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rock salt (reply )

updated tue 26 may 98

 

Yeibear1 on fri 15 may 98

Folks that use rock salt only haveso so results. Rocksalt only has a small
percentage of pure salt. Insted use pure sea salt or better yet use kosher
salt..... its pure.
Hope this helps.

Bill Aycock on sat 16 may 98

This is missapplied folklore and has almost NO basis in fact.

Rock salt is frequently almost as "pure" as table salt- which has Iodine
added as a dietary supplement. (usually) Rock salt is just a form of salt
that is in bigger lumps.

Sea salt is a wild mixture of LOTS of salts, and is FAR from "pure".
Mostly, it is Sodium chloride, but the chlorides of Magnesium, Calcium, and
Potassium and some sulfates and carbonates are also there.

I dont know the definition of "Kosher" salt, and the container of it that
we keep in the kitchen has no analysis.


At 10:35 AM 5/15/98 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Folks that use rock salt only haveso so results. Rocksalt only has a small
>percentage of pure salt. Insted use pure sea salt or better yet use kosher
>salt..... its pure.
>Hope this helps.
>
>

Bill Aycock --- Persimmon Hill
Woodville, Alabama, US 35776
(in the N.E. corner of the State)
W4BSG -- Grid EM64vr
baycock@HiWAAY.net

Vince Pitelka on sat 16 may 98

>Folks that use rock salt only have so-so results. Rock salt only has a small
>percentage of pure salt. Insted use pure sea salt or better yet use kosher
>salt..... its pure.

I'm sorry, but this just isn't true. Rock salt (the kind available in
grocery stores in the US) is pure salt, but just in larger crystals. Most
salt firers use rock salt. As long as it is pre-moistened, it breaks up and
volatizes very efficiently, and gives results as good as any other kind of salt.

However, I must admit to not having ever used unrefined sea-salt. I know
that other minerals are present in sea salt, and I would love to hear more
about the results obtained with sea salt.
- Vince

Vince Pitelka - vpitelka@DeKalb.net
Home 615/597-5376, work 615/597-6801, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166

Paul Monaghan on sat 23 may 98

Rock Salt, Sea Salt, Kosher Salt and table salt ARE ALL THE SAME -
Sodium Chloride NaCl. Sea salt has some additonal trace elements
depending on its' source but all the "Salt" came from the same place -
the Oceans of the world.

The only real difference is the particle size and this is more of a
factor in firing than anything else. Small particle table salt or
Kosher salt etc. will vaporize much, much faster because it has greater
surface area.

Paul :-)>

Yeibear1 wrote:

> ----------------------------Original
> message----------------------------
> Folks that use rock salt only haveso so results. Rocksalt only has a
> small
> percentage of pure salt. Insted use pure sea salt or better yet use
> kosher
> salt..... its pure.
> Hope this helps.

Richard Gralnik on mon 25 may 98

>Rock Salt, Sea Salt, Kosher Salt and table salt ARE ALL THE SAME -
>Sodium Chloride NaCl. Sea salt has some additional trace elements
>depending on its' source but all the "Salt" came from the same place -
>the Oceans of the world.
>
>The only real difference is the particle size and this is more of a
>factor in firing than anything else. Small particle table salt or
>Kosher salt etc. will vaporize much, much faster because it has greater
>surface area.
>
>Paul :-)>
>
>Yeibear1 wrote:
>
>> ----------------------------Original
>> message----------------------------
>> Folks that use rock salt only haveso so results. Rock salt only has a
>> small percentage of pure salt. Instead use pure sea salt or better yet use
>> kosher salt..... its pure.
>> Hope this helps.
>
>
I have to laugh at this. Some of us have known that kosher is better
for about 3,000 years. After all, as the Hebrew National commercial
says "We answer to a higher authority." But I never thought I'd see
the day keeping kosher would improve my firing results. Does this
mean I'm going to have to have 3 kilns - one for meat, one for dairy
and one for Passover?

By the way, most salt is kosher. The different *type* you're referring
to here is "Kashering" salt, which is used to remove all blood from any
meat to be eaten. Jewish law forbids eating blood "for the blood is the
life" and it must be removed before meat is considered kosher.

Richard