Sea Salt Flakes

Our answer

Sea salt flakes, such as Maldon, have become very popular in recent years. The flakes are very good for sprinkling over dishes at the end of cooking as they provide a delicious salty crunch. In cooking they also dissolve very quickly. In most of Nigella's recipes she offers the alternative of using regular free flowing table or pouring salt instead of salt flakes.

If you use pouring salt instead of salt flakes then you need to use half the quantity, eg. if the recipe states 1/2 teaspoon salt flakes then use 1/4 teaspoon pouring salt. This is as salt is usually measured by volume and pouring salt will compact more when put into in a volume measure. You could also use kosher salt, which is more common in the US, in which case use the same volume measure as for the sea salt flakes. However we would prefer not to use kosher salt in baking as the slightly larger grains can dissolve more slowly than sea salt flakes and occasionally you can end up with grains of salt in pastry and cakes.