What to use instead of salt
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Seasoning measured by the spoon
Crystal size decides how much salt fits in a teaspoon, so the same measurement can hold twice the salt depending on which box it came from.
Diamond Crystal kosher saltRan out
2 tsp per 1 tsp fine table salt
Same salt by weight. The flakes crush between your fingers, so it scatters evenly and dissolves quickly on meat.
Morton kosher saltRan out
1 1/4 tsp per 1 tsp fine table salt
Denser and harder than Diamond Crystal, so it takes longer to dissolve in a brine and lands heavier if you pinch by feel.
Fine sea saltRan out
1:1 with table salt
Dissolves fast and evenly and has no iodine tang. Trace minerals make no measurable difference in a cooked dish.
Flaky finishing saltRan out
2 tsp per 1 tsp fine salt, and only at the table
Registers as bursts of salt with a crunch instead of even seasoning. It dissolves too slowly to season a batter or a brine.
Potassium chloride salt substituteLow-sodium
1:1, up to about half the recipe's salt
Seasons much like salt at small doses. Past roughly half a teaspoon it turns bitter and metallic, and heat makes that worse.
What doesn't work: Swapping kosher for table salt spoon for spoon in a brine or a bake. Table salt packs roughly twice as much into the same teaspoon, so the dish comes out about twice as salty and there is no fixing it after the fact.
Dissolving muscle protein so meat holds its water
Salt penetrates over hours and unwinds the proteins so they hold onto moisture during cooking, and it seasons the middle instead of just the surface.
Soy sauceRan out
1 tbsp per 1/2 tsp fine salt
Colours the surface brown and adds savoury depth. The sugars in it brown early, so a hot pan needs watching.
Fish sauceRan out
2 tsp per 1/2 tsp fine salt
Seasons hard and adds fermented depth that most people cannot identify in the finished dish. It smells strong going on and cooks off.
White miso rubbed onRan out
2 tbsp per 1/2 tsp fine salt
Clings as a paste and seasons deeply over 24 hours. The sugars burn fast, so wipe most of it off before it hits heat.
What doesn't work: Iodised table salt in a fermenting or pickling brine. The anti-caking agent clouds the liquid and settles as white sludge, and the iodine leaves a faint metallic taste in the finished pickle.
By weight, salt is salt. Ten grams is ten grams whichever box it came from, and weighing removes the problem entirely.