Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt (3-Pack)

PURPOSE

WHAT IS IT?

Not all salt is created equal. Diamond Crystal has been preferred by chefs, specifically included in receipes, because of how it’s made. This is the only patented Kosher salt crystal becuase it uses the Alberger process

Even if you’re on a low-sodium diet, don’t blow this off. Read on! This isn’t a general seasoning salt. For that, I highly recommend Sherpa Pink Gourmet Himalayan salt.

This is a salt for bigger kitchen projects, where salt cures, sanitizes, or helps inject big flavor, then is washed away.

A three-pack? Do I really need nine pounds of salt?! Yes! Salt is a great sanitation tool for your kitchen. It’s the fluid exchanger in all living things. You don’t eat that much sodium, but you do use it to “cure” or to brine foods where the salt helps bring the seasonings through the meat, fish, vegetable, etc. You use a lot at one sitting, often.

EXPERIENCE

The Alberger process creates a three-dimensional cup-shaped salt flake. That actually makes the salt, by weight, “lighter,” with a low-bulk density, high solubility, and good adhesion.

SUBSTITUTION WARNING

Use of Diamond Crystal is so specific, that, if a recipe calls for it, use it. It is the ONLY Alberger process salt in the world. Substitutions change the salt in the recipe.

You may have to do a lot of playing around to see how much salt you’d need because other Kosher salts are more dense, and therefore add more salt.

CERTIFICATION

CULINARY GEOGRAPHY

The salt has been mined, and processed at a plant in St. Clair, Michigan, since the early 1900’s.

TRADITIONAL USES

• Cover Brussels sprouts to extract bitterness, then rinse, prior to cooking;
• Tenderizes and extracts a bitter element of eggplant
• Brining and curing meats

A FEW IMPROVISATIONAL RIFFS:

• Brine breasts of chicken for stock sous-vide chicken with a thousand uses;
• Use in salt/sugar cures of gravlax (smoked salmon), and other fish;
• The regular salt makes a nice lightly pink rim for a margarita.
• Top my Roaring Tiger bread with a salty crust

THE BACKSTORY

Some culinary products have a following. Diamond Crystal’s Kosher salt borders on obsession. So many of the world’s top kitchens use it as a go-to for all kinds of projects. When a January, 2019 Twitter rumor surfaced that Cargill, the company that makes the salt, was discontinuing it, it caused culinary calamity! Francis Lam, of The Splended Table, ran out and started hoarding:

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A post shared by Francis Lam (@francis_lam)

As a part of our culinary universe for over a hundred years, for its unique, patented design, and balance of sodium-to-weight, I award it the Jazz Chef Five Diamond Choicestuff™ seal for being such a wide-moat ingredient in top kitchens.