Sea Salt vs Regular table salt

[TexasBred]

Thought it meant Jews could eat it?

Actually it is used by the jews to remove blood from meat so the meat will be "kosher" but really has nothing to do with the salt. It's just plain salt. Nothing added. I can tell you this. It doesn't do a dam thing for jewish food. :lol2: :lol2:
kosher salt
n.
A refined, coarse-grained salt with no additives.

 

[skyhightree1]

I can tell you this. It doesn't do a dam thing for jewish food. :lol2: :lol2: b]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Kingfisher]

I saw something the other day and there are 100's of different salts and stores that sell them.

 

[Alan]

Slick and others, thanks for the great info on kosher salt! I didn't see any real difference in price of kosher and sea salt the last time I looked at prices. I'm sure I'll now keep both on hand to use with rubs and other things.

Alan

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Thought it meant Jews could eat it?

Actually it is used by the jews to remove blood from meat so the meat will be "kosher" but really has nothing to do with the salt. It's just plain salt. Nothing added. I can tell you this. It doesn't do a dam thing for jewish food. :lol2: :lol2:
kosher salt
n.
A refined, coarse-grained salt with no additives.

You mean you just don't love motso balls? :lol2:

 

[TexasBred]

I saw something the other day and there are 100's of different salts and stores that sell them.

OH i'm sure you can doctor it up about anyway you want it. Plain old stock salt works for me.

 

[Jogeephus]

One thing you need to be careful with is when switching salts you need to go by weight and not volume. Kosher salt is a larger flaked salt that was good for drawing blood from meat and was the preferred style salt grain when someone "koshered" meat aka draw the blood out.

If you recipe calls for a cup of salt then you will need ten ounces of salt. Ten ounces of table salt is one cup but it takes between 1.5 - 2 cups of Kosher salt to weigh 10 ounces.

Bottom line is, salt is salt on a weight basis but the grain size and the impurity contents varies. Sea salt has lots of impurities in it which impart various flavors depending on where it was collected. Most sea salts also contain nitrate salts but how much depends on where it was collected.

Sky, it would be pretty risky curing meat with table salt. Sea salt is risky enough but I'd never dare use table salt.

 

[hillsdown]

Do any of you have those salt blocks that you can use to cook meat fish poultry and veggies on ?

 

[Jogeephus]

I've never tried that. First time I ever saw that was in an aging room of a fancy steak house.

 

[skyhightree1]

Sky, it would be pretty risky curing meat with table salt. Sea salt is risky enough but I'd never dare use table salt.

Thats funny thats all my grandparents used growing up lol

 

[Jogeephus]

Sky, it would be pretty risky curing meat with table salt. Sea salt is risky enough but I'd never dare use table salt.

Thats funny thats all my grandparents used growing up lol

This is a dangerous myth people believe today. Lots of people think that but the salt they bought back then is not the same as what you purchase today.

 

[skyhightree1]

excellent point.. but let me rephrase my statement thats what they used while i was growing up on the farm with them .. I am 33 has it changed that much since then? what do you use to cure meat salt wise?

 

[Jogeephus]

If they are only using iodized table salt then they are playing with fire. The risk of botulism is slim but it is very unforgiving. If they used a raw unprocessed salt then the risk is reduced. The big question is this, what color was the cured meat after it was cured? Grey or a rosy red color?

 

[skyhightree1]

honestly cant remember jo its been 15 years since I had any of the home cured meat. I want to say it was red though.

 

[Jogeephus]

If it was red then they were using nitrates. Nitrates are the only thing that will prevent botulism from forming the lethal spores and nitrates react with the myoglobin and turn the meat red. When people cured a lot you could buy large bags of salt which were intentionally left raw with their impurities in it for this end. Pure sodium chloride and iodine will leave the meat grey.

Its all has to do with science and chemistry. Unfortunately there are a lot of people today who for some reason feel that once we understand how something works and can manipulate these natural reactions to insure that we use minimal amounts of nitrates in our foods they feel it is bad. Instead, they would have you believe they do not use any nitrates/ites and this somehow makes their food safer. Many will promote the use of sea salt which is full of nitrates or the use of dehydrated celery juice. Using these they can legally claim that their food is nitrate free even though their end product might have up to 10 times the amount of nitrates allowable by law - and the USDA allows this nonsense. Canada recently changed their rules to reflect this and to hold these people to the truth. I mean lets put all the BS to the side, it either has nitrates in it or it doesn't. Whether you added them directly or not really doesn't matter if they are in there. Personally, I prefer to know how much I'm putting in the food I'm going to eat. So whose food is safer?

 

[skyhightree1]

Jo nothing our govt does surprises me these days. Thanks for the explanation on the curing process.

 

[CottageFarm]

One thing you need to be careful with is when switching salts you need to go by weight and not volume. Kosher salt is a larger flaked salt that was good for drawing blood from meat and was the preferred style salt grain when someone "koshered" meat aka draw the blood out.

If you recipe calls for a cup of salt then you will need ten ounces of salt. Ten ounces of table salt is one cup but it takes between 1.5 - 2 cups of Kosher salt to weigh 10 ounces.

Bottom line is, salt is salt on a weight basis but the grain size and the impurity contents varies. Sea salt has lots of impurities in it which impart various flavors depending on where it was collected. Most sea salts also contain nitrate salts but how much depends on where it was collected.

Sky, it would be pretty risky curing meat with table salt. Sea salt is risky enough but I'd never dare use table salt.

You beat me to it, Jo. This can be really critical in some recipes. It can take significantly more kosher salt by volume than fine granulated salt. The iodized salt does have a slighly metallic taste, but you can get non-iodized fine table salt. There's also pickling salt, and of course Margharita salt.

Personally, I use Kosher salt for everything but boiling water and canning. There I use standard iodized table salt and pickling salt, respectively. I don't salt at the table, but my husband does and he uses either kosher or iodized salt. I like the control I have with the large flakes, and I like using a salt cellar. It's just more fun when cooking.

Yup, kosher salt is called such because the large flakes are more condusive to "koshering" meats (that whole blood extraction thing.

I've always considered "sea salt" to be a bit of a hype, since most of the processed salts are still from sea water extraction. And there's alot of inconsistency in mineral content from one brand to the next depending on the source.

 

[Alan]

Good information, thank you.

 

[skyhightree1]

Good information, thank you.

:tiphat:

 

[TexasBred]

I've always considered "sea salt" to be a bit of a hype, since most of the processed salts are still from sea water extraction. And there's alot of inconsistency in mineral content from one brand to the next depending on the source.

You ever get over into Northeast Texas visit this place. Never been there myself but "salt" is their life.

http://www.saltfest.net/salt_palace_museum.html