Mike the Mad Biologist

In Colorado, someone is very bothered by the idea of kosher salt:

You’ve heard of kosher salt? Now there’s a Christian variety.

Retired barber Joe Godlewski says he was inspired by television chefs who repeatedly recommended kosher salt in recipes.

“I said, ‘What the heck’s the matter with Christian salt?’” Godlewski said, sipping a beer in the living room of his home in unincorporated Cresaptown, a western Maryland mountain community.

By next week, his trademarked Blessed Christians Salt will be available at http://www.memphi.net, the Web site of Memphis, Tenn.-based seasonings manufacturer Ingredients Corporation of America.

It’s sea salt that’s been blessed by an Episcopal priest, ICA President Damon S. Arney said Wednesday. He said the company also hopes to market the salt through Christian bookstores and as a fundraising tool for religious groups.

Kosher salt isn’t special–it’s NaCl just like your table salt. No rabbi ‘blesses’ it, or any other nonsense. It has large crystals which make it useful for soaking up blood: kosher meat is salted to prevent the consumption of blood.

Besides, shouldn’t it be Judeo-Christian salt?

Comments

#1 fostert
March 7, 2009

That’s just silly. What makes it even worse is that there already is a Christian version of Kosher salt. It’s called “Margarita Salt.” It’s Kosher salt put into a little tub with the words “Margarita Salt” on it. And it costs ten times more. Look, it’s just salt, get over it.
#2 David
March 7, 2009

It’s not silly.

Say a religious person wants to follow some laws, like not eat meat with retained blood, or not mix milk and meat. The believer goes out and buys kosher products because they have been verified as helping to meet the religious guidelines.

But this guy is something else. He wants to avoid having contact with a “jewish” product, so he makes a christian alternative. He’s an antisemite, pure and simple.

It’s not silly. It’s hateful.
#3 Rugosa
March 7, 2009

Recipes recommend kosher salt because it does not contain the additives that the pours-when-it-rains salt has to keep it free-flowing. Some people claim the additives give the salt a bitter taste. Also, kosher is used for pickling because the additives could turn the pickling liquid murky in appearance. There’s nothing anti-christian about it. But if the guy sees a chance to make a buck off the gullible, who’s to blame him?
#4 kelebek
March 7, 2009

yorum yok
#5 abstruse
March 7, 2009

David

It’s silly and hateful.
#6 John J. McKay
March 7, 2009

Since they’re trying to do without the Judeo- it would be more honest to call it anti-Semitic salt.
#7 Brian X
March 8, 2009

Rugosa:

It also has the advantage of being rather easier to grab than crystal salt, and sticks better to wet surfaces. (IIRC it’s a type of hopper crystal, similar to bismuth crystals.)

You wouldn’t necessarily use it in baking — it’s fine in bread but problematic in cookies or anything with a low moisture content — but that’s why I keep a couple of different salts around.
#8 mrcreosote
March 8, 2009

A couple of years ago there was a big kerfuffle when a local McDonalds had halal meat in their burgers, due to a large local muslim population

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20780731-661,00.html

there is a classic quote towards the end of the article
#9 csrster
March 8, 2009

I suppose this wouldn’t happen in the rest of the world where it’s known more-accurately as “koshering salt”.
#10 Dizzlski
March 8, 2009

It’s much easier to rub into their wounds inflicted by the massive majority of christian persecutors in the US.
#11 Eric13
March 8, 2009

I grew up just a few miles from this idiotic bigot’s hometown. On behalf of the rest of Western Maryland, I’d like to thank him for helping people see that it isn’t just the parts of Appalachia in Kentucky and West Virginia that are home to ignoramuses.
#12 Eric13
March 8, 2009

Mike –

The TV station whose story you link to is in Colorado, but the wingnut in question is actually in Maryland. His local paper doesn’t seem to have picked up on this story yet, but it is getting some other attention on the net. I even found a photo of him with his new product:
http://newshopper.sulekha.com/photos/slideshow/Others/4/692589.htm
#13 Moopheus
March 8, 2009

The manufacturer’s web site lists it as being sea salt, but doesn’t specify if it’s coarse-grain or not. I like the fact that an 8.4 oz bottle has 10 oz of salt in it.
#14 jorge
March 9, 2009

The manufacturer’s web site lists it as being sea salt, but doesn’t specify if it’s coarse-grain or not. I like the fact that an 8.4 oz bottle has 10 oz of salt in it. Posted by: Moopheus | March 8, 2009 8:22 PM

Only the sky muffin can cram 10 ounces into an 8.4 ounce bottle. What – you need more proof of god??