I’ve been buying this stuff for years:
https://www.diamondcrystal.com/product/kosher-salt-flakes
https://www.diamondcrystal.com/product/coarse-california-sea-salt
Which is the stuff I’ve been buying for years? Or maybe neither is? “Refreshed brand” oh thanks so much.
Missed this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/dining/diamond-crystal-kosher-salt.html
… it’s never been easy for home cooks to get their hands on a box.
Most supermarkets don’t sell it? I shop at Berkeley Bowl so have no idea what’s going on in the real world.
… Enlisted Design represented Diamond Crystal’s new target demographic — “the aspiring home chef” — with two avatars: “the academic” (a dude with a goatee) and “the entertainer” (a gal with an Afro and septum piercing). “The traditionalist” (a grandma in an apron) is a secondary target.
I am in fact a dude with a goatee.
I guess I’ll check the price at Trader Joe’s.
At least on Amazon I still buy the “old” red boxes and they are still available (haven’t seen them in stores for quite a long time so it is hard to compare prices)
Prices I see on Amazon are over $10 per 3-pound box. That’s way too much.
I’m going to try Whole Foods 365 kosher sea salt, $2.29 for 1 kg.
Most mainstream supermarkets didn’t carry it. I usually pick it up at Surfas or Penzey’s. I also pick up a couple of tubs of the Trader Joe’s Portuguese Flor de Sal every holiday season. That is what I’ve been using more often that not as of late. I also like the bags of Korean Sea Salt you get H-Mart for best bang for your buck salt.
Somebody in a Discord thread about this recommended H Mart.
My local Costco Business Center still had the old boxes last time I was there so I grabbed a half dozen.
I think they’re using the old packaging for the food service market and selling it at a lower price. Maybe it’s at places like Restaurant Depot.
I got a box at LAX-C last weekend.
The kosher salt seems to be identical to the red box version.
Yeah, the “flakes” are the same as the old stuff. But I’m not paying the stupid new price.
The Whole Foods 365 stuff is way, way denser than Diamond Kosher. A 32.5-oz box of 365 holds 49 cubic ounces, less than 40% of the 126 cubic ounces of the the 48-oz. Diamond box. To put it another way, the Diamond box has 36% more salt but 157% more volume. The 365 is $2.29 ($1.04 / lb).
I knew salt varied but I didn’t know it varied that much.
The old red box is indeed still available for the food-service market. Amazon has a nine-box case for $90 ($3.33 a pound). I guess I’ll check the prices at Restaurant Depot.
I weighed a quarter cup of each to compare.
Whole Foods: 61 grams
Diamond Crystal: 35 grams
So to substitute WF for Diamond I need to use 57% by volume.
First recipe I’ve seen that properly distinguishes between salts:
1½ teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt or ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
I guess this is relevant as a place to NOT buy salt but feel free to move/remove it if it’s distracting. I recently looked up a company I bought salt from a few years back as a Christmas gift. I can’t remember where I ran across it first but no less than Jack Bishop of America’s Test Kitchen recommended it (below):
When looking to purchase some salt as a gift this year I remembered this interesting, charity centered endeavor but couldn’t find where you can buy it any more. Turns out it was a total scam.
Not a charity, the dude running it is not a monk, I’m a little curious if the salt was even manufactured there.
I hope what I gifted my mom was at least food safe. I told her not to use it any more. Caveat emptor, I guess.
Morton coarse kosher salt seems to be the same density as 365.
