Kosher salt has large, coarse flakes. It is similar to table salt, except that it is produced at atmospheric pressure, which allows larger, less uniform crystals to form. Kosher salt contains no additives and few residual minerals. It is pure sodium chloride.
These coarse and fine sea salts come from La Baleine and are produced in Aigues-Mortes, France along the Mediterrenean. La Baleine sea salts are available in most grocery stores and are recognizable by their red and blue cylindrical containers. The salts are evaporated in pans. These sea salts are more economical than Maldon or Fleur de Sel and have a nice mineral flavor component. The coarse crystals are great for flavoring soups and sauces where they have time to dissolve. The fine crystals can be used in baking and bread making. I visited Aigues-Mortes when I was in college. It is a small, fortified town. Along the way are marshes, the Camargue, known for growing rice and its horses and bulls.
Fleur de Sel is unrefined, unprocessed sea salt. It is hand-harvested by skimming the surface of salt marshes off the coast of Brittany, France. The harvesting is normally done in June and July when the sea is at its calmest. After harvesting, the salt is dried by the sun. It has an uneven, pink-gray hue and is moist and flavorful. Its flavor comes from the many minerals that are normally removed during typical refining processes.
Maldon sea salt is produced in Essex, England from sea water gathered along the East coast of the country. The sea water is placed in salt pans and then evaporated using heat. As the water evaporate, salt crystals begin to grow until the weight of the crystals causes them to sink to the bottom of the pans where they are then hand-harvested.
