Robert L. Wolke on how to measure a teaspoon of salt

Robert L. Wolke, author of the "Food 101" column which appears every Wednesday in the Washington Post's Food section, never fails to instruct and entertain.

Here's his November 9 discussion of how one teaspoon of salt is not at all the same as another if one of them is coarse–grained, a la kosher salt.

At the end he throws in, more or less as an aside, his opinion on super–expensive sea salts that are all the rage with chefs like Thomas Keller and Charlie Trotter: all crunch and no cattle.

No, wait a minute, that's not right — all hat and no salt.

No, that's even more messed up.

Read the column; enough of me.

Q. In a recent column, you mentioned that plain old table salt is the standard of measurement in baking recipes. However, several chefs and cookbook authors specify kosher salt or sea salt. Do I use the same amounts of these kinds?

A. No, I'm afraid they all measure out differently.

A few years ago, before the nation's chefs broke out in a rash of irrational exuberance about sea salts, a teaspoon of salt meant a teaspoon of the only salt in most people's kitchens: salt-shaker or table salt -- most often that familiar blue, cylindrical canister that Pours When It Rains.

It is still the standard of measurement. (And by the way, that little girl with the umbrella is now 91 years old.)

But kosher salt is deliberately manufactured in coarser grains, to work better in the koshering process.



Because its bigger crystals don't pack down as well into the measuring spoon, a teaspoon of kosher salt contains less actual salt than a teaspoon of table salt.

How much less?

Many writers quote a single conversion factor, without knowing that the two major brands of kosher salt have different crystal sizes and therefore measure differently.

For Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, use twice the stipulated amount.

For Morton's Kosher Salt, use about 1 1/2 times the amount stipulated in a recipe.

If a recipe specifies kosher salt without naming the brand, just turn your back to the stove and throw some over your shoulder.



After all, seasoning should be adjusted to your taste in the final stages of cooking, and the amount of salt specified in a recipe is often just a suggestion.

What about measuring sea salts?

Forget about it.

Using them in cooking is pure foolishness, because their sole distinction is the size and shape of their crystals, and these disappear the moment they dissolve in the food.

Sea salts are for sprinkling ad lib onto a finished dish to deliver crunch and bursts of flavor.