Kosher Salt vs. Himalayan Salt: Crystal, Weight and Minerals Compared

Kosher salt and Himalayan salt are both coarse, mostly sodium chloride, and both usually free of iodine.¹² They get there differently. Kosher salt is named for its traditional use in koshering meat, and the two big US brands make it by evaporating brine.¹³ Himalayan salt is rock salt mined in Pakistan and tinted pink by traces of iron oxide.⁴ For a cook, the difference that matters most is weight: a teaspoon of Morton kosher salt weighs 4.8 grams and a teaspoon of Diamond Crystal 2.8 grams,³ while Morton’s coarse Himalayan salt label works out to about 6 grams.⁵ Swap them spoon for spoon and the amount of salt changes.

Side by side

Where each comes from

Kosher salt. The name describes a use, not a source. America’s Test Kitchen describes kosher salt as originally used for koshering meat, and the Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter explains that its coarse grains draw blood out of meat, as Jewish dietary law requires.⁶¹ In the US it mostly means two brands, and they are made differently. Diamond Crystal comes from the Alberger process: brine is heated and agitated in open containers so hollow, pyramid-shaped crystals form on the surface. Morton’s brine goes through vacuum evaporators, and the salt is pressed through rollers into thin flakes.³

Himalayan salt. Harriet Hall of Science-Based Medicine describes the salt beds as deposited from ancient oceans about 250 million years ago.¹⁰ Commercial pink salt comes from Pakistan,⁴ where the state-owned Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation runs the Khewra mine.⁷ A widely repeated explanation credits the pink to minerals, bacteria and algae left from an ancient sea; the published analysis we found attributes it to traces of iron oxide.⁴

What’s in them

No laboratory study we found measured kosher salt and Himalayan salt side by side, so the figures below come from different sources and shouldn’t be compared decimal for decimal.

• Sodium. Table salt, kosher salt and most sea salts are about 40% sodium, the American Heart Association says.¹¹ A Swiss government survey found four Himalaya salts at 37.7% to 38.2%.¹² Morton’s labels work out to 400 mg of sodium per gram for its kosher salt and 380 mg per gram for its coarse Himalayan salt (our arithmetic).⁹⁵
• Minerals. In a 2020 analysis of 31 pink salts bought in Australia, pink salt carried more calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese and potassium than a white table salt, but a 5 g teaspoon made no clinically significant contribution to nutrient intake except sodium.⁴ It would take more than 30 g a day for the minerals to matter, and the sodium would counteract any benefit.⁴
• Contaminants. The Swiss survey found 21,864 to 44,654 µg/kg of aluminum in its four Himalaya samples.¹² It found specialty salts generally higher in contaminants than standard salts, with most contaminants below 1% of tolerable intake, and attributed the high levels in Himalaya salt to natural contamination.¹² It analyzed no kosher salt.
• “84 minerals.” Hall traces the claim that pink salt contains 84 trace minerals to marketing.¹⁰

Flavor and handling

Weight for weight, salt tastes like salt. In ATK’s test, broths seasoned with equal weights of Morton and Diamond Crystal tasted exactly the same.³ We found no taste test of Himalayan salt against kosher salt, so claims that pink salt has “mineral notes” or that kosher salt is “cleaner” are untested.

Handling is where they differ:

• Kosher salt is ATK’s testers’ first choice for seasoning meat, because the large grains spread easily and cling.⁶ ATK’s tasters preferred Diamond Crystal’s “delicate and fleeting crunch” to Morton’s harder grains.³ Kosher salt is much coarser than table salt and dissolves more slowly, Tufts notes.¹
• Coarse Himalayan salt is harder and denser. It goes in grinders, or on top of food where the pink color shows: steak, fish, eggs, salads. That is kitchen judgment.

A common claim says kosher salt helps meat hold its moisture. We found no test of it. For salt blocks, see cooking with Himalayan salt.

Pickling. Neither is the best choice. The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends canning or pickling salt, and says flake salt is not recommended because its density varies.¹³ Kosher salt is not automatically additive-free: Morton’s lists an anticaking agent.⁹ See pickling salt vs. kosher salt.

Can one stand in for the other?

Yes, but measure carefully. These treatments follow our kosher salt substitute page.

How these were worked out. By weight: the Codex standard requires food-grade salt, from rock deposits, the sea or brine, to be at least 97% sodium chloride on a dry basis.¹⁴ By volume: Morton’s labels give 1.2 g per ¼ teaspoon for its kosher salt and 1.5 g for its coarse Himalayan salt,⁹⁵ so ⅘ teaspoon of the pink salt carries the salt of a teaspoon of Morton kosher. Morton’s chart, which applies only between Morton products, treats a teaspoon of its Himalayan salt as equal to a teaspoon of table salt and to 1¼ teaspoons of its kosher salt, and gives the same answer.⁸ Diamond Crystal’s 2.8 g per teaspoon is ATK’s measurement,³ set against Morton’s Himalayan label, so those rows mix two sources; we round toward less salt. ATK recommends weighing salt rather than measuring it by volume.¹⁵ Other brands’ grinds publish no weights that we found.

Health notes

• Sodium. A teaspoon of a lighter salt holds less sodium only because fewer crystals fit, and total sodium intake is what matters for heart health.¹¹ Neither salt is a lower-sodium choice by weight.
• Iodine. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements lists both kosher and Himalayan salt among specialty salts that are not usually iodized.² If you cook only with these, see iodized vs. non-iodized salt.
• Health claims. Hall reviews claims that Himalayan salt detoxifies, lowers blood pressure or strengthens bones and finds them unsupported.¹⁰ This page makes no claim that either salt treats or prevents any condition.

What isn’t known

• No laboratory analysis of US kosher salt brands for minerals or contaminants was found.
• No taste test comparing kosher salt with Himalayan salt.
• Diamond Crystal’s own grams-per-teaspoon figure could not be retrieved from its maker; no independent weight for coarse pink salt outside Morton’s label.
• No test of kosher salt’s effect on meat moisture; no dated price data.

Related

• Kosher salt and Himalayan salt, the full profiles
• Kosher salt substitutes and cooking with kosher salt
• Himalayan salt vs. table salt, Himalayan salt vs. sea salt and fleur de sel vs. Himalayan salt
• Kosher salt vs. table salt, kosher salt vs. sea salt and Maldon salt vs. kosher salt