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?

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?

Yes.

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.

gloria p

Puester wrote:

> 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

Nancy Young wrote:
> Puester wrote:
>
>> 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
sodium which I tend to avoid otherwise. Whatever. I just love the taste of
salt.

Jill

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 17:48:52 -0600, "jmcquown"
> wrote:


> 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

On Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:36:56 GMT, sf > wrote:

>On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 17:48:52 -0600, "jmcquown"
> wrote:
>
>
>> 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.

"jmcquown" > wrote in message
. ..
> Nancy Young wrote:
> > Puester wrote:
> >
> >> 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
> sodium which I tend to avoid otherwise. Whatever. I just love the taste
of
> 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

>

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 17:05:09 -0800, "Nexis" >
wrote:

> 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

"jmcquown" > wrote in message
. ..
> Nancy Young wrote:
> > Puester wrote:
> >
> >> JB wrote:
> >>>

(snip)

> 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
>
>

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

On Tue, 02 Mar 2004 16:55:29 GMT, "kilikini"
> wrote:

>
> 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

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 23:12:16 GMT, Puester >
wrote:

>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.
>
>gloria p

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

modom

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 20:59:44 -0600, modom wrote:

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

It's also used in sodium-free salt. I have a little bit of the stuff
upstairs and found it largely inedible.

> modom

--
-Brian James Macke
"In order to get that which you wish for, you must first get that which
builds it." -- Unknown

Puester wrote:
> 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.

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.

On 29 Feb 2004 14:41:21 -0800, (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, 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!

> (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 wrote:

> 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 Mon, 01 Mar 2004 01:35:58 GMT, Mark Thorson
> wrote:

> PENMART01 wrote:
>
> > 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 29 Feb 2004 14:41:21 -0800, (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?

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.

When I was a little kid my older brother gave me some rock salt and told me it
was rock candy. I put it in my mouth and puked..

Michael O'Connor - Modern Renaissance Man

"The likelihood of one individual being correct increases in a direct
proportion to the intensity with which others try to prove him wrong"
James Mason from the movie "Heaven Can Wait".