Hawaiian Sea Salt Substitutes for White, Red (Alaea) and Black Salt

Hawaiian sea salt comes three ways: plain white, red with ʻalaea clay, and black “lava” salt, which in the products checked gets its color from activated charcoal, not lava. All three are sea salt underneath. For seasoning kalua pig or poke, almost any clean coarse salt can stand in: America’s Test Kitchen found that once salt dissolves into a dish, sea salt tastes no different from table salt.¹ The hard part is color, when the salt goes on top, and for that you match by shade.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

If Hawaiian salt is seasoning a dish

Kalua pig is the classic case. Food writer Sue Lau describes it as seasoned simply with ʻalaea salt,² and SaltWorks says its alaea salt is traditionally used on kalua pig.³ Traditional poke was seasoned with sea salt as well. Either way, the salt dissolves into the food, and what matters is how much you use.

Salt is sodium chloride wherever it comes from.¹ Table salt, kosher salt and most sea salts are about 40 percent sodium,⁴ and one black Hawaiian salt analyzed by the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office in 2016 was 36.7 percent sodium,⁵ not far off.

Coarse sea salt or coarse kosher salt

Ratio (Method): For white Hawaiian salt, start with the same volume of a coarse sea salt and taste. For red alaea, start with about three quarters of the volume. Lau, who seasons her pork with 2 tablespoons of coarse alaea salt, says alaea is “not quite as salty as other salt types” and can’t be swapped on an equal basis, but she doesn’t give a figure.² The three-quarters is our starting point, not a measurement. Kosher salt brands also differ in how much a spoonful weighs: ATK weighed a teaspoon of Morton kosher salt at 4.8 grams and Diamond Crystal at 2.8 grams.⁶ With the lighter Diamond Crystal, you may end up close to the full volume.

By weight (Computed, upper limit): The Codex standard for food-grade salt requires at least 97 percent sodium chloride on a dry basis.⁷ Commercial alaea is sea salt plus red clay. SaltWorks lists exactly those two ingredients,³ and the black Hawaiian salt in the Swiss analysis listed salt, active coal and taro.⁵ That means a gram of colored Hawaiian salt can’t hold more salt than a gram of plain salt. If your recipe gives a weight, use no more than the same weight of ordinary salt, and taste.

Fine table salt: Table salt packs more salt into a spoon. ATK puts a teaspoon at about 6 grams regardless of brand,⁶ and larger crystals carry less sodium per teaspoon because fewer of them fit.⁴ Start with about half the volume of a coarse Hawaiian salt, and taste.

If red alaea salt is finishing a dish

Coarse Himalayan pink salt

Both salts get their color from iron oxide: ʻalaea from the iron oxide in its clay,⁸ Himalayan pink salt from traces of iron oxide in the salt itself.⁹ The shade is off, pink instead of brick red, so it’s close but not a match. Himalayan pink salt is rock salt, not sea salt.

Ratio (Method): Sprinkle to taste. You use finishing salt by eye.

A note on flavor: you’ll often see red alaea called earthy or nutty, but we didn’t find a sensory test of it. ATK’s broader finding is that sea salts vary in color but only slightly in flavor.¹ For more options, see alaea salt substitutes.

If black Hawaiian salt is finishing a dish

Another black flake salt colored with charcoal

In the products checked, black “lava” salt gets its color from activated charcoal, not lava.⁵ So the closest swap is another salt made the same way. The Meadow’s Black Diamond flake salt, from Cyprus, lists sea salt and activated charcoal, and the merchant says the flakes resist dissolving even on very moist foods.¹⁰

Ratio (Method): Sprinkle to taste.

New York City’s health department tells food businesses that activated charcoal is approved only for filtering food, not as a food colorant or additive, and that it may reduce the absorption of certain nutrients or medication.¹¹ That guidance is written for restaurants, but it applies to any charcoal-colored salt, including the one you’re replacing.

Why kala namak is not a substitute

Kala namak, the Indian “black salt,” is a different product. Its sulfurous taste comes from hydrogen sulfide: the Swiss analysis attributes its “characteristic sulfuric taste” to a high hydrogen sulfide content.⁵ We didn’t find any source reporting a sulfur note in charcoal-colored salts, so kala namak would add a sulfur taste that black Hawaiian salt isn’t documented to have. See black salt for more.

If white Hawaiian salt is finishing a dish

Plain Hawaiian salt is white salt raked from the top of shallow ponds, then rinsed and dried. Any clean finishing salt can take its place.

Fleur de sel, or another flaky or coarse sea salt

Fleur de sel is the thin layer of crystals that forms on the surface of seawater salt pans and gets skimmed off by hand. A flaky salt like Maldon, or any coarse sea salt, also gives you crunch. ATK recommends sea salts as finishing salts.

Ratio (Method): Sprinkle to taste.

Notes for every swap

• Iodine. Don’t count on any of these salts for iodine unless the label says iodized. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements lists sea salt, kosher salt, Himalayan salt and fleur de sel among specialty salts that usually aren’t iodized.¹²
• Labels. “Hawaiian” or “Hawaiian-style” in a product name doesn’t tell you where the salt was harvested. SaltWorks’ “Hawaiian-style” alaea, for example, is Pacific sea salt with clay from the Hawaiian islands.³ Traditional salt from the Hanapēpē ponds on Kauaʻi may be given or traded but not sold.⁸

What isn’t known

• The idea that alaea tastes less salty than plain salt is one cook’s view.² We didn’t find a sensory test of any Hawaiian salt.
• Descriptions of red alaea as nutty, or of black salt as earthy and sulfurous, have no measured basis that we could find.

Related

• Hawaiian sea salt, alaea salt and alaea salt substitutes
• Black lava salt, black lava salt uses and black salt (kala namak)
• Himalayan salt, alaea salt vs. Himalayan salt and fleur de sel
• Sea salt, kosher salt, table salt vs. sea salt and cooking with sea salt
• Too much sea salt