What is "Kosher Salt"?

Question:

What makes salt kosher? What's the difference between "kosher salt" and regular table salt?

Answer:

Salt is a mineral, and as such, pure salt is always kosher. Some brands of salt have a kosher symbol on the package, and that way you know that a reliable kosher certification agency is checking to make sure that nothing else gets mixed in to the salt and that it's 100% kosher.

So what exactly is "kosher salt"?

In truth, the name "kosher salt" is misleading. A better term would be "koshering salt."

Blood is not kosher. G-d commands us in the Torah:1 "You shall not eat any blood, whether that of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings." After a kosher animal is properly slaughtered, all blood must be removed. This is normally accomplished by salting the meat, as salt draws out blood. Table salt is too thin and will dissolve into the meat without drawing out the blood, and salt that is too coarse will roll off. The salt that is "just right" for koshering meat is called "kosher salt." Some people prefer to use it in certain recipes because of its consistency.

Click here for more about the salting of meat.

All the best,

Rochel Chein for Chabad.org