What is kosher salt, please explain?!
Seen in a recent answer - never heard of it.
Answers:
I'd just add this to the other answers, especially to First L's good answer:
The other thing about "kosher" salt (also called "coarse salt") is that not only are the grains larger, but they're also *flat* and more like flakes. Other kinds of salt are chunkier crystals, whether fine grain or larger grain.
That shape makes those who cook meats/poultry/fish especially love kosher salt because the flakes settle down flat on the raw meat and stick easily when sprinkled on (with fingers usually) or when "rubbed" on.
Kosher salt also has meaning to Jews, etc, but that part has nothing to do with the reason that cooks like it. Personally, I use Kosher salt for most things but try to use regular salt occasionally because it does have the additive iodine, and sometimes a finer grain salt will be easier and quicker to mix into something.
(Non-kosher salt would be any kind of salt that's not specifically "kosher salt."
Kosher salt is salt that is used in the Koshering process for meat. In order for meat to be Kosher, it has to be slaughtered according to religious guidelines, and it has to be processed in such a way as to remove as much blood as possible. This is done by coating the meat in coarse salt and letting it sit for hours to absorb the blood; the salt and blood are then washed off. Kosher salt is course grained, and is pure sodium chloride, with absolutely no additives, not even Iodine (which almost all table salt has added to it). It is inspected and blessed by religious authorities before packaging.
Chefs nowadays love to cook with Kosher salt because of its purity, and because the grains are coarse enough to see when you sprinkle it on food as it's cooking, so you can tell visually how much you're adding, and also the coarse grains make it easier to pick up a pinchful in your fingers without spilling it.
Kosher is a set of dietary laws that govern the way those of the Jewish religion eat. Kosher also pertains to the proper way of preparing food. If a food is not kosher, Jewish religion forbids the consumption of such. Foods that are not kosher are termed “treif”.
http://www.qwhatis.com/what-is-kosher/
Kosher salt has a much larger grain size than some common table salt. Like common table salt, kosher salt consists of the chemical compound sodium chloride. Kosher salt typically contains no additives, unlike common table salt.
Keelia is right, but also Kosher salt, or anything else that is Kosher has to have the processing overseen by a Rabbi.
its larger salt rocks that is blessed and approved by a rabbi