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Sea Salt Substitutes: Fine, Coarse or Flaky, and How Much to Use

By · Reviewed · 17 sources

Sea Salt Substitute

Any salt can stand in for sea salt. In America’s Test Kitchen’s testing, sea salt tasted no different from table salt once it was mixed into food.1 Chemically, sea salt is the same sodium chloride as any other cooking salt, with most sea salts about 40% sodium, same as table salt.21 What matters is the crystal. “Sea salt” covers everything from a fine grain that measures like table salt to big flakes that hold far less salt in a spoon,12 so match the crystal to the job and adjust the amount.

Quick answer

What the sea salt is doingBest substituteStarting amount, per 1 teaspoon sea saltTreatment
Fine sea salt measured into a recipeTable salt or pickling salt1 teaspoon (a scant teaspoon if you want to match Morton’s labels)Computed
The same, recipe gives gramsAny food-grade saltThe same weightComputed
Fine sea salt, kosher salt on handKosher salt1 teaspoon plus a pinch of Morton, or 2 teaspoons Diamond CrystalDisputed
Coarse sea salt for a grinder, pasta water or seasoning meatCoarse Himalayan pink salt or kosher salt1 teaspoon coarse Himalayan; 1¼ teaspoons Morton kosher for Morton coarse sea saltComputed / Attributed
Flaky sea salt as a finishing saltMaldon, fleur de sel or Diamond Crystal kosher saltBy the pinchMethod
Sea salt in a pickle recipeCanning and pickling salt1 teaspoonAttributed

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.

There’s no one grams-per-teaspoon figure for sea salt. It depends on the crystal. The weights here come from ATK’s measurements and from Morton’s labels, which only cover Morton’s products.

If fine sea salt is measured into a recipe

Fine sea salt behaves like table salt in a spoon. This is the easy one.

1. Table salt

Ratio (Computed): One for one, or a hair less. Morton’s labels give 1.4 grams per ¼ teaspoon for its fine sea salt and 1.5 grams for its iodized table salt,34 so table salt is about 7% heavier by volume. Morton’s conversion chart treats a teaspoon of its table salt as equal to a teaspoon of its fine sea salt, and a cup of table salt as a cup plus a teaspoon of fine sea salt.5 Both figures are Morton’s, for Morton’s products, and they agree: the difference is too small to matter in a teaspoon. In a big batch, like a brine, use slightly less table salt, or weigh it.

Table salt comes with additives sea salt usually doesn’t have. Morton’s iodized table salt lists calcium silicate, an anticaking agent, along with dextrose and potassium iodide, while its fine sea salt lists only sea salt.43 Neither changes the taste. ATK’s tasters couldn’t tell iodized from noniodized salt.1

2. Any salt, by weight

Ratio (Computed): The Codex standard for food-grade salt requires at least 97% sodium chloride on a dry basis, whether it comes from the sea, rock deposits or brine,6 so equal weights of food-grade salts carry close to the same amount of salt. If your recipe gives grams, weigh any salt you like.

3. Pickling salt

Ratio (Attributed): Morton’s chart treats its canning and pickling salt as equal to its table salt by volume.5 Use it one for one. Morton lists cooking, baking and brining among its uses.7

4. Kosher salt

Kosher salt is much coarser than table salt,8 so a teaspoon holds less salt, and how much less depends on the brand. ATK found that a teaspoon of Morton kosher salt weighs 4.8 grams and a teaspoon of Diamond Crystal 2.8 grams.9 Since Morton’s chart treats fine sea salt like table salt, the table-salt conversions apply, and they don’t agree:

Swap for 1 teaspoon of table saltMorton kosherDiamond CrystalSource
ATK’s rule of thumb1½ teaspoons2 teaspoons110
Morton’s conversion chart (Morton products only)1¼ teaspoonsnot covered5
Computed from ATK’s own gram weights (6.0 ÷ 4.8 and 6.0 ÷ 2.8)1¼ teaspoonsabout 2⅛ teaspoons9

Measured against Morton’s fine sea salt label instead (5.6 grams a teaspoon), ATK’s kosher weights work out to about 1⅙ teaspoons of Morton and 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal.39

Ratio (Disputed): Start at the lowest figure: 1 teaspoon plus a pinch of Morton kosher salt, or 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal, per teaspoon of fine sea salt. Taste, then add more. If a recipe gives salt in grams, weigh it. ATK recommends weighing salt over measuring it by volume.10

If coarse sea salt is seasoning or cooking water

Coarse sea salt fills grinders, seasons pasta water and gets pinched over meat before it cooks. You want another coarse, food-grade salt.

1. Coarse Himalayan pink salt

Himalayan pink salt is rock salt, mined in Pakistan. Pink salt carries more calcium, potassium and some other minerals than white salt, but a 2020 analysis of pink salts sold in Australia found a 5-gram serving made no clinically significant difference to nutrient intake.11

Ratio (Computed / Attributed): Morton’s coarse Himalayan label gives 1.5 grams per ¼ teaspoon, the same as its table salt,124 and Morton’s chart treats a teaspoon of its Himalayan salt as equal to a teaspoon of its table salt and of its sea salts.5 Use it one for one with Morton’s coarse or fine sea salt. Other brands’ grinds differ.

2. Kosher salt

Ratio (Attributed): Morton’s chart treats a teaspoon of its coarse sea salt as equal to a teaspoon of table salt, and so to 1¼ teaspoons of Morton kosher salt.5 That only covers Morton’s products. With Diamond Crystal, start with about 2 teaspoons per teaspoon of coarse sea salt. Morton suggests its kosher salt for brining poultry and for grilled meats.13

3. Table salt

Ratio (Method): For pasta water, one for one is fine. For seasoning meat by the pinch, go lighter. Fine grains are harder to see on the food, so it’s easy to overdo.

If flaky sea salt is finishing a dish

ATK recommends sea salts mainly as finishing salts, scattered on just before serving where you can feel the crunch.1 For this job, the crystal is the whole point.

  • Maldon forms thin pyramid flakes, according to the producer’s account to Foodism.14
  • Fleur de sel from Guérande, on France’s Atlantic coast, may hold up to 12% moisture, so it’s fine and damp, not crisp.15
  • Diamond Crystal kosher salt is the pantry option. Its hollow, pyramid-shaped crystals gave what ATK’s tasters called a “delicate and fleeting crunch,” and they liked it better than Morton’s harder grains.9
  • Coarse Himalayan salt gives a harder crunch and a pink fleck.

Ratio (Method): By the pinch, to taste. Finishing salt isn’t measured precisely anyway. If a recipe measures flaky sea salt into a dough, see Maldon salt substitutes for volume starting points.

If sea salt is going into pickles

Ratio (Attributed): Use canning and pickling salt, one for one by volume (Morton’s chart).5 It’s what the National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends for home canning, and NCHFP doesn’t recommend flake salt because its density varies.16 For fermented pickles, where the amount of salt matters for safety, see pickling salt substitutes.

Notes for every swap

  • Sodium. Table salt, kosher salt and most sea salts are about 40% sodium. A coarse sea salt has less sodium per teaspoon only because fewer crystals fit in the spoon.2 Swapping salts won’t cut sodium unless you use less salt.
  • Iodine. Sea salt usually isn’t iodized, and noniodized sea salt gives you virtually no iodine.17 Swapping in iodized table salt adds iodine.
  • Minerals. Sea salt may carry trace levels of magnesium, potassium and calcium,2 but they’re traces. A substitute loses nothing that matters nutritionally.

What isn’t known

  • There’s no general grams-per-teaspoon figure for coarse or flaky sea salt. The weights here are Morton’s for its own products, and ATK’s for kosher and table salt.
  • ATK’s rule of thumb and its own gram weights disagree for Morton kosher salt.

Footnotes

  1. Salt Types and Measurements, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Sodium Sources: Where Does All That Sodium Come From?, American Heart Association, 2025. heart.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. Morton Fine Sea Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Morton Iodized Table Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Salt Conversion Chart, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  6. Standard for Food Grade Salt, CXS 150-1985 (rev. 2012), Codex Alimentarius. services.bis.gov.in · Standard ↩

  7. Morton Canning and Pickling Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩

  8. What’s the difference between kosher salt and other salt?, Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter, 2013 (updated 2019). nutritionletter.tufts.edu · Publication ↩

  9. Kate Shannon Levine, The Best Kosher Salt, America’s Test Kitchen, 2019. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  10. Eden Faithfull, The Wrong Brand of Kosher Salt Could Ruin Your Dinner, America’s Test Kitchen, 2022. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩2

  11. Fayet-Moore F et al., An Analysis of the Mineral Composition of Pink Salt Available in Australia, Foods, 2020. mdpi.com · Peer-reviewed ↩

  12. Morton Coarse Himalayan Pink Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩

  13. Morton Kosher Salt Flakes, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩

  14. Clare Finney, Clear as crystal: the decades-old traditions of Maldon sea salt, Foodism, 2018. foodism.co.uk · Publication ↩

  15. Cahier des charges de l’IGP Sel de Guérande / Fleur de sel de Guérande, French Ministry of Agriculture, 2025. info.agriculture.gouv.fr · Regulator ↩

  16. Salts Used in Pickling, National Center for Home Food Preservation. nchfp.uga.edu · Reference work ↩

  17. Iodine: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals, NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. ods.od.nih.gov · Regulator ↩