The Best Salt in the World Is From Michigan

St. Clair — Down by the river, just a stone’s throw from its iconic boardwalk, stands a tall building. It looks like any other large warehouse, except for the giant boxes of salt that stand on either end.

This is the home of Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, which is inarguably the best salt in the world for everyday cooking. It’s made right here, with a proprietary method to make it light and crushable for sprinkling over food.

Even if you’re not a home cook, you’ve probably seen the iconic box hanging out in your favorite restaurant. I even spotted Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt alongside the fryer at the McDonald’s inside DTW.

I got more into baking during the pandemic—maybe to eat away worries about the world ending. My wife and I started watching YouTube chefs, including the writers at Bon Appétit during the glory days before its epic collapse.

Spurred on by content-creator cooks, we became radicalized. We started buying kitchen tools and special ingredients, including, you guessed it—Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt.

The crystals are light and airy, easily crushed between the fingers and sprinkled over food. You can coat meat liberally and let it sit overnight or use large pinches over hamburger patties all summer long.

The versatile seasoning does as well on the lime-wetted rim of a margarita as it does dusted over a buttered slice of fresh-baked bread. It’s great for almost all applications where you need to enhance flavor.

That’s because Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt is about half as salty as other kinds of salt. You have to use more of it in baking to account for that if you’re measuring volumetrically instead of by weight.

Once you start using it, you’ll never be satisfied with iodized table salt. It becomes a known entity in the kitchen, a constant you can rely on when eyeballing a cake batter recipe or finishing up a soup on a winter day.

The company has a long history in Michigan. Charles F. Moore, Franklin Moore, Justin Whiting, and Mark Hopkins founded the St. Clair Rock Salt Company in 1886, several years after salt was discovered in St. Clair County.

Soon after, the company started using the Alberger process, which resulted in a highly pure form of salt crystals, with a unique pyramid shape. The founders changed the name to the Diamond Crystal Salt Company.

The proprietary process is used to this day. To harvest the salt, water is first sent down to the underground salt deposit, which forces brine water back up, where it’s evaporated and made into dry salt.

The company changed hands several times in the 20th century. Now it’s owned by Cargill, a large corporation based in Minnesota. But the salt still comes from St. Clair County.

A few years ago, Cargill launched a rebrand to make it more expensive for home cooks. You can still buy the cheaper red food-service version if you know where to look, but most grocery stores carry the white box.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that expensive. But it’s a vastly superior product that elevates everyday food.

Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt is the best salt in the world because it’s the most versatile and reliable. It’s been part of Michigan’s cooking story for a long time, so it’s time to make it part of yours.