Salt - Types & Iodine

[Brentsbox]

Is there a difference between cheese salt and canning salt.   I have been using canning salt and having never used cheese salt,  I don't know the difference.   Canning salt is available locally too. 

[clherestian]

Some cheese recipes call for flake salt or some other coarse salt. Canning salt is a fine grained salt, and would not be the best choice for those recipes. A better choice in those cases would be kosher salt.

If you are making brine, then canning salt is fine.

[linuxboy]

Rate of dissolution and absorption to create a gradient. Fine salt will be faster and more of it will be saturated, so you have to be careful when using it to hit your final salt targets.

[wharris]

This is the way I see it.  I could be wrong, but these are the thoughts I have always held with respect to flaked salt.

I believe that the advantage of flaked salt, used in a dry-salted curd cheese like cheddar, is its relatively large surface area to volume ratio.  This property allows it to melt or dissolve quickly and evenly into the cheese curds.

Compared to flaked salt, a course grained salt would not dissolve as readily.

I happen to use canning salt for my cheddars because it does have a high(er) surface area to volume ratio than does a course grained salt. And because it is not iodized. I realize that its not ideal, but I cannot readily find bulk quantities of flaked salt.

If I could score this: http://www.mortonsalt.com/products/industrial/Topflakesalt.html
I would be very happy.  Actually, this would last me forever and I would be looking to split an order like this about 8 ways.

Actually, I use canning salt for both my cheese curds and my brines..

I could see using a course grain salt for rind preparation or brine prep.

I'm sure LB will let me know if I am off track here.

[linuxboy]

You can't salt a cheese properly with really coarse salt, like Wayne said. It's just wrong, it won't dissolve appropriately. You can make a brine with it, though. Most cheeses need a flake salt because a fine salt just doesn't work as well.

Also, different salts have different dissolution rates, even for the same size. I know in their food line, Morton has a few different flake salts and their dissolution rates vary. But this is not as big of a deal as the size.

[coffee joe]

How about Iodine? this has been a question for me as I need to go to amazing lengths to get non iodized salt.

[Brentsbox]

that is a great point and the reason i only use canning salt and kosher salt.  Neither of these have iodine in them.  The canning salt also dosent have any caking agents in it either because that would make canned products cloudy, so they say.  Im amazed that you have a hard time getting salt that is not iodined.  I wont use salt like that in my normal diet just because I think there are other ways to get the iodine.   I hope someone can give you more input on this. 

[wharris]

Here is what I understand about Iodine in cheese salt.

Iodine is used in medicine to act as an antibacterial agent, the iodine in the cheese will have similar effects on bacterial cultures. The iodine used in cheese salt may have an adverse affect on cheesemaking by killing some of the culture bacteria.  I'm sure it won't kill it all, but I really don't want the iodine in my salt reducing the effectiveness of my cheese cultures.  You might see that effect in the acidification curve of your cheese. I could imagine that it might take longer to reach certain pH levels.

Part of my understanding comes from snippets i have read, but most comes from my inferences based on the snippets i read.

Other than that. The iodine in table salt is just fine.

And as usual, I will rely on LB for corrections and clarifications.

[Alice in TX/MO]

I taught a VERY basic cheesemaking class to a few friends.  One of my demonstrations was having a plate with several different kinds of salt on it to look at and taste.  My students were amazed in the variation between the varieties of salt.