The Different Types of Salt

When Should You Use Coarse Salt, Fine Salt, or Fleur de Sel?

Each type of salt plays a specific role in cooking depending on its size, water content, and melting point. Here is an explanation of where these salts come from and when to use them depending on your dishes.

Fine Salt

Fine salt is composed of tiny, standardized, and completely dry grains.  It dissolves almost instantly upon contact with the slightest moisture.  

It is ideal for:

• Seasoning sauces, soups, and stews.
  
  
• Incorporating the salt base directly into bread dough or cakes because it dissolves quickly.
  
  
• Salting small quantities during the cooking process.
  
  

Fine salt does not occur naturally in salt marshes.

Coarse Salt

Coarse salt is harvested first, then washed, dried, crushed, and sorted by size, often with added anti-caking agents to prevent clumping.  This consists of large, dense, and irregular grains that require a lot of liquid or heat to melt.

It is ideal for:

• Salting water for pasta, rice, or vegetables.
  
  
• Cooking in a salt crust, like for fish or beef fillet.
  
  
• Preserving or marinating certain foods.
  
  

Heavy and dense, coarse salt crystallizes and settles directly to the bottom of the salt pans.  The salt worker uses a large, toothless rake to gather the crystals, and this direct contact with the clay bottom gives artisanal coarse salt its slightly gray color.

Fleur de Sel (Flower of Salt)

Fleur de sel consists of fine, flat, fragile, and naturally moist crystals. It melts very slowly on the tongue and crumbles easily between the teeth.

It is ideal for:

• Enhancing the flavor of grilled meat or fish immediately after cooking.
  
  
• Elevating the taste of salads and raw vegetables.
  
  
• Adding a delicious, crunchy touch to desserts like salted caramel or cookies—but you should never cook it!
  
  

Under the influence of the sun and a dry wind, a thin film of light crystals forms on the surface of the water in the afternoon. Salt workers carefully harvest it at the end of the day using a skimmer before it cools and sinks.  It is then simply drained and dried in the sun, without any further processing.

Our Salt Collection

At Urban Palate, we invite you to discover:

• Our fleurs de sel from La Belle Excuse, Les Terres blanches, Baléarides, Maldon, and Kanel.
  
  
• Our natural coarse salt from Binet 1660 (grand cru de Batz).
  
  
• Our flavored coarse salts from La Pincée, Kanel, Sel Saint-Laurent, and Ail en noir et blanc.