A Guide To Salt

When it comes to cooking, there are five main tastes: salt, sweet, bitter, sour and umami – but the great thing about salt is, it also can alter the flavours of other foods. “Salt has a huge variety of effects on food,” says Nuno Goncalves, Executive Head Chef at Quaglino's. “It’s mainly used as a seasoning to enhance natural flavours, bringing out the sweetness of certain foods if used in small amounts or used to correct bitterness, it also releases certain molecules making foods more aromatic. Salt also plays a big role in preservation, colour enhancement and texture.”

We asked our favourite chefs to give us a lesson in using salt, in moderation…  

The Different Types Of Salt

There’s a huge amount of variety when it comes to salt, each giving a different effect. But there are more predominant types of salt that most chefs will use in their cooking…

Table salt: The most common of the salts, table salt is harvested from salt deposits found underground. It’s refined and finely ground down, with impurities removed during this process. This kind of salt is best to use in cooking rather than as a finished salt.

Himalayan pink salt: This is a variety of rock salt mined from the Punjab region of Pakistan and has a pinkish tint due to mineral impurities. “Himalayan pink salt is a pure, high quality salt, and we always use the best ingredients available when creating each dish so it’s a natural fit,” Manish Mehrotra, Corporate Chef at Indian Accent, explains. But it’s also visually appealing, which means it’s perfect for presentation. “I sometimes use a small square block of it in place of a plate – for example, scallops work beautifully presented on Himalayan pink salt,” Manish continues. “They absorb a delicate amount of salt simply from being placed on the block, making for a truly delicious scallop.” Rock salt can also be used within meals too – Santosh Shah, Executive Chef at Baluchi says he uses it for “making stock, cooking fish, and seasoning rice – it is definitely one of the most common salts I use in my kitchen.”

Maldon sea salt: A kitchen simply isn’t a kitchen if it doesn’t contain Maldon sea salt. Maldon salt is what’s known as kosher salt, which means it’s flakier and coarser than normal table salt – this comes in thick flakes in the shape of tiny pyramids, Maldon is pleasing to the touch. It’s best used as a finishing salt and looks particularly pleasing on top of a steak. “Maldon Sea Salt is perfect as a final touch of seasoning on cooked dishes and it can also be smoked to add extra flavour – this is my favourite salt to use,” agrees Santosh.

Fleur De Sel: Translating to ‘flower of salt’ in French, fleur de sel is a sea salt that’s harvested from tidal pools in France. It forms as a thin, delicate crust on the surface of the seawater, which is them skimmed off. It’s a very expensive salt which retains a lot of moisture and has a bluish tint from its high mineral content. Like any sea salt, it’s more unrefined and coarser than regular table salt. Head Chef of Bar Douro, Sean Marsh says he likes to use this as a finishing salt, and can be added to meat, seafood, veggies, or even sweets like caramel.

Kala Namak: This is a kiln-fired rock salt used in South Asia and has a slightly pungent smell. It’s also known as Himalayan black salt. “Kala Namak works best in Indian street food dishes called chaats,” Manish explains. “It has a sulphurous smell, which is quite strange to those unaccustomed to it, but it works perfectly to balance all the sweet, spicy and creamy flavours present in chaat.

The Differences Between The Varieties

Most salts either fall into one of two categories, says Sean: “You either have a finished salt, such as fleur de sel, grey salt, and Maldon, or you have salt for seasoning and curing, like kosher salt or table salt.”

The main difference between salt, Sean continues, comes down to the crystal form and flake size. “This affects how well it dissolves (or doesn't) on food and on our palette, which is why some salts taste ‘saltier’ than others.” And here’s where it gets slightly more complicated: “For more boutique finishing salts, the region and method of production may also maintain trace amounts of calcium, magnesium, zinc or other minerals which can contribute minor flavour differences that distinguish individual salts. This is why fleur de sel from France will taste different from flor de sal from the Algarve.”

The Best Way To Cook With Salt

Salt isn’t just for sprinkling on your chips or seasoning your vegetables – there’s so many different uses for salt that can completely alter the flavour of certain foods. As chef Samin Nosrat says in her hit Netflix show Salt Fat Acid Heat, “[Salt] can make food taste more like itself”.

So, what do chefs like to use salt for the most? “I like to use Maldon sea salt to cure and brine fish as it has an incredibly clean and pure flavour,” says Steve Smith, Executive Chef at Bohemia. “I sometimes use Smoked Maldon salt on oysters or when making pastry, for a more interesting flavour. For everything else, I just use standard table salt.”

Nuno Goncalves uses it to salt bake: “Salt baking is a very effective way of cooking – when salt is combined with egg white and baked, it creates a protective layer enabling the fish or meat to cook in its own juices, producing and incredible aroma and flavour without over-salting.” Nuno also says that he uses salt to bring out the flavours in sweet foods such as caramel or fruits, too – fleur de sel is best for this.

Kim Woodward, Executive Head Chef at 100 Wardour St also likes to use a salt bake – this time for her veggies: “To do this, we basically make a meringue with table salt, covering the vegetables in it – for example, celeriac – wrapping it in foil and baking it in an oven, creating an firm, hard coating of the meringue around. The result is vegetables that are succulent and juicy.”

Sean is also a fan of using salt to cure and preserve a number of foods, such as charcuterie, egg yolks and salt cod (also known as ‘bacalhau’). “Salt also promotes lactic fermentation in pickling/preserving, over time this denatures amino acids in food, altering the flavours and essentially ‘cooking’ over a slow time.” 

But there’s also no harm in using salt to enhance even the most basic of meals. Manish says he loves to use sea salt to bake a sweet potato. “I fill the baking tray with salt and place the potatoes on top before roasting them at a low temperature for a couple of hours. The salt helps the potatoes to reabsorb the moisture they lose when baking, keeping them tender and fluffy on the inside and perfectly crisp on the outside.” It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

When To Add Salt

“This really depends on what you are cooking,” says Nuno. “If I’m cooking duck leg confit then I will cure it/season it before – you have to. If I am cooking vegetables in boiling water then I will also season it before, as this will enable the foods to take on flavour as they cook or preserve/enhance colour which is the case in all greens. The same goes if I am slow cooking – salt will go first.” But when it comes to grilled or seared meats and fish, Nuno will use a finishing salt. “I find it helps retain moisture during the cooking process and the finishing salt gives it the right amount of flavour enhancement.”