Is rock salt edible?

[Michelle]

Hello,

I have a salt mill that is like a pepper mill, except it is obviously filled with salt, a very coarse grade, and then you grind it onto your food. The time has come to re-fill it, and I don't know what type of salt to use. I have a box of rock salt and was considering that, but then it occurred to me that I don't know if rock salt is edible! I mean, it's used to freeze ice cream (ice/salt mixture) but that's the only use I've ever heard of for rock salt. Anyway, does anyone know? Or, what type of salt should I re-fill my salt grinder with and where can I get it? Thanks!

[Louise]

Look on the ingredients list. If it just says sodium chloride you should be fine. That is chemist-speak for table salt.

Usually it is used as a bed for baking oysters, for melting snow, etc, as you mentioned.

[Monty]

I'm sure it's edible. The problem is it's so coarse. You could probably use it in your grinder and be fine. Still, salt is cheap. I'd go buy a box of kosher salt and be done with it. Save the rock salt for your ice cream maker.

[Dan]

You should be able to buy coarse Sea salt in a round tin at the grocery store that will work in your salt grinder. Don't know about rock salt.

[Becca Porter]

Rock salt is full of impurities. That is why they sell it as rock salt. It usually has a warning on the box about the impurities. I doubt it would kill you but I wouldn't eat it.
-Becca

[Eldon Kreider]

OP doesn't sound like someone from the snowy parts of the United States. Huge quantities of rock salt are used to melt ice and snow on roads, etc.

Rock salt often has some bits of other rock in it. A lot of the rock bits are limestone or other sedimentary rock. The main risk is to your salt grinder or teeth. Paying a wee bit more for kosher salt is a lot cheaper than ruining your grinder or, worse yet, paying for a dental crown.

[Evan]

You can use rock salt to cook (I saw Alton Brown boil fingerling potatoes in water with lots of rock salt but haven't tried it) but I wouldn't put it in a salt grinder. Personally I'd use course sea salt.

[willow]

No. It is not. It tastes . . . terrible! I had the misfortune of getting some rock salt into my otherwise wonderful oysters on the half shell (sitting on, well you know) and the taste was vile!

[Max Million]

I am so glad you posted this question. I have the same issue. I thought rock salt was the right stuff to put in my salt grinder (it's been ages since I've needed to buy some), but when I got the HUGE box home, I realised it was the stuff for snow and ice cream etc

I am grateful for the answers posted here. Now I know what to do!

[Sam D.]

This has me wandering if there are different grades of rock salt such as industrial grade and food grade. There are some well known restaurants such as Lawry's which proclaim that their prime rib is roasted in rock salt.

[Tee]

Yes, I have done the rock salt covered rib roast roast myself years ago on a New Years Eve. As I remember (there was lots of red wine involved) we cooked it at a high temp - buried in the salt, and had to crack it with a hammer, but we then brushed off the salt. Did we injest some salt?, probably, but I think this is vastly different than the op's question of filling her salt grinder with rock salt, which I would NOT do.

[JMF]

Most rock salt is dirty, filthy stuff. It is mined straight from the grund and is full of impurities such as magnesium and calcium salts, rocks, dirt, etc. and has to refined to become edible salt. It is refined by bringing to solution and recrystalising, either naturally in professional salt beds, which then harvest the white, clean, edible salt, or chemically refined to remove the impurities and add vital nutrients.

Don't try eating rock salt intended for salt melting and buy some interesting, large crystal, edible sea salt or refined, edible mined rock salt.

[sherry f]

Does anybody know where to buy rock salt for an ice cream maker? Would kosher salt work just as well?

[hummingbird]

I have used regular table salt. Morton's makes rock salt and you should be able to find in the grocery store.

Don't know why you couldn't use kosher salt. It is the sodium chloride I do believe that helps in the freezing.

[RitaKennedy]

I love the taste of rock salt and I have often used it in soups. However, I recently started to wonder if it was edible, so I wrote to Morton salt, which sells it. They replied to tell me that it is not edible but without specifying what makes it not edible. Certainly there is no warning on the box. I am still using it, but maybe not quite as liberally

[mpalmer6c]

Unless labeled edible, rock salt is not meant for consumption. Same with "ice cream" salt. Your best bet might be coarse kosher salt.

[Gio]

Apparently there are various grades of rock salt...some edible and some not.
Here's a link to some info:

http://homecooking.about.com/library/...

[canfish1980]

To Quote Directly from Norman W. Walker's Book: [Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices - What's missing in your body?] (Great book, reveal lots of truth that today's food industry does not want you to know), Dr. Walker said:
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The "regular" Table Salt is composed of insoluble inorganic elements. Varicose veins, hardening of the arteries and other ailments have been traced to the excessive use of this type of salt.

Salt is necessary in the generation and functions of digestive fluids in the system. Without salt, good digestion is virtually impossible, but such salt must be entirely soluable in water.

Every cell in the body is constantly bathed in a solution of saline water, and if this is not maintained at its required level dehygration sets in.

In the commercial production of TABLE SALT extremely high temperatures are used running around 1500F to solidify the salt with additives and adulterants to coat the salt crystals to cause the salt to pour readily under nearly all conditions.

Such salt is not completely water soluble.

To overcome this handicap, whnever we need to use salt, we use ROCK SALT, the pure Rock Salt used in water purifiers.

Rock Salt is obtained from soil sodium rock formations and is not subjected to heat. This salt we have found to be soluble in water and its use, in moderation of course, is found to be compatible and satisfactory. In order to use it, we grind it to the fineness we desire, in a small nut or coffee-grinder, such as the Moulinex or any of similar grinders sold by Healthy Food Stores.

Such Rock Salt is a natural catalyst which the enzyme's in body can cause to be utilized constructiively.

Rock Salt will usually be found to contain the following elements:
Sodium Chloride 90% - 95%
Calcium Sulphate 0.05% - 1%
Magnesium Sulphate 0.05%-1%
Magnesium Chloride 0.05% - 1%

The moisture content may run from 2.5%-6%, while occasionally there is a trace of "insoluable matter".

The "regular Table Salt" is likely to contain in addition to the above elements in quite different proportions:

Potassium Chloride,
Codium Sulphate,
Potassium Sulphate,
Barium Chloride,
Magnesium Bromide,
Strontium Chloride,
Calcium Chloride

Most of these elements tend to INHIBIT the dissolving of the water.