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In a recipe where you’re dissolving salt in water or a similar mixture(not sprinkling it as a seasoning, etc.) is it possible to substitute, for example, 1 gram of kosher salt with 1 gram of table salt?

I understand that you can’t do this by volume, but if both salts are mostly NaCl and I’m going by mass, then they should be close to equivalent, right?

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Yes. In general diamond crystal kosher salt requires about twice the amount (by volume) as table salt, but measuring by weight is best and works with any salt.

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    Yikes, no. I just did the math based on Morton's kosher and regular salts nutrition data. The mass part is correct (they are extremely close in terms of mg sodium per gram), but doubling the volume is way off. By volume, you only want about 25% more of kosher salt to be equivalent, with the caveat that how finely ground different brands of salts are could affect the volume calculation.
    – user81306
    Mar 23, 2020 at 13:16
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    Anjama — Diamond Crystal kosher salt is not the same as Morton's kosher salt. Every different salt has a different mass:volume ratio. 2:1 is a close approximation for DC:table.
    – myklbykl
    Mar 23, 2020 at 14:28
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    And that is the reason why going by weight is the only right choice when following a recipe.
    – bracco23
    Mar 24, 2020 at 9:50
  • It's really silly and hipstery how all recipes these days call for "kosher" salt. Stupid trend, IMO. Just salt to taste. As a seasoning, salt has the advantage that you can season after cooking. Most other seasonings and spices need to spend some time with the food your cooking,
    – Emanuel Landeholm
    Apr 12, 2020 at 16:18
  • @EmanuelLandeholm — there is nothing silly or "hipstery" about using kosher salt. DC kosher salt is really easy to use in cooking. It is less dense, easier to use by hand, dissolves easily, and is more visible on foods (among other reasons), so chefs like to use it for most things. For things like baking it doesn't matter, but why have two types of salt when one will do? I own about six types of salt, and I use all of them, but 98% of the time I use Kosher salt even if it doesn't matter just because it's right on my counter in a salt cellar and easiest to grab.
    – myklbykl
    Apr 12, 2020 at 16:27
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Low-sodium salts may be an exception. They replace sodium with potassium, which is heavier. But the percentage replaced is not standardized, so check the package for details.

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    A potassium atom is heavier than a sodium atom, yes, but the density of NaCl (2.17g/cm3) is actually a bit higher than KCl (1.98g/cm3) since it packs more tightly in the crystal lattice. It isn't a big enough difference to really worry about in any case.
    – J...
    Mar 23, 2020 at 13:04
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    For chemically different salts like these, the main thing to take into account is the difference in taste strength (and other culinary effects)! Whether you measure by total mass or by the mass of sodium/potassium alone, a given mass of potassium salt won’t have the same effect on taste, cooking, etc as the same mass of ordinary sodium salt.
    – PLL
    Mar 23, 2020 at 17:49
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If the exact NaCl content is important, eg low-salt lacto pickles, you might want to consider that commercial salt will typically have a dessicant of about 1% to stop it clumping, iodine fortification will affect the activity of microflora and mined rock salt will have a fair amount of content that is not NaCl. Rock, so to speak.

But for the most part, salt is interchangeable when measured by weight.

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