Salt?

[pizzadr]

What is best salt to use for pickling? Whats the difference between table, pickling and kosher salt? [/color]

[SmokeyJoe]

table salt has additives such as anticaking agents and iodine
kosher salt is clean but isnt as soluble as pickling salt
wich is a fine grain salt with no additives.

[Richtee]

Kosher is the best for everything. Well, near as I can tell. Not Arabic dishes I hear tho. ;{)

[SmokeyJoe]

Problem with kosher salt, as far as pickling recipes are concerned, is that volume wise it isnt equal to the amount specified in the recipe. It is less densely packed than pickling salt. So if your recipe calls for 1 cup of salt it is not equal to 1 cup of kosher salt more like a cup and a half. So in pickling recipes where the salinity makes all the difference, kosher salt is NOT best. If you use it youll have to adjust your volume accordingly.

[pizzadr]

In canning tomatoes should I use pickling salt or is too salty?

[ChezLeRecherche]

Acid is important to safely preserving tomatoes. Salt is optional. Use either pickling or kosher salt to your taste preference.

[Lorraine]

I use sea salt or kosher in my tomatoes.

[jennyema]

In canning tomatoes should I use pickling salt or is too salty?

All salt is equally salty.

What varies is how much salt fits in a measuring device. For example, more table salt than kosher salt will fit into a teaspoon. Thus, dissolved in a cup of water, table salt will make the water taste more salty because more salt is in the water. But the salts themselves are 99.9% NaCl and are equally salty.

[SmokeyJoe]

So in pickling recipes where the salinity makes all the difference, kosher salt is NOT best. If you use it youll have to adjust your volume accordingly.

Just to clarify , I meant to refer to fermented pickles where salt content is a factor you would want the amount of salt the recipe calls for and using kosher and not augmenting your measurements will change the slat content of your brine wich can alter the sourness of the pickle, the speed of the fermentation process and how long the pickle will keep.

[Richtee]

I failed to address that. I still maintain Kosher's the best for cooking, but a lil semi-scientific experiment yeilded this result:

1 level tbs iodized common salt weighed 23 grams
1 level tbs Diamond Crystal Kosher weighed 12

Sooo... it's durn near 2-1 conversion from I. to K.

I tried not to "pack" or "settle" the measured quantities. Kosher will "Pack" to a larger extent than iodized due to a larger amount of interstitial space.

[ChezLeRecherche]

Actually, interstitial space is related to shape of the particles--NOT size. Sometimes, size doesn't matter. If the sample of big pieces and the sample of small pieces are both composed of same-shaped pieces, the void fration (interstitial space) will be the same! If this were true for the salt, then both samples should weigh the same. Never assume that smaller partilcles means less air--it doesn't. It means more spaces. How they total up is determined by the particle shape.

[SmokeyJoe]

Well Chez, looks like you got a science project for the fair next year.

[CPPCS]

Where's Alton Brown when you need him?

[SmokeyJoe]

No doubt, hed settle this real quick. Hopefully through a fridge camera.

[Richtee]

I'd bet the interstitial space IS greater...in the Diamond brand anyway. An examination reveals non-uniform crystals. Some broken, some larger than others.

Almost irrelevant...Point being, it's almost a 2-1 ratio by weight. I doubt the added mass of the iodine molecule makes too much difference. But, to the pickle it sure wold, iodine having some antiseptic properties. Seems to me I was told it would kill a ferment.