Mail-order salt: Food’s getting all new-agey

Yesterday I did something I never thought I’d do. I ordered groceries from the Internet. It wasn’t the once-every-few-weeks, fill-your-cart-to-the-brim kind of shop, but it’s a monumental occurrence nonetheless. Actually, it was only one item that I purchased: Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt. Please allow me to explain.

I’ve been trying my best to pace myself with the supply of cookie recipes tucked in the Essential New York Times Cookbook, and at some point along the way I decided that one cookie batch every other week was an acceptable quota (this conclusion was based on a very complicated algorithm that took into account the total number of recipes, competing recipes’ strength of ingredients and potential records of success. No, not really. I’m totally kidding). Last week, I planned to make the flat-and-chewy chocolate chip cookies, so I hit the ol’ Hy-Vee for 12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate and a box of the recipe-specific brand of kosher salt. Finding the chocolate was no problemo, but the salt was another story. After scouring the different grocery stores in town and doing a store search on the Diamond Crystal website, Jared and I found zero leads as to where we might procure this final ingredient.

I realize it might seem like no big deal, and I was tempted to go on with the cookies without the prized Diamond Crystal, but the cookbook is very clear that Morton kosher salt (the kind I always have on hand) will make these cookies, “terrible.” Yes, that is a direct quote. Apparently Morton kosher salt is iodized, and Diamond Crystal isn’t, which makes the Morton salt the noticeably saltier choice. Who knew so much could be said for salt varieties? Now before you go chucking boxes of Morton out the window, I can assure you that there are plenty of times and places for the blue box with our beloved girl in the bright yellow rain slicker. The flat-and-chewy chocolate chip cookies are just not one of them.

So after tapping out our local salt-buying options to the best of our abilities, Jared informed me that we could buy the salt on Amazon for only $4.99. A steal, yes. But at first I couldn’t wrap my brain around buying foodstuffs from the same site that sends me books and manages my magazine subscriptions. But then I remembered the cookies, and it was a go.

This whole experience has not only left me once again wondering out loud what we ever did before the days of Amazon and Google, but it also makes me even more excited about food, food writing and food buying in the online, social-networking-infused world today. Sites like food52.com connect bunches of home cooks, real-deal cooks and everyone in between with advice, photos and the best version of a recipe swap ever invented. I mean, how great is it that the Internet not only can connect us to the specialty groceries we’re looking for (a much-appreciated luxury for Midwestern folks, I assure you), but also to other food-lovers and makers who share in the same passion for the simple act of cooking — people who might also order kosher salt from Amazon and then anxiously await its arrival. Exciting times, for sure.

How do you use the Internet when it comes to your cooking/baking/food-buying adventures? Have you ever purchased food online? Any favorite sites or online communities for finding recipes or sharing ideas? Do tell!

XO,
Katrina