Physical Education

Iodized salt is proletarian salt. i.e. it's what your diet probably needs unless you're consuming a lot of seafood (or seaweed) on a regular basis.

Morton salt can be really nice as a finishing salt for dishes where the texture and additional flavour pop is a feature, e.g. on something like salted cookies or a salad where you sprinkle salt on the top. (This can also apply to things like smoked salt but unless you are aficionado or you've got a dish where you want a smokey flavour to be isolated from the rest of the dish to provide feature and heterogeneity in flavours, it's not really worth it and you're likely to be better off using just using smoked paprika or liquid smoke instead.)

Most other forms of salt are really just hype and marketing tbh except in the cases where you specifically require a size and shape of salt crystals for particular niche applications. The trace amount of minerals that you'll get from "impure" salts are unlikely to contribute much to your nutritional needs unless you're using copious amounts of salt.

I don't begrudge people who really dig their fancy salts at all however, don't get me wrong. If it brings you joy then go hog wild on that stuff. But if you're a pragmatic cook or you're on a budget then there's no reason why regular table salt (especially iodized salt) is perfectly fine to use.

salt:pepper ratio should be 1:4

Am I missing something or is their value solely predicated on the geographical origins + unique colors?

I may be wrong but I believe some salt is basically just sodium. While e.g. sea salt contains other minerals.

Other than that, I imagine it comes down to monopoly rent, like everything else. Capitalists trying to convince us that the same chemical from one place tastes different to the same chemical from somewhere else so they can charge more for it. Like the difference between champagne and sparkling wine. There can be differences but these are often negligible and don't necessarily match the hype.

I always find that sea salt or himalayan salt has a bit more texture and flavour maybe? My normal iodized salt is usually far less flavoured and mostly goes unnoticed.

I recently try to not add too much salt to my meals, and if I do it is iodized. I try to get the flavor from other herbs and spices.

Other than that, I am not against salt or anything. Eat salt, just not too much.

use iodized salt and if your blood pressure is high use less of it and eat more potassium. iodized salt can taste a little muddy so it may not be good as a finishing salt where the crystals remain intact. In these cases you can use coarser sea salt or soy sauce and possibly shaoxing rice wine.

Have you tried black salt? It is usually had with chaat (an umbrella term for a variety of Indian street food) and it tastes distinctly different from table salt.

Salt generally tastes the same. However, there is something very much to be said about the type of salt, size of crystal flakes, iodized etc.

Iodized table salt, to me, is terrible because it leaves a "burning " sensation, clouds consommés as well as being too fine a flake

In the US i used Mortons kosher salt because the consistency & flake size was just right. Diamond Krystal salt flakes were too large for me, but usable.

Sea salt is on par with kosher salt, here I had to get used to the smaller flake size so there was a bit of a learning curve.

Pink Himalayan I really haven't tried because it seemed to faddish, however when Truffle oil pricing shot through the roof I looked for alternatives for our popcorn & tried Black Himalayan Salt, small flake and when we use cooking sunflower oil or cheap olive oil it gives off a buttery-sulphur flavor that is strangely addictive.

Redmond Real salt and modt other salts out there are good in small amounts but waaaaaay overpriced.

Currently at home I use large "horno" baking salt in a grinder (enormous flakes).

Seasoning your food properly & consistently helps you keep table salt off the table, where I tend to think that people who do not use salt while cooking over use salt at the table.

And yes, I've thought alot about salt.