Truth in salt....

AC, what a great question!

You'll figure out those turkey leggs, if it kills you --from all the salt. Did you try some without a brine, I would and did the first time as an experiment.

I've heard discussion about your question in the past, but I honestly don't remember the specifics. I've been using the same salt in my brine(s) for a while so I'm consistent in the ones that I use.

I will try your question on another forum and see what they say.

I think Stoggie might have some answers.
We'll ask around the forum and see what people come up with.

FYI here are a couple of "salt links" in my file:
Salt 1

Salt 2

Salt 3

And here is a photo of the culprit:

Kosher Salt

(caption:from a scientific study of salt)
This grain of kosher salt is composed of many cubes stuck together. With its large surface area, it can absorb more moisture than a similar sized cubic salt crystal. This makes it ideal for curing meats, which involves absorbing blood from the raw meat.

Hi Smokin'!!

I would have to agree with jazzy over at the Forum. I would compare based on weight and not volume.

I unfortunately do not have table salt so I can't "weigh-in" on this!! LOL I kill me!!

As far as saltiness, a few years ago, I tasted each side-by-side and noticed zero difference!

But my buds have been haggard by 30 years of prime stogies!

Stogie

Smokin: Your library knows no limit! What a photo. I snatched the following off of some sort of Morton salt web site. Interesting. I think Stogie is right; I think it's a weight thing. It's all NaCl, but the crystal size makes equal volumes differet weights. (Plus, I suppose some trace minerals could get into the sea salt, adding slight tastes.)
Whew. Enough. Here's Morton:

"Morton Coarse Kosher Salt is available nationwide and is perfect for steaming crabs.Table salt is made by driving water into a salt deposit and evaporating the brine that is formed, leaving dried cube-like crystals that look like granulated sugar. Sea salt, which comes in fine or coarse crystals, is made from sea water that has been trapped and evaporated. The fine crystals resemble table salt, while the coarse crystals look like the grains on soft pretzels. Kosher salt is made in much the same way as table salt, except that it is raked continuously during the evaporation, giving it a lighter and flakier texture.
Many cooks insist they taste differences among these salts, particularly between iodized table salt and the others. Table salt often is mixed with iodine to prevent goiter and as an anti-caking agent, but many chefs claim it has an "off" taste, so they prefer kosher salt, which has no additives"
ACARRIII

Here's some info that AC and I recieved at another forum, I've brought over here for our discussion. As always, someone out there will have an opinion. Now what are you going to do with the knowledge. Hopefully use it for good not evil.

Thanks for the question AC. My library is extensive, and I'm pretty good with search engines too -- I have one that will search and save results to my desktop.

From the bbqsearch forum:
Answers to ACs question:

1. I think more than anything it's because the kosher is a coarser grain. It's kind of like filling a bucket with either stones or sand. Just a guess.

2. Besides grain size, another major difference is Kosher salt does NOT have iodine added. The answer to your example above is grain size, if you want equal amounts of salinity, calculate necessary amount by the WEIGHT of the salt required, NOT by the volume.
BOTH products are SALT, which is Sodium Chloride ( NaCL. ) most retail product salt has additives to prevent caking, and table salt typically has iodine added also. Sea Salt has other trace elements which are found naturally in the sea and are not refined out but included, giving it a slightly "different" taste.

3. If you're talking about for a bring, 2 cups kosher salt for one gallon of water is going to be too salty. I usually use 3/4 cup kosher salt, then brown sugar or honey and some spices.

4. While it's _plausible_ that the difference in the particle size means that twice as much Kosher salt by volume equals the same amount of table salt by weight, the Morton Coarse Kosher Salt (3 lb) box says, "Usage Tips: As a general rule you can also use Morton Coarse Kosher Salt in your favorite recipes as you would Morton Table Salt and Morton Canning and Pickling Salt....teaspoon for teaspoon or cup for cup." Note too that Morton's Kosher Salt contains "Yellow Prussiate of Soda (Anti-caking agent)".

5. Ive noticed that by taste, Kosher salt seems to taste less salty then the regular iodized table salt.

I think this is partially because the additive in the normal salt, make it taste more "metalic", and this applifies the saltyness. There is also the consideration, when measuring large quantities like cups, that the courseness of the kosher salt will leave air spaces in between the salt crystals, so the effect salt/volume of courser grained salts is actually less.

Thanks for Robb, ChrisA, Joe, Tom, NoCents, and Jazzy for the help.

Smokin

What other forum?

Thanks, Mike

This is probably the largest forum out there and if you tell them you have a Cookshack...

...be careful, most of the are Offset users, but they're a great group, but they think electric Q is lazy Q.

BBQSearch Forum

Smokin'

Although,we know that many of them have had CS for years for home use....It just makes great Q without having all the hard work ,art and tradition of competition cooking IMHO.