Do you know that there are 6 different types of salt that can be used in the kitchen?

Let’s first start of that salt is a mineral. In chemical terms, it is known as sodium chloride (NaCl), the combination of one sodium ion and one chloride ion. Salt is 40% sodium and 60% chloride by weight.  Salt enhances the flavor of food, preserves food, helps to regulate and control normal body functions, and acts as a building block for more complex chemicals.

Here are a few easy to find types of salt with different ways to use them.

Kosher Salt

Use it for: All types of cooking. Kosher salt dissolves fast, and its flavor disperses quickly, so use it on everything and anything.

Origin: Either the sea or the earth. Widely sold brands include Morton and Diamond Crystal, which are made using different methods. Kosher salt got its name because its craggy crystals make it perfect for curing meat―a step in the koshering process.

Texture: Coarse. Cooks prize crystals like these; their roughness makes it easy to pinch a perfect amount.

Flaked Sea Salt

Use it for: Take a pinch, crush the crystals between your fingertips, and let them fall on freshly cooked food. Doing this brings a complex flavor to steamed vegetables or shellfish.  This salt will add a hint of briny flavor.

Origin: Is harvested in England’s Essex coast.

Texture: Soft, sheer, pyramid-like flakes. This is the fastest-dissolving of all of the salt grains.

Rock Salt

Use it for: Making ice cream. Rock salt is paired with ice in old-fashioned hand-cranked ice cream makers to regulate the temperature. You can also use it to deice your sidewalks and driveway in the winter months.
Origin: Mined from deposits from the earth, it’s usually packaged in an organic, unprocessed form.  Rock salt is not sold for use on food.
Texture: Large, chunky, nonuniform crystals, can sometimes be found having a grayish tint in color. 

Fleur de Sel

Use it for: Known to be considered as “a special-occasion” table salt.  Fleur de Sel has a delicate flavor.  Add it to freshly sliced tomato or melon.
Origin: Found in the coastal salt ponds in France. Nicknamed “The caviar of sea salt,” fleur de sel is hand harvested. In order for it to bloom on the surface of the water there has to be lots of wind and sun.
Texture: Crystalline, which means that fleur de sel melts slowly in the mouth. Its earthy, pleasing flavor lingers on the tongue.

Crystalline Sea Salt

Use it for: Adds a pungent burst of flavor to just-cooked foods. These crystals will complement anything dish.
Origin: Found on the coasts from Portugal to Maine, California to the Pacific Rim.
Texture: Fine or coarse. The size of the irregular crystals affects how fast the salt dissolves. It varies in color, depending on the minerals it contains (iron-rich red clay, for example, gives Hawaiian sea salt a pinkish hue). These natural impurities can add subtly briny, sweet, or even bitter flavors to the salts. 

Pickling Salt

Use it for: Brining pickles and sauerkraut. It will also brine a turkey, but beware: Pickling salt is far more concentrated than the more commonly used kosher salt, so make sure to use less.
Origin: Pickling salt may come from the earth or the sea, but isn’t fortified with iodine, and doesn’t contain anti-caking chemicals.  It is the purest of salts and 100 percent sodium chloride.
Texture: This variety is fine grained, like table salt.