Three Pantry Salts Every Cook Should Stock

You do not need a salt cellar collection. Three well-chosen salts cover every job in a working kitchen.

Salt is the most important ingredient in any kitchen, and yet most home cooks own only one kind, usually a fine iodized table salt that is the wrong tool for almost every task. The fix is not a cabinet full of artisan jars from around the world. Three salts, chosen for three specific jobs, will cover every cooking situation you will ever face. The first is a coarse kosher salt, which should live in an open cellar next to the stove. Diamond Crystal is the standard in restaurant kitchens because the flakes are large, light, and easy to pinch, which makes seasoning by feel reliable. Use it for pasta water, meat, vegetables, and almost any savory cooking step.

The second salt is a fine sea salt for baking and any application that needs to dissolve quickly and evenly. Pastry chefs avoid kosher salt in doughs and batters because the large flakes can leave salty pockets in a finished cake or loaf of bread. A fine sea salt, weighed by gram for accuracy, distributes through flour the way you want it to. It also works well in brines and marinades where the salt must dissolve fully before contact with the food. Buy a one-pound box, store it dry, and reserve it for the bench rather than the burner.

The third salt is a flaky finishing salt, used only at the moment a dish leaves the kitchen. Maldon is the most common name brand, but any large pyramid-shaped flake will do. A pinch over a sliced tomato, the crust of a loaf of bread, a piece of seared fish, or even a square of dark chocolate adds a crunch and a bright burst that no cooked-in salt can deliver. The flakes shatter on the tongue and release a clean salinity that makes the food underneath taste more like itself. Three salts, three jobs, no confusion. Set them up in your kitchen this weekend and you will taste the difference in your very next meal.

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