium chloride lol

[@SerifSansSerif]

Humans select for sodium where as other species are less specific on how they get their chlorides. Weird but true...lol

[@wylanvallotton4462]

I noticed Sora sitting in the Black Salt... Wouldn't it have made more sense to have him in the Sea Salt?

[@andrewclarke3463]

Mayhaps, but Kate was able to include "Simple and Clean" to the script in the segment Sora appears in :)

[@mencken8]

I stock three: Morton’s non-iodized table salt, kosher, and pickling / canning. All those other things are just expensive NaCl.

[@k.3004]

Coarse salts are more visible, the very granular salt easily moistens thus you cannot eye how much salt you're actually adding.

[@Zahri8Alang]

Simpleeee and clleeeeeennnnn

[@JetstreamGW]

"How they make those shapes is complicated..." And sometimes we have no frigging idea. I mean, you can grow those hollow pyramids that Maldon's manages, but not _consistently._ They figured out some kind of process for that and they ain't sharing :P

[@intrinsicstar2108]

"Not to be confussed with crazy diamond" You thought I was salt but it was me DIO

[@Woodleaf_critter]

Me (gets the extension) Me (opens millions of tabs) Me (solves world hunger)

[@NickZan_Ziram]

3:01 I know now without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts is light!

[@drgeniusphd]

love this channel love love love ❤

[@locomotivefaox]

I cry into my food whenever it turns oust good, that’s all the salt I need

[@slyar]

"or this one, or this one, or this one, _or this one_ "

[@insederec]

only one thing makes any provable difference in cooking: the texture the way you can pinch or pour it makes a difference, and if you're eating local and your area has an iodine deficiency in the soil, use iodized salt and the texture of the salt can make for a nice finish on a steak or salad but it's been shown the taste is no different between any besides maybe smoked salt though I haven't seen that blind tasted

[@b.h1828]

Since the topic of salt in place, I would love to see your presentation regards to Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). OR perhaps a brief comparison between the two (MSG and NaCl)

[@coopergates9680]

and many other ones, there's so little content on NH4Cl, LiCl, SrCl2, CaCl2, KCl, etc.

[@noob19087]

@@coopergates9680 Explosions and fire actually did a video on that topic. It was called something like "which salt tastes the best". Name is a bit yikes but he's a chemist and has great videos on the subject. Though I do have some experience myself, too. Ammonium chloride is used in salty licorice, and it has a pungent ammonia flavor. Calcium chloride is bitter taken as is, but when diluted in water tastes round and milky. Potassium tastes the closest to sodium, but it tastes more like salty seawater than actual salt, it's rounder and less pungent, but somewhat bitter. Magnesium sulfate tastes bitter as is, but diluted has a sort of sweet taste. Zinc chloride tastes like how metal buckets smell, and is detectible even in very low concentrations. Potassium iodide tastes like gunpowder. Never tried it, but apparently lead tastes sweet. Never tried it as is, but I assume sodium fluoride to be behind the "swimming pool" taste in toothpaste.

[@coopergates9680]

@@noob19087 Tom's video is good but is not a very controlled science experiment in the slightest. If it were, the subjects would not have known which salt was which before tasting them, and the amount of each compound each person used would have been well regulated. I'm curious about many cations that were not tried, although most of the others are not as safe and/or more expensive, so they're unlikely to be regularly used in food. Lead of course I can't recommend trying for the same reason barium and mercury would not be recommended, but it sounds like you haven't checked strontium (what I use) or lithium. Rubidium and cesium sound not worth it from Tom's video lol Tom's video doesn't make potassium sound like it tastes like sodium. I used to use it, it had a strong and sort of bitter flavor. Strontium glutamate or aspartate might be a solid non-sodium umami taste, but of course you'd have to make it yourself

[@noob19087]

@@coopergates9680 I don't understand why this needs to be a controlled experiment. Taste is subjective after all, it's not like you can really get any useful data out of it. I've never tried strontium, and although I'd like to try it, I wouldn't use it in cooking since it has no role in human biology (that I'm aware of.) For me, although I love cooking as a hobby, nutrition comes first.

[@coopergates9680]

@@noob19087 Placebo effects and biases. If someone anticipates how something might taste or how it should not taste based on knowing what it is beforehand, they will rate its taste differently after experiencing it. As Tom's video says, strontium has been used in toothpaste and bone supplements (and is still available for bones). It incorporates itself into teeth and bones in a similar fashion to calcium, although strontium ions are a little larger (and of course have much more mass). The fact that strontium sulfate is much less soluble than calcium sulfate makes me wonder if it would have an advantage in the body (though of course that means you wouldn't season food with the sulfate). The chloride seems to be the easiest to get hold of.

[@bread_yuna]

A video on the best practice for refrigerating, freezing and thawing food?

[@CorruptedSpider]

1:38 and that was exactly when we all said "HOL' UP"

[@BBarNavi]

3:03 The answer, of course, will be the sea salt best suited for sea salt ice cream.

[@KuruGDI]

Gosh dang it, now I am hungry 😮‍💨 MinuteFood videos always have such delicious food and I can't eat my screen... 😭

[@brothermine2292]

Something else to consider when choosing salt is the results of blood tests (or hair tests?) that reveal the amounts of relevant minerals in your blood... in particular your sodium and potassium levels. Years ago when many people began to be concerned about high sodium content in foods, I bought a ”half & half” salt: half sodium chloride and half potassium chloride.

[@Cathowl]

Yeah my grandmother had to cut sodium when she got older and switched to primarily potassium salts.

[@VahidSlayerOfAll]

All of them, got it

[@effectively0]

Isn't iron oxide black? I think it's iron hydroxide (rust) in Hawaiian salt

[@shidqi100]

I love this content keep it going minute food

[@JNCressey]

1:55 *grabs chemist scales and small piece of folded paper

[@Shadow81989]

Team NaCl for life! 🙂 Seriously though: As I only ever use salt for cooking (i.e. in dissolved state), I can save myself a bit of money and just get "normal" table salt.

[@The1stDukeDroklar]

Salts salt. Use cheap regular salt and cheap regular coarse for different things that need that.

[@hitaishibarai9062]

Amazing video as usual....

[@guss77]

I loved the Sora reference! ❤️

[@GameCyborgCh]

2:47 my god those garlic cloves are ginormous

[@travissmith2848]

Some variation of Sodium Chloride. nickel chloride, sodium chromate, cobalt nitrate I don't think you really want lead diacetate as it can cause lead poisoning and magnesium sulfate is better for soaking your feat in then making food bitter. :grin:

[@Eric-jy4qm]

Did a double take at the KH reference ^^ makes me want sea salt ice cream…

[@June-1980]

What I wanted to know it's which is the healthiest

[@MinuteFood]

Since they're all mostly NaCl, there is essentially no difference in their healthfulness unless you have a condition like iodine deficiency.

[@bluefrancis14]

ah... simple and clean... no wonder Sora was in the video

[@SilverScarletSpider]

what is celery salt? i see it in old bay seasoning’s ingredient list

[@MinuteFood]

Celery salt is THE BEST. It's table salt mixed with ground up celery seeds and I think it's one of the most underrated spices out there!

[@shellyy]

What about collecting seawater and boiling it down… what happens if you use that?

[@James2210]

I want to try orange irradiated salt

[@MATTHEW12944]

Which salt is best for getting the fall spectrum of trace element? Which salt has the least toxins?

[@matt92hun]

Just measure by weight, so it's always the same amount regardless of density.

[@DimiDzi]

I like Greek rocksalt

[@sylvaansterck4947]

I think at 2:11 you mean the less dense kosher salt no? Great video tho big fan

[@MinuteFood]

Ah I see the confusion - we meant that it's the denser of the two kosher salts we talked about!

[@670839245]

My family rarely used anything other than table salt for cooking. Some chefs on KZbin said that kosher salt is easier to pinch, and to that I say, we have little spoons in our table salt containers.

[@jk_james7833]

Using iodized salt as your main salt is better than kosher salt especially if you have iodine difficiency

[@Ninjaeule97]

Does anyone know where causes the blue color in some salt cristales you find at the museum? I bet it's some form of impurity, but I could never find out wish.

[@TasteOfButterflies]

I think sylvinite, a mineral mixture of KCl and NaCl, can be blue?

[@Ninjaeule97]

@@TasteOfButterflies thanks I went down on a rabbit hole on Wikipedia with that info. The Wikipedia article for Halite let to a paper that was cited by a more recent paper that analized blue Halite using Raman spectroscopy & Photo luminescence. They came to the conclusion that the blue coloration of the studied halite crystals is due to stoichiometric excess of metallic sodium (Na-colloids) in crystal lattices.

[@jasonreed7522]

I would have assumed copper, i know that copper chloride is blue in its hydrate form. (When its physically absorbed water into its structure) i also believe it gets used as the blue deicer salt.

[@kookookookookookookoo]

But are those prices worth it though?

[@thedarkcraft4478]

BTW LiCl is the "most delicious salt of all"

[@georgedeng8646]

Kosher salt being mentioned Binging with Babish has entered the chat

[@themoomaster787]

Not the video I was expecting a KH reference in

[@capivara6094]

I didn't even know that there's more than one kind of salt

[@dcseain]

Having used Morton Kosher Salt my whole life, I find Diamond Crystal confusing to use.

[@MinuteFood]

I'm a Morton's girl myself, and I feel the same way!

[@sayaks12]

what about salmiac?

[@aoihana3607]

Can you use ice cream salt in cooking?

[@TexasFriedCriminal]

The one that you have in your kitchen.

[@battleshiparmorlord]

I don't understand 2:10. Why would kosher salt be called denser than table salt if it contains less mass in the same volume?

[@MinuteFood]

I get your confusion - we meant that it's the denser of the two kosher salts we talked about here.

[@jamesharmer9293]

I don't use salt in my cooking. It's much healthier that way.

[@Kanbei11]

2:11 how does the denser salt have less mass per unit volume?

[@MinuteFood]

It's the denser of the two kosher salts we talked about! But I definitely understand the confusion :)

[@santoast24]

Remember to salt the pasta water folks.... It should be as salty as the sea... but, thats by taste, not by ACTUAL salinity.... but then what maniac actually tastes the pasta water eh? You just pour some into yer hand and go "good enough" and you know what they say, "Good enough is Good Enough"

[@Cathowl]

As someone who literally just made spaghetti and is eating it as I type... :p Yeah you just learn to eyeball it with practice.

[@Kready44]

I always measure out 1 l of water per 100 g of dried pasta and make it 12 g salt per liter of water

[@jasonreed7522]

As someone who always just used straight water, i genuinely can't tell the difference between salted pasta water and not. Where it does make a difference is salt potatoes which are specifically small potatoes with the skins on and a nearly insane amount of salt (12oz) per normal pot of taters although you can get away with less.

[@Cathowl]

@@jasonreed7522 The idea of not being able to tell is baffling to me. I forget to add salt a lot and always figure it out right away. I take a bite or two and go "??? Why are these noodles so- oh. Oh I forgot the salt again."

[@just-a-hriday]

Salt isn't made up of sodium and chloride. It's made of sodium and chlorium.

[@AdamFoster]

For the love of flavor, brine birds under the skin. You also didn't mention that not all salts have the same salinity per weight.

[@berzerius]

Black salt is all about the flavour and you didn't talk about it.

[@JoeKingPL]

Salty one...

[@radnukespeoplesminds]

Salt from water7 or the all blue

[@swolch]

Question: WTF is “low sodium salt”?

[@MinuteFood]

Usually low-sodium salts replace some of the sodium (Na) with potassium (K), which is similar enough to sodium that it works ok for some uses, but definitely isn't indistinguishable.

[@swolch]

@@MinuteFood very interesting. Thanks

[@Boe1771]

Which salt S(h)alt thou use?

[@kevinwillians6199]

Didn't understood why Sora was there but loved to see it there lol

[@waterfire1313]

Which salt is denser?

[@shairuno]

lol pun at the end 😂

[@cheyneanderson4875]

It's celery salt. I know you said you weren't including seasoned salts, but it's celery salt 😌

[@crono7589]

sora marks the king.

[@rickyrickster1303]

1:40 kinda looks like texas

[@beebysill]

Best salt is MSG

[@caspermadlener4191]

The best salt for food is mercury salt 🧂😋👌

[@Incognito-rb4tz]

HgCl₂ 😋

[@beansnrice321]

Now I'm curious about salt substitutes, such as potassium chloride.

[@Kready44]

You should definetly watch this video by an australian chemist, who with his friends tasted different salts: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHvLaqyKfqeMapo

[@jasonreed7522]

Potassium chloride is still just salt, it isn't a salt substitute since its still salt. What is could be considered is a substitute for sodium chloride which is also known as common table salt. Chemically speaking any ionic compound is a salt and that means basically any combination of a metal + nonmetal or poly atomic ions of opposite charge is a salt. (Please note that not all salts are safe for consumption, like uranium oxide is a salt, its also not going to do good things to you on account of the radiation)

[@mindstalk]

@@jasonreed7522 Nutritionally there's a huge difference: you're getting potassium, not sodium. Most people are getting too high a sodium to potassium ratio.