Um …
Retired barber Joe Godlewski says that when television chefs recommended kosher salt in recipes, he wondered, “What the heck’s the matter with Christian salt?”
By next week, his trademarked Blessed Christians Salt will be available from seasonings manufacturer Ingredients Corporation of America. It’s sea salt that’s been blessed by an Episcopal priest.
The company’s president hopes to market the salt through Christian bookstores.
Mr Godlewski is either a misinformed idjit or out to make a quick buck from the Christian yokels. “Kosher” salt is not, somehow, intrinsically, Jewish. Nor is it blessed by a rabbi, such that Christians will get Jew-cooties.
Kosher salt is, rather, a large-grained salt, without additives (such as iodine). It is called such, not so much because it adheres to particular Jewish dietary laws, but because it enables them:
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 to draw fluids out of the meat.
In the UK it’s called koshering salt, which makes the difference a bit clearer. It’s usually recommended by cooks because it lacks iodine and, usually, anti-caking agents, and so has a “better” salt flavor.
As much as I love the Episcopal Church, I don’t think being blessed by an Episcopal priest is going to make Mr Godlewski’s salt any tastier. (Ironically, there are any number of self-labeled Christians who aren’t particularly sanguine about Episcopalians anyway.)
(via J-Walk)