Kosher Blog

This sounds suspiciously antisemitic. I know he says he just wants to promote Christianity in the home and all, and he specifically disavows antisemitism, but who knows.

This line in particular crosses the line: “If the salt takes off, Godlewski plans an entire line of Christian-branded foods, including rye bread, bagels and pickles.” Unless the reporter just made that up or only mentioned those foods as a joke…

I think this is less about anti-semitism than it is about a man, uneducated in other religions, trying to promote his own religion. We should not be offended by Christian Dill Pickles any more than any christian should be offended by a jar of Kosher Dill Pickles.

My first thought was, “what’s next, Christian Dill Pickles?” … and then I read a little further and saw that this is indeed a part of his business plan. He may not be antisemitic personally, but he’s certainly courting an antisemitic customer base, which is just as bad.

Christian Salt. Brought to you by the same deranged mentality that brought you Freedom Toast (instead of French Toast) and W Ketchup (instead of Heinz, because Kerry’s wife was the widow of Senator John Heinz, who by the way was a Republican).

Perhaps he should also start making Christian musical instruments. Why should the jew’s harp get all the glory? And he can make earrings and necklaces: no more jewelry; give me Christianelry.

Ari – not listed: Christian Kugel and Christian Gefilte Fish (and loaves).

I spent a significant portion of my childhood living somewhere where people asked me, “But you believe in Jesus, right?” – so the last line in the article really disturbs me.

Listen, he might not be antisemitic. DebraG might very well be right about that. But if he is specifically targeting traditionally Jewish (or at least Ashkenazic) foods like rye bread, bagels, and pickles, then I think that is too much of a coincidence to attribute to anything other than antisemitism (or extreme stupidity). But, if it was just the reporter singling out those items from a long list of other foods like christian sushi and ratatouille, then it was probably just a joke.

Rye bread, pickles and bagels are not necessarily Jewish food – they’ve been labeled as such for marketing purposes – and I’m pretty sure kosher dills are called kosher because of the kosher salt…

http://www.bagelsforever.com/about.cfm

And leaving the ashkenazic realm – would you say hummos is Jewish? Even chulent is not necessarily Jewish….

Those foods are indeed not intrinsically Jewish. However, many people here in the US associate those foods with Jews and/or Jewish cultural identity. Thus, by specifically targeting rye bread, bagels, and pickles, he appears to be saying: “How can we let those damn Jews co-opt these delicious foods? I like eating them myself, but no way do I want anyone to think that I’m a Jew-loving commie bastard! Hmm, I know — I’ll just re-brand these ‘Jewish’ foods as ‘Christian’ foods, and then I can eat them without the negative Jewish association. No need to re-brand any other types of food, though.”

BTW, the distinguishing characteristic of a “kosher” pickle is the presence of a significant amount of garlic in the brine (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickled_cucumber#Kosher_dill ). The name has nothing to do with kosher salt. Indeed, many pickles are made with so-called kosher salt because it does not contain any additives (such as iodine and anti-caking agents, found in most retail salt) which could cause the brine to turn cloudy.

Also, while I agree that hummus is not intrinsically Jewish either, cholent is. Other cultures may make similar stews, but cholent/dafina/hamin is a dish prepared by Jews specifically as a loophole around Jewish law. Matsa is also an intrinsically Jewish food, even though other cultures might have similar crackers and flatbreads.

He seems to be targeting foods that have the word “Jewish” or “kosher” in the name (*kosher* salt, *kosher* dill pickles, *Jewish* rye, where’s the Christian apple cake?), trying to get rid of the Jewish names, like freedom toast and freedom fries; bagels is the only exception. If we’re going to get into what foods are and are not Jewish, of course, even hamentaschen aren’t just Jewish — they’re just German pocket cookies (”taschen” being German for “pockets”).

I guess it all boils down to whether a Jew would take offense at seeing “Joe’s Christian Pickles” on the shelf next to the kosher dills –

This man believes he will spread Christianity through salt (and potentially pickles, etc.) I don’t think there’s much of a threat from people who define their religion by the kind of pickles they choose

For what it’s worth: a recent poll showed that a significant majority of Christians think it’s offensive to wish them “Happy Holidays.”

The guy definitely needs to get a life…and that’s coming from an Orthodox Christian! Sheesh.

And Shanna, you’re not alone–my kids get asked (because we’re “Russian Orthodox Christians”) if they’re Jewish, even while clearly wearing a cross.

Sure – why wouldn’t it be kosher – Pillsbury slice & bake christmas tree cookies are O-U dairy!

Most Easter candy is also kosher certified… but not KFP, and Easter usually falls during Pesach!

This isn’t an article from The Onion?

Nope, not from The Onion. A link in the article takes you to the website where this stuff is being sold (which, by the way, says “All our ingredients are Kosher Certified” )

All these comments and no one has mentioned *why* it’s called Kosher Salt.

Kosher salt should properly be called KosherING Salt: It gets its name because of its use in making meats kosher, by helping to extract the blood from the meat. Because kosher salt grains are larger than regular table salt grains, any recipe that calls for Kosher Salt will taste different if you use regular table salt.

If the person selling Christian Salt isn’t selling Koshering, or Coarse Salt, then he’s remarkably naive about cooking.

Yes, Matt, you are right. Koshering (or Kashering) salt would be a better name.
But, it isn’t exactly true that any recipe will taste different. Kosher salt shouldn’t taste much different than regular table salt once it is dissolved, so in many recipes it is basically interchangeable. One caveat is that since the grains are larger, more air can get trapped between them, and thus kosher salt tends to be less dense than table salt. Thus, if a recipe calls for a tablespoon of kosher salt, and you substitute a tablespoon of table salt, your dish will be way too salty (by about 25-50%).

Amen to this guy. It annoys me that food TV people are always saying “kosher salt,” too. I would not want to cook with treif salt, but I think they way they use the term “kosher” just dilutes the meaning of the word and confuses people. Maybe this will get people to think about it a little more.

Food TV people and others call it Kosher Salt because that’s the name it goes by. Obviously anyone who understands kashrut at all knows that its not because the salt itself is kosher and all other salt is treif, but LOOK AT THE BOX. It doesn’t say, “Salt with coarse grain that is particularly useful for kashering meat” — it says Kosher Salt. So whether it is accurate or not, that’s what its called. Recipes could call for “coarse grained salt similar to kosher salt” but it’s obviously a lot simpler to just say kosher salt.

The Onion picked up on this “Christian Salt” story for their American Voices segment:
http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/christian_salt_introduced

And reading that segment, it suddenly hit me the stupidest part of this thing: the guy behind this is one of those morons who thinks “kosher” means “blessed by a rabbi,” because he’s having his Christian salt blessed by a priest!