Eli5: Why does the salt coarseness matter when cooking?
In: Chemistry
Flaky finishing salt gives a more interesting texture when eaten.
Otherwise the finer salt dissolves more easily in whatever you’re cooking
Smaller grains diffuse more quickly into the substrate due to having more exposed surface area.
But if what you’re getting at is “why do Youtube chefs keep recommending kosher salt specifically”, that’s not why. It’s because kosher salt is easier to visually eyeball amounts with, and actually shows up on camera. A comparatively small number of large obvious flakes, vs. a large amount of very small, individually too-small-to-be-easily-seen grains, that also visually “disappear” much more quickly (due to quicker diffusion).
Kosher salt is good because you can pinch it and then easily spread it across food in a consistent manner. Fine salt doesn’t work as well for this.
First is texture. Some salts are larger/flaky/crusty and can be good as a garnish (think sea salt on a chocolate brownie). Others dissolve more easily and just add flavor without any texture (think table salt). So you’d want to choose the salt that matches the use case you’re going for.
Second is standards/repeatability and communication. If you take a teaspoon of a coarse flaky salt vs finer kosher salt, the amount of saltiness you get from them will be different. A “pinch” of one salt is not necessarily equal to a “pinch” of another. The volumes are different. So it’s useful to specify the kind of salt in a recipe to prevent someone from misunderstanding and using the wrong amount of whatever their preferred/on hand salt is.
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