Originally posted by: BoomerD
John, maybe you like "up your arse salt", but the rest of the civilized world, that just wouldn't pass as serviceable...
Here, for your reading enjoyment:
http://ask.yahoo.com/20030310.html
Dear Yahoo!:
What is kosher salt? Is it better for you than regular salt?
Raymond
Bullhead City, Arizona
Dear Raymond:
Sodium chloride -- aka salt -- is a crystalline compound that comes from the oceans. Salt can be harvested from seawater through evaporation, or it can be mined from inland deposits left by ancient oceans. Most salt we use in our kitchens and dining rooms is mined, except salt sold as "sea salt," which comes from seawater.
Different types of salt are created during the refining process. Some varieties include additives that make them flow freely through salt shakers, and others have added iodine, which can prevent hypothyroidism. Most are ground into very fine grains, but a few types are left in a more natural form made of large, rocky crystals. Fine-grained salts include table salt, iodized salt, pickling salt, and popcorn salt. Rock salt and kosher salt are coarse-grained. Sea salt can be found in both fine and coarse forms. While all of these taste, well, salty, the degree of saltiness and the precise flavor can vary.
Kosher salt usually has no additives, and it has big crystals with large surface areas. This size and shape allows it to absorb more moisture than other forms of salt, and this makes kosher salt excellent for curing meats. That is essentially where the name comes from. The salt itself is not kosher, meaning it doesn't conform to Jewish food laws, but this salt is used to make meat kosher. The Jewish holy book, the Torah, prohibits consumption of any blood, which is why kosher meat must be slaughtered and prepared in a specific manner. A common way of removing the final traces of blood from meat is to soak and salt it.
That's not the only use for kosher salt, however. The flavor is distinct from ordinary table salt, and some cooks prefer to use it in all their cooking. Like other coarse salts, kosher salt can be used in recipes that call for a salt crust. You can even use it to salt the edge of a margarita glass.
Nutritionally speaking, kosher salt is no different than table salt, although it does not provide iodine. The human body needs salt to regulate the electrolyte balance inside and outside of its cells. But studies have shown that diets low in salt lower a person's blood pressure. As with many health issues, scientists and doctors don't universally agree on the health benefits and problems related to salt intake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_salt
Kosher salt (or more correctly, koshering salt), is one of the most commonly used varieties of edible salt in commercial kitchens today. Kosher salt has a much larger grain size than regular table salt, and a more open granular structure. Like common table salt, kosher salt consists of the chemical compound sodium chloride. Unlike common table salt, Kosher salt typically contains no additives (for example, iodine), although kosher salt produced by Morton contains sodium ferrocyanide as a free-flow agent.
Kosher salt gets its name not because it follows the guidelines for kosher foods as written in the Torah (nearly all salt is kosher, including ordinary table salt), but rather because of its use in making meats kosher, by helping to extract the blood from the meat. Because kosher salt grains are larger than regular table salt grains, when meats are coated in kosher salt the salt does not dissolve readily; the salt remains on the surface of the meat longer, allowing fluids to leach out of the meat.
Kosher salt can be used in nearly all applications, but it is not generally recommended for baking with recipes that use small amounts of liquid (wet ingredients). If there is not enough liquid, the kosher salt will not dissolve sufficiently, and this can result in small bits of salt in the resulting product; in certain applications this is undesirable. In recipes where there is enough liquid to dissolve all the salt, table salt can be replaced by kosher salt, but the volume must be adjusted. Because kosher grains occupy more volume (for equal weight) the volume of kosher salt should be increased. Because kosher salt grains can vary in size considerably from one brand to another, it is recommended that one check the box for a conversion guideline, which is generally provided. If there is no guidance provided, twice as much kosher salt (by volume) to replace table salt serves as a rough estimate. Conversely, to replace kosher salt with table salt in a recipe, the required quantity of salt should be reduced by half. Another reliable technique is to use an equal weight; a gram of kosher salt is equivalent to a gram of table salt.
Also, in the developing world, iodine deficiency is a health problem solved by use of iodized salt. Mountainous areas and places where prepared salty foods are not consumed may lack iodine, retarding mental and hormonal development in children in particular. (Why we need iodine)
Chefs often prefer kosher salt because its texture allows the chef to pinch a larger quantity of salt and evenly sprinkle the flakes on food. Also, because of the absence of iodine, kosher salt tends to make flavors cleaner and brighter than iodized salt, which has a slightly metallic flavor. The Food Network's Alton Brown and many others generally recommend the use of kosher salt for this reason.
So while salt is salt...not all salt is the same.