Salt for Gentiles

[devilsknew]

@levdrakon

You know, I don’t consider myself much of a Christian, but as a former Christian, the vampire zombie Christian bashing is kinda insulting. Where in the bible does it speak of vampires and zombies?

@Bosstone

It’s a staple of vampire fiction that holy (i.e., blessed) water is dangerous to them. It would reasonably follow that blessed salt would be similar.

What Bosstone said.

Kosher salt has a true practical purpose… drawing blood form meat. What purpose does Christian Salt have?

Trying to think of a practical purpose… I inferred, jokingly, that in vampire and zombie lore, salt is used to fill the mouths of the recently deceased and then their lips are sewn shut to prevent them from rising from the grave. If salt works, I would imagine blessed salt would be at least twice as effective.

(Which, I think this is based on actual Eastern European Custom when they actually did believe in the undead and staked people to their coffins and filled their mouths with salt to prevent them from leaving their graves at night.)

[Captain_Amazing]

@devilsknew

Kosher salt has a true practical purpose… drawing blood form meat. What purpose does Christian Salt have?

As was mentioned in the article, it’s a way to make sure that some of the money you’re using to buy the salt will go to a Christian charity.

[devilsknew]

@Captain_Amazing

As was mentioned in the article, it’s a way to make sure that some of the money you’re using to buy the salt will go to a Christian charity.

That’s not a practical purpose, an actual use. That is secondary and supercedent to the salt.

[KneadToKnow]

@devilsknew

What purpose does Christian Salt have?

Enhancing the flavor of the smug?

[devilsknew]

I have an even better idea. In the interests of promoting better relations between the Jews and Christians, and all religions, really… I’m going to market a neutral salt. I will call it [TM] Corny Salt [/Copyright], referring to it’s coarse and grain like (corn) shape and size.

I will donate 10% of all proceeds to many worthwhile charities regardless of their religious affiliation (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, etc…). And my salt crystals will actually be optimally and scientifically processed as the ideal salt for Koshering and Corning Meats.

[constanze]

Okay, I’m still confused about a few details not mentioned yet. From the posts so far, it appears that in the US, Kosher salt should be called Koshering salt, because it’s grain size makes koshering easier. There’s also a reference to TV cooks, to explain why non-Jews would use it for other cooking.

Question: Don’t you use different types of French-named sea salt for “normal” (that is, non-Jewish observant) cooking? E.g. when I want to go beyond normal ordinary table salt, into the direction of star-cooking, I’d buy Fleur de seul (Flower of Salt), the most expensive salt available (it’s the thinnest crust and only forms if there’s no wind, and is harvested by hand with care), or to coarse grain salt for making salt crust for fish or similar.

We have several Jews of different strictness here, and it was said that salt is always kosher. That surprises me, because I thought I read somewhere else that for the strict Jews (Orthodox) some normal food has become non-kosher because of the change in food preparation through industry; one example given was salt (or similar?) filtered through an animal product.

Question: Am I confusing things again, or is salt generally kosher, but non-kosher with the wrong industry processing?

Lastly, if the “Christian salt” is blessed by a priest, some asked what would be the use of it. Now, I’m not a catholic, but in some of the older books from the 1950s I recently skipped, they mentioned that if a oiling for an ill person together with a service or a similar religious special visit by a priest into a home is made, you (the home owner) should provide among other (clean white table cloth, water to wash and purify with, candles) is salt, that the priest blesses and then uses for purification. (Salt has an ancient tradition in that regard, because it prevented food from spoiling).

Question to the Catholics here: is that still done today? So would commercially bought blessed “Christian salt” be useful in a normal household without warding off zombies or vampires?

Aside: Now I remember that in Japan, at the start of each Sumo match, the priest also throws salt into the air for purification of the ring. How big is the market for Buddhist/Shinto salt, and can the guy get a foot in there, too?

[Telemark]

@constanze

Question: Don’t you use different types of French-named sea salt for “normal” (that is, non-Jewish observant) cooking? E.g. when I want to go beyond normal ordinary table salt, into the direction of star-cooking, I’d buy Fleur de seul (Flower of Salt), the most expensive salt available (it’s the thinnest crust and only forms if there’s no wind, and is harvested by hand with care), or to coarse grain salt for making salt crust for fish or similar.

Nope, I just use a box of Kosher salt. I may have some Crazy Mixed-Up Salt around as well, but that’s clearly not a real replacement for plain salt.

Question: Am I confusing things again, or is salt generally kosher, but non-kosher with the wrong industry processing?

Anything that starts out as kosher (like salt) could be made non-kosher due to processing. But I’ve never heard that about salt in the US.

[carnivorousplant]

@constanze

We have several Jews of different strictness here, and it was said that salt is always kosher. That surprises me,

See post 49. I was also surprised.

FWIW at Kroger today, Morton’s Kosher Salt bears a hekhsher. Kroger’s Kosher Salt was sold out. Dopers buy at Krogers? No other salts, including Morton’s table salt and Kroger’s table salt (Many Kroger products are Kosher) had a hekhsher.

[Chronos]

Question to the Catholics here: is that still done today? So would commercially bought blessed “Christian salt” be useful in a normal household without warding off zombies or vampires?

There are still a few sacraments and other ceremonies in the Catholic church which use salt, and Anointing of the Sick is probably among them (salt is added to the anointing oil). It’s not actually an essential element in any of them, though, the way water is for baptism.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

@sciurophobic

Does anybody actually use kosher salt to kosher meat? If I buy meat at a kosher butcher hasn’t that already been done for me?

My mom used to. We would buy meat that was slaughtered and supervised in the proper way and my mom would salt it at home using… kosher salt.

@constanze

Question: Don’t you use different types of French-named sea salt for “normal” (that is, non-Jewish observant) cooking? E.g. when I want to go beyond normal ordinary table salt, into the direction of star-cooking, I’d buy Fleur de seul (Flower of Salt), the most expensive salt available (it’s the thinnest crust and only forms if there’s no wind, and is harvested by hand with care), or to coarse grain salt for making salt crust for fish or similar.

Actually I would never use Fleur-de-sel in cooking. It’s finishing salt that best sprinkled on finished foods- steak, salad etc. FWIW my mom (who kept a kosher home) used regular Morton’s iodized for all cooking. Kosher salt was just used for prepping the meat- the actual dishes used regular salt.

I use kosher salt in cooking (I don’t keep kosher) or sea salt because I prefer the flavor.

[devilsknew]

@carnivorousplant

See post 49. I was also surprised.

FWIW at Kroger today, Morton’s Kosher Salt bears a hekhsher. Kroger’s Kosher Salt was sold out. Dopers buy at Krogers? No other salts, including Morton’s table salt and Kroger’s table salt (Many Kroger products are Kosher) had a hekhsher.

Morton’s is kosher.

[Fear_Itself]

@devilsknew

Morton’s is kosher.

All plain, uniodized salt is kosher.

[carnivorousplant]

@Fear_Itself

All plain, uniodized salt is kosher.

Yes, darn it, see post 49!

[levdrakon]

@devilsknew

Morton’s is kosher.

Yeah, I just checked my container of Morton’s sea salt and it has a hechsher. OTOH, my container of generic Safeway table salt doesn’t. Bad Safeway! :mad:

[devilsknew]

@levdrakon

Yeah, I just checked my container of Morton’s sea salt and it has a hechsher. OTOH, my container of generic Safeway table salt doesn’t. Bad Safeway! :mad:

But I don’t think that necessarily makes it non-kosher. They simply desiced to forgo the certification of the mikhva mafia. It is probably kosher by iingrained ndustrial standards.

[levdrakon]

@devilsknew

But I don’t think that necessarily makes it non-kosher. They simply desiced to forgo the certification of the mikhva mafia. It is probably kosher by industrial standards.

I’m sure it is too. Quick! Let’s agree before carnivorousplant comes back and directs us to post #49!

[carnivorousplant]

@levdrakon

I’m sure it is too. Quick! Let’s agree before carnivorousplant comes back and directs us to post #49!

[devilsknew]

@Fear_Itself

All plain, uniodized salt is kosher.

According to that pareve link their iodized salt is Kosher, as well.

[Fear_Itself]

@devilsknew

According to that pareve link their iodized salt is Kosher, as well.

But plain, uniodized salt does not need rabbinical supervision for kosher status. Iodized does.

[levdrakon]

@devilsknew

I have an even better idea. In the interests of promoting better relations between the Jews and Christians, and all religions, really… I’m going to market a neutral salt. I will call it [TM] Corny Salt [/Copyright], referring to it’s coarse and grain like (corn) shape and size.

I will donate 10% of all proceeds to many worthwhile charities regardless of their religious affiliation (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, etc…). And my salt crystals will actually be optimally and scientifically processed as the ideal salt for Koshering and Corning Meats.

You win the thread. Except you know it’s not Jew/Christian fight match, don’t you? That’s like two brothers duking it out. Fight, fight, fight! Money wins!