Is grating salt rock just a gimmick?

[hueberttix]

I wonder if there is any advantage to grating salt rock as inferred here:

https://www.amazon.com/Kikkerland-Rivsalt-Grater-Set-RS01/dp/B00XJ3MYGS

Aside from controlling the size of flakes, is there any benefit, or perhaps just a talking point, or a ritual?

 

[caseydog]

I have personally never been able to think of any reason to grate salt. I keep a vriety of salts in my pantry, already grated to the size I want.

Salt is a mineral, sodium chloride (NaCl), it is basically a rock. Unlike herbs and spices, rocks are pretty stable.

Salt is also used to preserve things for long periods of time. Another clue that it is not going to change over time.

So, IMHO, buying salt in big rocks and grating it is just a way for somebody to make money.

CD

 

[larry_stewart]

I bought a chunk of Himalayan Salt at least 5 years ago cause I was in some novelty spice store in a touristy area and I thought it was cool. It is still sitting the bag that I bought it in on the counter, never used.

Personally, I have never found a reason to use it.

Just as a note, they just a did a report on the news that someone had a salt lamp in their house ( basically, same lump of salt, they just shape it in a way to act as a base for the lamp ( or to illuminate)) and their pet cat kept licking it, throwing off its bodies chemical balance, and almost died.

 

[Just Cooking]

I have personally never been able to think of any reason to grate salt. I keep a vriety of salts in my pantry, already grated to the size I want.

Salt is a mineral, sodium chloride (NaCl), it is basically a rock. Unlike herbs and spices, rocks are pretty stable.

Salt is also used to preserve things for long periods of time. Another clue that it is not going to change over time.

So, IMHO, buying salt in big rocks and grating it is just a way for somebody to make money.

CD

or for food snobs to seem really cool...

Ross

 

[dragnlaw]

co-incidental - I just saw that same grater at the Dollar Store being labeled a Ginger Grater. $2.00

 

[Andy M.]

It would be a great conversation piece. As a means of preparing salt for kitchen use it's a total waste of time.

As far as the Himalayan pink salt, it's the same sodium chloride as table salt with a few impurities thrown in to make it pink.

 

[hueberttix]

Many insightful replies

However, a negative cat story is the death nell for any product. It is decided.

 

[jennyema]

or for food snobs to seem really cool...

Ross

Most real food snobs know it's silly

 

[buckytom]

I love the expiration date on my container of Himalayan pink salt. It was in the ground for eons, but now that it's in a jar, it's about to go bad.

And I have a matching battery operated pepper and salt grinders. The salt is kinda silly, but it looks neat.
You have to be careful to only put large crystal salt in it so it grinds properly. Smaller crystal salt tends to cake up in it, eventually causing it to jam.

 

[Andy M.]

You are wrong my dear.. pink salt is naturally pink and no impurities are thrown into it.

I disagree. ALL SALT is sodium chloride and all sodium chloride is white. Specialty salts, oink, black or grey are those colors because there is something other than sodium chloride in the mix.

 

[dragnlaw]

The colour is there by nature... not necessarily by human hand. But stll impurities.

 

[karadekoolaid]

Himalayan pink salt is mined straight from the ground, in Pakistan. The colour is a result of trace minerals. It´s still 98% NaCl, with a tiny amount of potassium, magnesium and calcium in it.

 

[larry_stewart]

I bought a chunk of Himalayan Salt at least 5 years ago cause I was in some novelty spice store in a touristy area and I thought it was cool. It is still sitting the bag that I bought it in on the counter, never used.

Personally, I have never found a reason to use it.

Just as a note, they just a did a report on the news that someone had a salt lamp in their house ( basically, same lump of salt, they just shape it in a way to act as a base for the lamp ( or to illuminate)) and their pet cat kept licking it, throwing off its bodies chemical balance, and almost died.

Just an update:

My Himalayan Salt Chunk is still in the bag I bought it in, but it has now made its way to the top shelf of my cupboard, 2 1/2 years later from my original post.

 

[bearcat22]

I wonder if there is any advantage to grating salt rock as inferred here:

https://www.amazon.com/Kikkerland-Rivsalt-Grater-Set-RS01/dp/B00XJ3MYGS

Aside from controlling the size of flakes, is there any benefit, or perhaps just a talking point, or a ritual?

I seem to remember large hunks of salt being sold in a boutique for big money as an "all natural underarm antiperspirant/deodorant"

 

[pepperhead212]

Another Himalayan salt, that is pinkish, when ground fine, is black salt, which is sort of purplish/grayish in rock form. IMO, it is actually better to buy this in coarser chunks, then grind it yourself (though I do this in small amounts in a mortar, since I use it only occasionally), as the fine pink stuff in the stores can be "diluted", with plain salt, and the compounds that give the black salt its (ahem) identifying aroma, can be weaker. I'm just guessing - as with ground spices, the aromas could have just been released since packaging, thus the notable weakness.

 

[buckytom]

Lol, pepp, about the aroma of black salt. I was given a bottle of it once, and I've been wondering who I should give it to as a gag gift, or maybe use for revenge.

 

[pepperhead212]

Lol, pepp, about the aroma of black salt. I was given a bottle of it once, and I've been wondering who I should give it to as a gag gift, or maybe use for revenge.

You never made any chaat masala? This is a traditional ingredient in chaat masala, plus many other things, including another ingredient that the name sort of says it all - asafoetida. These things, on their own, are those type of ingredients people just want to leave out of a dish, like shrimp paste, but when it is left out of a recipe, you know there's just something missing! I remember making a vegetarian version of Thai curry paste, way back (for a couple that was visiting), and I served the regular to the rest of us. Another friend couldn't believe what was missing in that, when he compared them side by side. Fish sauce and shrimp paste both left out (replaced by soy sauce and miso), made an incredible difference. He got some shrimp paste the next time we went to the market!

 

[buckytom]

You never made any chaat masala? This is a traditional ingredient in chaat masala, plus many other things, including another ingredient that the name sort of says it all - asafoetida!

Lol about the asafoetida, or Devil's Dung.

But the black salt that I got smells terribly of rotten eggs. Like the way the Chief stores a dozen eggs in a sunny widow for a couple of months before Halloween, for chucking at cars and trick-or-treaters.

I can't imagine wanting that taste in something I'd eat.

 

[pepperhead212]

bucky Think about some of the other things people eat, where they eat foods that are severely fermented - stinky tofu, thousand year old eggs, and rakfish, come to mind. And then, of course, there's cheese, of which there are many choices out there, for those who like (or are immune to) that rotting smell. These ingredients are only used in small amounts, and those bad tastes are gone, by the time you eat the food. And once you've used them, you notice their absence, when left out.

I do wonder sometimes, who, way way back, was the first one to eat some of these things? Was it somebody starving, or something like that?

 

[taxlady]

bucky Think about some of the other things people eat, where they eat foods that are severely fermented - stinky tofu, thousand year old eggs, and rakfish, come to mind. And then, of course, there's cheese, of which there are many choices out there, for those who like (or are immune to) that rotting smell. These ingredients are only used in small amounts, and those bad tastes are gone, by the time you eat the food. And once you've used them, you notice their absence, when left out.

I do wonder sometimes, who, way way back, was the first one to eat some of these things? Was it somebody starving, or something like that?

I have wondered the same thing and have come to the conclusion that it was very hungry people who tried it. Otherwise, why would anyone have tried eating rotten milk (cheese curds) or rotted shark or surströmning (rotted, fermented herring)? Who first thought that it would be a good idea to eat mouldy cheese, e.g. blue cheese, Brie, Camembert? But, oh boy, I really enjoy my mouldy, rotted milk in those forms.