Rock salt -- sidewalk vs. stomach

JB said:

Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the sidewalk
in a salt mill?

Yes.

JB said:

Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the sidewalk
in a salt mill?

I wouldn't. You have no guarantee of purity and there may be other ice-melting chemicals added in
addition to natural impurities.

A box of kosher or other coarse salt is cheap.

gloria p

Puester said:

JB said:

Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the
sidewalk in a salt mill?

I wouldn't. You have no guarantee of purity and there may be other ice-melting chemicals added in
addition to natural impurities.

A box of kosher or other coarse salt is cheap.

Ditto, it's not food grade. Who knows what kind of dirty circumstances is it packaged. Salt is
cheap, why go there.

nancy

(JB) said:

Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the sidewalk
in a salt mill?

I wouldn't, but check the label to see if it's suitable. Unless it says "food grade" assume
that it's not.

Sue(tm) Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

Nancy Young said:

Puester said:

JB said:

Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the
sidewalk in a salt mill?

I wouldn't. You have no guarantee of purity and there may be other ice-melting chemicals added in
addition to natural impurities.

A box of kosher or other coarse salt is cheap.

Ditto, it's not food grade. Who knows what kind of dirty circumstances is it packaged. Salt is
cheap, why go there.

nancy

I am a salt fanatic. And I have to think, back before there were food police, salt was as much of a
commodity as pepper and spices were. So if someone ran across a mound of salt and dug some out and
put it in their pouch for trading later, they weren't concerned about 'grade'.

Having said that, when I was a teen my mom had a box of rock salt in the cabinet in the garage; I
don't know why. But she was very disturbed when she discovered I'd eaten half of it. Yes, I eat salt
by the handful. My doctor tells me this is because I have low blood pressure and my body craves
sodium which I tend to avoid otherwise. Whatever. I just love the taste of salt.

Jill

jmcquown said:

I am a salt fanatic. And I have to think, back before there were food police, salt was as much of
a commodity as pepper and spices were. So if someone ran across a mound of salt and dug some out
and put it in their pouch for trading later, they weren't concerned about 'grade'.

I've used rock salt in my salt grinder for years and I'm not dead yet.

Practice safe eating - always use condiments

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Nancy Young said:

Puester said:

JB wrote:
>
> Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the
> sidewalk in a salt mill?

I wouldn't. You have no guarantee of purity and there may be other ice-melting chemicals added
in addition to natural impurities.

A box of kosher or other coarse salt is cheap.

Ditto, it's not food grade. Who knows what kind of dirty circumstances is it packaged. Salt is
cheap, why go there.

nancy

I am a salt fanatic. And I have to think, back before there were food police, salt was as much of
a commodity as pepper and spices were. So if someone ran across a mound of salt and dug some out
and put it in their pouch for trading later, they weren't concerned about 'grade'.

Having said that, when I was a teen my mom had a box of rock salt in the cabinet in the garage; I
don't know why. But she was very disturbed when she discovered I'd eaten half of it. Yes, I eat
salt by the handful. My doctor tells me this is because I have low blood pressure and my body

craves

Quoted message said:

sodium which I tend to avoid otherwise. Whatever. I just love the taste

of

Quoted message said:

salt.

Jill

I used to use a lot of salt, so did my husband. In fact, he salted things I wouldn't even
salt...like spaghetti for instance. So much, it looked like snowfall... ;-) Then I got into spices
and herbs and I cut back on salt because, to me, it covered the other flavors too much. Now I hardly
use it. I use it in the cooking water for pasta and potatoes, and on some veggies like corn.
Especially corn on the cob! I can't imagine it without salt! The reason I responded though was
because before my last pregnancy, when I used to use alot of salt, I also had low blood
pressure...it never occured to me it may be connected! It was interesting to learn that, so thanks!

kimberly

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (JB) asks:

Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the sidewalk
in a salt mill?

Sure you can, but you shouldn't... rock salt is not fit for human consumption... rock salt is mined
salt before purification... even contains bits of rock that will ruin your salt mill... used to
melt road ice and will say on the label "Unfit for Human Consumption". Ice cream machine salt is
finer than rock salt; sometmes fit for human consumption but sometimes not... read the label. In
any event I don't see teh point in bothering with a salt mill for grinding ordinary salt unless
you're looking to fool your guests into thinking they'rd getting some rare speciallty salt... if
you're that friggin' cheap buy water softener salt, a large crystal 50lb sack will set you back a
cool six bucks.

---= BOYCOTT FRENCH--GERMAN (belgium) =--- ---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =--- Sheldon
```````````` "Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."

PENMART01 said:

In any event I don't see teh point in bothering with a salt mill for grinding ordinary salt unless
you're looking to fool your guests into thinking they'rd getting some rare speciallty salt...

Perhaps he's thinking of jumping into the rare specialty salt business. Fancy label on a fancy can,
filled with whatever salt with large crystals is cheapest.

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 23:12:16 GMT, Puester <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

JB said:

Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the sidewalk
in a salt mill?

I wouldn't. You have no guarantee of purity and there may be other ice-melting chemicals added in
addition to natural impurities.

A box of kosher or other coarse salt is cheap.

gloria p

Agree. Potassium chloride is used in some de-icer mixes. You probably wouldn't like the taste. (I
didn't, anyway)

modom

(JB) said:

Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the sidewalk
in a salt mill?

What does the bag say? If there's a note about "not for human consumption," I'd skip it. However,
salt is salt. If there are no additives, NaCl is, well, NaCl. De-icing and ice cream salt, however,
are not "food grade" and may contain various impurities you don't want in your popcorn.

sf said:

jmcquown said:

I am a salt fanatic. And I have to think, back before there were food police, salt was as much
of a commodity as pepper and spices were. So if someone ran across a mound of salt and dug some
out and put it in their pouch for trading later, they weren't concerned about 'grade'.

I've used rock salt in my salt grinder for years and I'm not dead yet.

Good to know. :-) I haven't yet gone through my fancy-schmancy packet of salt-grinder salt, so
though a *great* deal more expensive than ice-cream salt, the initial purchase is still adequate. It
would take me a million years to consume 5lb of salt, but if I *did* make ice cream and had a salt
grinder, I'd save out a couple of ounces.

Puester said:

JB said:

Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the
sidewalk in a salt mill?

I wouldn't. You have no guarantee of purity and there may be other ice-melting chemicals added in
addition to natural impurities.

The stuff put on roads isn't very clean. They don't put much effort into purity. Not good enough for
most cooking uses unless you want unpleasant results.

These salts can be almost any mixture of sodium, calcium and potassium chlorides. Sodium chloride
comes in reasonable purity (95%+) from salt mines, and without any further refinement that's what is
put onto roads.

I noticed that the "salt" that is put onto sidewalks is labelled calcium chloride. On of the men at
my lodge is a retired civil engineer who specialized in roads, so I asked him about that. He said
that calcium chloride will melt ice down to -20F where sodium chloride will only melt ice down to
0F. But because of the price, highway crews use roughly 90% sodium chloride in whatever purity it
was straight from the mine and add roughly 10% calcium chloride to increase the melting power.

Anyways, calcium, potassium and sodium chlorides are all good mineral sources. I'd worry about the
other impurities though.

Mark Thorson said:

PENMART01 said:

In any event I don't see teh point in bothering with a salt mill for grinding ordinary salt
unless you're looking to fool your guests into thinking they'rd getting some rare speciallty
salt...

Perhaps he's thinking of jumping into the rare specialty salt business. Fancy label on a fancy
can, filled with whatever salt with large crystals is cheapest.

I hear it's especially good if it's gray or black.

Practice safe eating - always use condiments

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 17:05:09 -0800, "Nexis" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

The reason I responded though was because before my last pregnancy, when I used to use alot of
salt, I also had low blood pressure...it never occured to me it may be connected! It was
interesting to learn that, so thanks!

kimberly

Kim... low blood pressure is usually NOT associated with additional salt in your diet! People with
low blood pressure typically use salt to bring their blood pressure up to normal.

Correct me if I misinterpreted your post.

Practice safe eating - always use condiments

Frogleg said:

It would take me a million years to consume 5lb of salt, but if I *did* make ice cream and had a
salt grinder, I'd save out a couple of ounces.

LOL! That's what I do. It comes out of my 5 lb bag of rock salt for ice cream making... I haven't
lived in snow country since I was 15, so I'm not sure if the bags of salt we used to throw on the
sidewalks were rock salt or not. I remember it was called rock salt. I do know rock salt is mined
and it's just evaporated ocean, just like sea salt... except it's "aged".

Practice safe eating - always use condiments

jmcquown said:

JB said:

Can you use salt which is intended for an ice cream maker or to melt snow and ice on the sidewalk
in a salt mill?

Yes.

Figures you'd believe that.

-sw

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Nancy Young said:

Puester said:

JB wrote:
>

(snip)

Quoted message said:

I am a salt fanatic. And I have to think, back before there were food police, salt was as much of
a commodity as pepper and spices were. So if someone ran across a mound of salt and dug some out
and put it in their pouch for trading later, they weren't concerned about 'grade'.

Having said that, when I was a teen my mom had a box of rock salt in the cabinet in the garage; I
don't know why. But she was very disturbed when she discovered I'd eaten half of it. Yes, I eat
salt by the handful. My doctor tells me this is because I have low blood pressure and my body

craves

Quoted message said:

sodium which I tend to avoid otherwise. Whatever. I just love the taste

of

Quoted message said:

salt.

Jill

I can't stand the taste of salt! I even pick it off pretzels! My boyfriend, however, *loves* salt.
When he cooks, he uses quite a bit of sea salt and I feel so badly, but I can't eat the food. My mom
never used salt when I was growing up, so I just learned to eat food the way it is. I don't salt
potatoes, eggs, veggies, fries, etc. and I always use unsalted butter.

kilikini

kilikini said:

I can't stand the taste of salt! I even pick it off pretzels! My boyfriend, however, *loves*
salt. When he cooks, he uses quite a bit of sea salt and I feel so badly, but I can't eat the
food. My mom never used salt when I was growing up, so I just learned to eat food the way it is.
I don't salt potatoes, eggs, veggies, fries, etc. and I always use unsalted butter.

kilikini

Are you sure you're Hawaiian? Isn't SPAM the state food?

;-)

Practice safe eating - always use condiments