Anytime you boil potatoes or pasta, you should add about a quarter teaspoon of table or kosher salt for every four cups of water to bring out the natural flavor. Some of the salt will be absorbed, but most of it will evaporate into the air, which is why you don't want to use an expensive artisan sea salt in this case.

To brine chicken or turkey, mix a quarter cup of kosher salt and half a cup of sugar for every quart of water that you use. Immerse the meat in the brine (we use plastic bags) for one hour per pound, but not less than 30 minutes or more than eight hours. For crispier skin, let the chicken or turkey dry before cooking it. Overnight in the fridge is best.

Sauteing

When sauteing vegetables, you should sprinkle a very small amount of kosher or artisan sea salt on the veggies before they start cooking. These salts can be coarse ground because by the time the food is done, they will have dissolved. If you want to give your vegetables a nice smoky flavor, add a small amount of smoked salt just before serving. You don't want to add it too early or the flavor will evaporate into the air.

When sauteing chicken breasts or other meat, you should brine it using kosher salt and, as you do with vegetables, add your artisan sea salt five minutes before it is done. This way, the inside of the chicken is seasoned by the brine and the outside is flavored by the salt's ingredients.

Steaming

If you're going to use kosher or table salt on steamed food, use the finely ground versions. Otherwise, the salt won't get into the nooks and crannies of your food. If you have a nice smoked salt that you want to try, use it on steamed vegetable dishes. We've found that the smokiness in smoked salts comes across best when the salt is used on raw or slightly cooked foods. Tuna steak, tomatoes, asparagus, green beans. Foods that are best eaten when still slightly crisp or even raw. If you grill with these salts, the smokiness of the grill overpowers the smokiness in the salt, which is kind of a waste. Although, you could always grill the food with kosher salt first and add the smoked salt just before serving.

Baking

As a general rule, if you merely want to bring out the flavor of the food you're cooking, use kosher salt when baking. If you want to add an extra flavor dimension to the food you're baking, use an artisan salt. If you're baking fish and you want it to have a nice smoky flavor, try using a smoked salt on it before you put it in the oven. No matter what you're baking, salt it before you put it in the oven so that the flavor of the salt can absorb into the food. You can always add more salt later.

Roasting

Roasting is when you bake foods at high temperatures for a short period of time. You can always use kosher salt when roasting meat, but we wouldn't recommend smoked salt because the smoky flavor will be lost somewhere in the oven or it could burn off. A good rule of thumb when roasting meats is to season it with kosher salt before putting it in the oven and then adding an artisan salt in the last 30 minutes of cooking so that ITS flavor is what lands on the tongue first.

Grilling

Grilling is mostly done at high temperatures in short amounts of time, especially when you like a little charring on the outside of the meat and moist tenderness inside. You should use kosher or artisan sea salt just before you put the meat (or vegetables) on the grill. Smoked salt would be a waste since you're already getting the smoky flavor from the grill. If you're grilling vegetables, spray them with a little olive oil to help your salt and seasonings stick better.

People go back and forth on whether you should salt your meat before grilling. Some say it will dry out the meat and some say it will make it more juicy. We are of the second opinion. But there's a catch. You should salt the meat no more than an hour before you put it on the grill. NEVER salt the meat overnight. It will end up gray and tough.

Smoking

Meats are usually smoked at very low temperatures for long periods of time. Salt should always be added in the beginning and sometimes even during the cooking process. Although, typically people brush marinade onto the meat every few hours that it is cooking. Maybe to retain moisture that is being drawn out of the food by the length of time it is on the fire. Kosher salt is probably your best option here, since the flavor from infused or smoked salts would either burn off or be swallowed up by the flavor added by the smoke.

Using Spiceburst Infused Sea Salts