Why do chefs prefer flake and/or Kosher salt?
Part of the reason, as I said yesterday, is merely caché. Yet there are good reasons why many chefs prefer to work with flake salt. For one, it’s easy to pick up. And I mean that literally. Granules of table salt run from between your fingers like tiny ball bearings (even though they’re actually cube-shaped) when you try to pick up a pinch. Flake salt by comparison clumps up, allowing for easy grasping, which lets you deliver more salt to a given dish with a single pinch. It also dissolves extremely quickly, which is nice when you’re trying to correct the seasoning of a food just prior to serving. The last reason is of course flavor. Regular table salt does have a somewhat “chemical” flavor relative to unrefined salts. This is due to the additives it contains. For one there’s potassium iodide (at least in “iodized” salts) and the stabilizers it needs to keep from breaking down (sodium carbonate or a combination of thiosulfate and sugar). Then of course there are anti-caking agents in t
