Don't think for a moment that salt is just salt.  If you're into cooking, here's the information you need to know to make all your food taste even better.

Salt just might be one of the most important commodities in our world, thank goodness there is plenty of it.

I'm frequently asked why food in restaurants taste so much better than food prepared at home.  The secret?  Besides year,s of training, chef,s use plenty of butter and salt.  What,s not to love?  Real butter makes everything taste better, but salt is a different story.  the proper amount of salt is imperative, but the kind of salt is even more important.  Top chef,s know this and have been using specialty salts for years.

Like many things salts have become trendy, red salt from Hawaii, Jurassic salt from Utah, and the multitude of sea salts from Europe.  Is the salt trend overrated, or are some of those Mediterranean sea salts really worth $30 a pound?  Well maybe, but you need to know the basics before deciding.

Table Salt:  Table salt (granular salt) is what most of us know.  it is mined and processed to form small, uniformly shaped cubes.  Additives are added to prevent caking and some medical problems.  Most table salt is mined like coal or extracted by forcing water down into subterranean salt deposits.  The resulting brine is pumped out and the processed to from tiny, dense cube shape that don't dissolve right away.

Kosher Salt:  Kosher salt is made by compacting granular salt between rollers which produces large irregular flakes.  This shape allows the salt to easily draw blood when applied to fresh butchered meat (part of the koshering process).  Unlike table salt, kosher salt contains no additives.

Sea Salt:  Sea salt is created when ocean waters flood shallow beds along coastlines.  During the summer months, the water evaporates leaving large salt crystals.  the different waters and minerals from the surrounding land lend their flavors to these flaky salts.

Maldon Sea Salt:  Besides Fleur de Sel, England's Maldon sea salt is worth it's $11 a pound price.  A good "finishing salt" that gets it's delicate flavor from tradition of boiling the sea water to form hollow pyramid-shaped crystals.  You can actually crush the crystals between your fingers.  this makes for a light taste on your tongue.

Sel Gris:  "Grey salt" is harvested on France's Atlantic coast where shallow basins are flooded with ocean water.  Evaporation takes place between May and September when artisan harvesters rake the salt to the edge of each bed.  The salt picks up it's grey color and distinct flavor from minerals in the bed,s clay bottom.

Fleur de Sel:  A finishing salt that I think is worth the high price tag.  A by-product of Sel Gris, Fleur de Sel is created only when the winds are calm and the days are warm.  It is on these rare few days that the grey salt "flowers" lacy, white crystals.  This is the "flower of salt" and is carefully skimmed from the surface.  Use sparingly on foods just before serving.

Red Alae Hawaiian Sea Salt:  Hawaiian red and black sea salts are specially finishing salts.  While they look cool, their flavor is a bit strange.  Red salt has an iron taste from the soil that,s used to add color while black salt tends to have a sulfuric aroma from added purified lava.  

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