(ARA) – You may love sea salt on your morning eggs, but be careful not to use it for your holiday baking.

Despite what you may have heard, sea salt and table salt are essentially the same: both are nearly 100 percent sodium chloride. They also both originate from sea water, with table salt coming from deposits of ancient seas. The only significant distinction between them comes from the size and shape of the salt crystals, which can be extremely important when you’re baking.

These differences are caused by the way each salt is produced. The process forming table salt creates cube-shaped crystals that fit snuggly together in a measuring spoon. By contrast, sea salt has larger, conical-shaped crystals that take up more space. The result is that a teaspoon of sea salt has less sodium than a teaspoon of table salt simply because fewer of the large sea salt crystals fit onto the spoon than the smaller-grained table salt. This means that substituting sea salt for table salt in baking can have unwelcome side effects, because salt plays an important role in the chemistry of baking.

The proper quantity of salt helps give baked goods a pleasing texture or “crumb.” Using sea salt in your recipe can result in tough, too-chewy treats. And, salt helps yeast work properly. Bread dough made with sea salt will bear the signs of runaway yeast fermentation: large bubbles and soured flavor. Table salt also balances and enhances flavors in baked goods, including the sweet ingredients in cookies, cakes and muffins.

Be careful, too, how you use sea salt in other recipes. Unless a recipe specifically calls for sea salt, it was developed with table salt in mind and its measurements reflect that. Some cooks may turn to sea salt in an effort to introduce a unique new flavor to their dishes, but once sea salt dissolves, there’s no taste difference between the two kinds of salt. The perceived flavor difference is caused by the way the different-sized sea salt crystals strike the tongue’s salt receptors. Many cooks don’t realize this and add too much.

Many sea salt brands claim that beneficial minerals enhance the flavor of their salts, but that claim does a lot more for the product’s price tag than it does for the consumer. Table salt generally is 99.8 percent pure sodium chloride but, in order to pass rigorous government standards, even food-grade sea salt must be at least 97.5 percent pure. The remainder of the sea salt can be made up of trace elements, including minerals such as manganese or zinc. These minerals are present in such small quantities that they don’t provide any health benefit and have little effect on flavor.

In sea salts that claim to be “unrefined,” naturally occurring impurities such as clay, sea shells and other items found in sea water can cause the salt to have a unique color or taste. Fortunately, all of these impurities are in such small quantities that they are unlikely to cause any harm, though it may be difficult to appreciate the color and flavor enhancements once you know their source.

There’s no question that sea salt is trendy. And, sea salt can add a unique texture and flavor when it’s used directly from the shaker as the final seasoning on your dish. So, sprinkle on the sea salt if you wish. But when you’re cooking or baking, reach for the table salt.