# I "get" grinding pepper. But grinding salt? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [September 1, 2022, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764 "2022-09-01T21:33:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/61 "2022-09-03T02:59:56Z")
You are right. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/62 "2022-09-03T16:05:22Z")
Ground pepper definitely. And we also grind our salt. I think the salt is sort of pointless. But my Wife likes it. That’s fine. Like mentioned above, the grain size can make a difference when put on prepared food. Same with pepper. I do most of the cooking. We now have pink Himalayan salt or something. Pure salt would be white or clear. I donno, I don’t really care to investigate. Oh, and make sure to close the pepper grinder after use. The round pepper corns spread everywhere. We found them for about a year. It was actually kind of funny. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/63 "2022-09-03T19:00:11Z")
You may be interested in this recent thread: > **[r/Cooking - Black salt + egg whites = almost eggs](https://old.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/x4rmy2/black_salt_egg_whites_almost_eggs/)** > > 103 votes and 41 comments so far on Reddit ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2022, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/64 "2022-09-03T23:16:05Z")
Some are dessicants, some are oxygen absorbers. Really depends on what the product is as to which they’re packaged with. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they made combo packs for some products- oxygen AND moisture absorbers. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/65 "2022-09-06T01:56:04Z")
McCormick sells salt in a plastic grinder for the home market. I do find it handy, as it doesn’t cake. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/66 "2022-09-06T14:07:49Z")
I’ve never seen the point; if I need a specific size of salt grain/crystal/flake, I’ll buy it as such. If not, then I’ll just use regular old kosher salt. Grinding it always struck me as just that soupçon of pretension in certain restaurants- let us grind you _fresh_ salt to go with your pepper, not that common salt-shaker stuff. You don’t get a specific grind, you don’t get a specific type of salt, just some bit of theater and the same old sodium chloride you’d get any other way. At home it makes some sense if you really want to vary the grind, or if you have very coarse salt of some specialty kind - black or himalayan or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/67 "2022-09-06T14:26:37Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Grinding it always struck me as just that soupçon of pretension in certain restaurants How pretentious can a restaurant be if they use soup cans? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/68 "2022-09-06T14:26:38Z")
One note that not all “black salt” is the sulphurous Himalayan kind, or the Hawaiian lava kind - some is just bog standard sea salt + charcoal. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/69 "2022-09-06T14:34:31Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Grinding it always struck me as just that soupçon of pretension in certain restaurants- Using the word _soupçon_ always struck me as just a small bit of pretension in certain forums. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/70 "2022-09-06T16:01:14Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > One note that not all “black salt” is the sulphurous Himalayan kind, or the Hawaiian lava kind - some is just bog standard sea salt + charcoal Heh. My gf went to a “salt tasting” a few years ago. Yeah, a salt tasting. She felt like she had to buy something, so she bought a tiny jar (a few grams) of salt with truffle shavings/powder. It was salty. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/71 "2022-09-06T16:23:55Z")
I’ve never seen a salt grinder at a restaurant. I DO have one at home. Never really thought about the fact that the salt doesn’t seem to cake but that’s a benefit. Mainly I like it because it seems to let me grind salt finer and thus, perhaps, use less. Or if I want more obvious crystals on top of my dish, I can set it to a coarser setting. I’m baffled as to the “black salt” that is or perhaps WAS trendy. Yeah, just colored black with charcoal or some such. If there is a benefit to having charcoal in one’s diet, the amount you’d get from that would require a rather unhealthy amount of salt. > [@enipla](#): > > Oh, and make sure to close the pepper grinder after use. The round pepper corns spread everywhere. We found them for about a year. It was actually kind of funny. Whoopsie!!! Ours are the sort where, when not in use, the grinding mechanism is up - so you don’t wind up with crumbs of salt or pepper on the table whenever you set the thing down. Of course if we’re refilling them, the opening is on the bottom - so as soon as we refill it, if we don’t tighten that thing correctly, big mess as soon as we try to set it on the counter. I don’t think we’ve had that happen… yet. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/72 "2022-09-06T16:48:10Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > - so as soon as we refill it, if we don’t tighten that thing correctly, big mess as soon as we try to set it on the counter. I don’t think we’ve had that happen… Yeah, poorly worded. That happened after a refill. Didn’t put it back together properly. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/73 "2022-09-06T17:02:39Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > It’s true that freshly ground salt probably tastes no different than pre-ground in a blind taste test. But eating is about more than taste; it’s about the presentation and overall experience. Grinding salt triggers the brain to think “this is fancy.” Also, different size grains have different uses. On your French-fried potatoes, you want very fine ground salt, finer than table salt. On your pretzel, you want very coarse ground salt. But I’m not sure an adjustable salt grinder is the best way to accomplish that. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/74 "2022-09-06T17:04:33Z")
Good truffle salt is very handy for adding umami + salt to a dish. Bad truffle salt is salty. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/75 "2022-09-06T18:11:44Z")
Oh, it was an intentionally pretentious use of the word! ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/76 "2022-09-06T18:32:47Z")
Whilst I had a modicum of doubt, apropos of this milieu I was cognizant that was a distinct possibility. Tally ho! ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/77 "2022-09-06T18:52:23Z")
Unbeknownst to the perpendicular pronoun, the pseudoutilization of foreign and anachronistic vocabulary minutiae further elucidates requirements for graphical emoticonical depictions encompassing sarcastic metathemes, to be eleemosynary. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/78 "2022-09-06T18:54:08Z")
Easy for _you_ to say. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2022, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-get-grinding-pepper-but-grinding-salt/970764/79 "2022-09-06T19:02:39Z")
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