Kosher Salt in Baking - Saltier?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

muzzlet

Senior Cook
Joined
Apr 9, 2007
Messages
118
Location
Cleveland, OH
I've been using kosher salt (Morton's) for all my cooking and was using up the leftover table salt for baking. Well, made some chocolate chip cookies (Toll House recipe from Nestles) and used the kosher salt for the first time. The cookies actually taste saltier to me. I used the same amount (1 tsp) but with the kosher salt this time. Is kosher salt "saltier" than table salt? Do I need to adjust the amount for baking? I never noticed any difference in any other recipe. Thanks!!
 
I don't know much about different types of salt, except that they are all salt. If I remember correctly (from what I have read here), it could be because of a difference in density. So although you are measuring it the same, you may actually be getting more salt per measure.

:)Barbara
 
Salt is salt. Any salt is just as salty as any other salt. Different salts measure differently by volume though. A tsp of table salt will have more salt in it than a tsp of kosher salt because of the size and shape of the crystals.

I am not sure why your cookies tasted saltier. All things being equal they should have been less salty if you measured by volume and not weight.
 
To put an even finer point on it, Diamond Crystal Kosher salt has bigger grains than Morton's so delivers less salt per teaspoon.
 
Because kosher salt has larger crystals, it tends to make bake goods taste saltier because when you are creaming the butter, it takes longer to melt so you get larger crystals that seem to make your baked good taste salty. I do not like to use it for that reason.
 
Because kosher salt has larger crystals, it tends to make bake goods taste saltier because when you are creaming the butter, it takes longer to melt so you get larger crystals that seem to make your baked good taste salty. I do not like to use it for that reason.

Perhaps the opposite is true when dissolving the salt in a watery mixture of water, flour, diastatic malt, and yeast? :)
 
I agree with PieSusan,


i do love kosher salt in my cookies. I love the salty and sweet and when you get this with that bit of salt then the sweet of the chocolate. yummy so good.

i do use less then the recipe and i use salted butter so i dont run into a salty cookie.
 
Two things:

Morton's Coarse Kosher Salt states on the box that the measurements are the same for that type of salt and the same company's "table" salt or "canning and pickling" salt -- unless you're using more than 1/4 cup. However, the company's website says to increase the amount of kosher salt as follows: 1 teaspoon of regular salt = 1.25 teaspoons of kosher; 1 tablespoon table = 1 tablespoon + 3/4 teaspoon kosher, etc. It also says you need to increase the amount of fine sea salt.

Second, Morton's does NOT recommend its Kosher Salt for baking.

Check the "salt guide" at their site, mortonsalt.com and look for the "uses for salt" and "salt conversion" tables.

There is one exception to the "no baking" rule -- the box suggests sprinkling kosher salt on breads and rolls and so forth just before baking.
 
i do love kosher salt in my cookies. I love the salty and sweet and when you get this with that bit of salt then the sweet of the chocolate. yummy so good.

I have completely gone over to kosher salt for cookie baking, for this very reason. I LOVE the burst of salt combined with the sweet and chocolate. Actually I no longer use Morton salt at all, because of the additive I learned about on this forum. I buy the kosher salt from Penzeys, can't get plain kosher salt here.
 
I've been using kosher salt (Morton's) for all my cooking and was using up the leftover table salt for baking. Well, made some chocolate chip cookies (Toll House recipe from Nestles) and used the kosher salt for the first time. The cookies actually taste saltier to me. I used the same amount (1 tsp) but with the kosher salt this time. Is kosher salt "saltier" than table salt? Do I need to adjust the amount for baking? I never noticed any difference in any other recipe. Thanks!!

They actually should have tasted less salty, as you used less salt.

More table salt than kosher salt fits into your 1T measuring spoon.

What probably happened is that the kosher salt didn't dissolve, and you tasted some of the undissolved granules. This is whi many people prefer to bake with table salt.
 
Because kosher salt has larger crystals, it tends to make bake goods taste saltier because when you are creaming the butter, it takes longer to melt so you get larger crystals that seem to make your baked good taste salty. I do not like to use it for that reason.

Interesting point. Make sense too. Otherwise it really should be opposite, same valuem of kosher salt is actually less salt than table salt.
 
Back
Top Bottom