Salt, table

Table salt is the everyday seasoning added to nearly every savory dish, sprinkled into cooking water for pasta and vegetables, mixed into doughs and batters, rubbed onto meat before cooking, or set on the table for diners to season food to their own taste at the plate. It's also the base ingredient for basic brines and quick pickles, where a measured amount dissolved in water seasons or preserves food, and it's the standard salt used in baking recipes since its fine, even grains dissolve quickly and measure consistently by volume, unlike coarser kosher or sea salt.

Keep it in a dry, airtight container or shaker, since exposure to humidity causes it to clump; a few grains of rice or a small silica packet in the container helps it flow freely. It has 0 calories and no protein, fat, carbohydrate, fiber or sugar, but per 100g it delivers a concentrated 38,800mg of sodium, which is why recipes call for it by small measures, a pinch or a teaspoon, rather than by the tablespoon, and why a recipe's total sodium can shift noticeably depending on how much is added at the stove versus left for diners to add themselves at the table.