Sea salt for cooking
Salmarincy is an independent measured reference on sea salt. Sea salt and table salt are both about 97-99 percent sodium chloride; they differ in crystal size, trace minerals and additives. Here the named salts — fleur de sel from the Guerande marshes in Brittany, Maldon flakes made in Essex since 1882, and pink salt from the Khewra mine in Pakistan — are compared by origin, crystal form and kitchen use, with brine ratios you can mix in grams per litre.
| Salt | Where it comes from | Crystal size | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fleur de sel | Guerande salt marshes, Brittany, France | Thin surface crust, hand-harvested | Finishing cooked dishes |
| Maldon sea salt | Maldon, Essex, England, since 1882 | Hollow pyramid flakes | Finishing, surface crunch |
| Pink Himalayan salt | Khewra Salt Mine, Punjab, Pakistan | Mined and ground crystals | Cooking and table use |
| Generic sea salt | Evaporated seawater, no protected origin | Coarse, 1-3 mm | Brining, everyday cooking |
| Fine table salt | Vacuum-processed | 0.3-0.8 mm | Doughs, batters, dissolving |
| Iodized table salt | Table salt with added iodine | 0.3-0.8 mm | Everyday seasoning with iodine |
| Brine salt | Any fully dissolving salt | Weighed, not spooned | 50-60 g per litre of water |
Pick by crystal size first: fine for dissolving, coarse or flaky for finishing.
Fine table salt dissolves fast, measures predictably by spoon, and is the right choice for doughs, batters and anything where the salt must disappear. Coarse sea salt and flakes do not dissolve quickly, so they sit on the surface and give a burst of salt where you bite.
Named salts differ in origin and harvest method. Fleur de sel is skimmed by hand from the salt marshes of Guerande in Brittany, France, in summer when wind and sun form a thin crust. Maldon sea salt has been produced in Maldon, Essex, England since 1882 and is known for hollow pyramid-shaped flakes.
Pink Himalayan salt is mined, not evaporated: it comes from the Khewra Salt Mine in Punjab, Pakistan, the second-largest salt mine in the world. Generic sea salt is evaporated seawater with no protected origin and no fixed crystal geometry.
Both are 97-99 percent sodium chloride; the differences are crystal size, trace minerals and additives.
The chemical base is the same. What changes is how the crystals were formed: table salt is usually vacuum-processed into uniform small grains, sea salt is evaporated in pans or harvested from marshes and keeps irregular shapes. Trace minerals give some sea salts their colour and a slight texture difference, but the sodium chloride share stays in the 97-99 percent band.
Additives are the other axis. Iodized table salt carries 15-40 milligrams of iodine per kilogram, and some table salts also include anti-caking agents so the grains pour freely. Sea salts are usually not iodized, so they deliver no meaningful iodine unless you take it elsewhere in the diet.
Iodized table salt: 15-40 mg of iodine per kilogram; sea salts: usually none added.
Iodine is added during manufacturing, not picked up from the sea. The typical range on the label is 15-40 milligrams per kilogram of salt, which is why a single gram of iodized salt delivers a small but regular dose.
If you season only with sea salt, you are not getting that added iodine. The trace-mineral fraction in sea salt is the remainder outside the 97-99 percent sodium chloride, and it is measured in parts per thousand at most; it changes colour and crunch, not nutrition at cooking quantities.
Only the production start date and recurring harvest season are documented here.
Fine grains, coarse grains and hollow flakes differ in spoon weight and in how they sit on food.
Reference points list the origin, crystal size and iodine figures used above.