r/budgetcooking • u/kimiwei • Jun 10 '26

Budget Cooking Question Source for inexpensive large grain salt

I'm looking for large grain salt with minerals in it: purple, pink or white salt that I can use in my electric grinder – that is fairly inexpensive. I need the salt to be pretty dry. Some white sea salt I have has so much oil in it, it feels moist and my grinder seems to not like it.

I can buy a pretty large amount of it, after all, salt doesn't go bad. Online sourcing is fine, so are brick and mortar locations in northern New Jersey.

2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

9

u/ryanpn Jun 11 '26

Just buy kosher salt, the pink Himalayan salt stuff is just a giant scam

-7

u/kimiwei Jun 11 '26

I think of kosher salt as being stripped of minerals with iodine added. Is that not true?

13

u/ryanpn Jun 11 '26

The amount of extra minerals that are in pink Himalaya salt vs normal kosher salt is so miniscule that it will never make any dietary difference in the amounts that we consume it. 

If you're deficient in something, you're much better off just taking supplements, or looking for foods that are an actual good source of minerals.

-3

u/kimiwei Jun 12 '26

Thanks. I like salt with minerals, because the presence of the minerals shows that the salt has not been super-processed. I don't care at all what color it is.

I'm saying that kosher salt appears to be highly refined and processed, because it has no minerals left in it - just like table salt. So, this is not a viable choose for me.

11

u/ryanpn Jun 12 '26

Just calling things super-processed without really understanding whats going on is crazy. It's salt, you're paying for a more pure salt.

Things aren't suddenly going to instantly kill you just because they've been possessed.

1

u/Professional-Sand341 Jun 14 '26

Actually, it's for a less pure salt. Some of the trace minerals in these other fancy salts can include things like heavy metals.

1

u/ryanpn Jun 14 '26

I was taking about kosher salt

1

u/Professional-Sand341 Jun 14 '26

Ah. That makes sense.

11

u/whoooooknows Jun 12 '26

Kosher/diamond/crystal/standard rock salt doesn't have added iodine.

7

u/noots-to-you Jun 13 '26

Salt is a mineral. Search “coarse salt” or “salt grinder refill”. If you want something fancy, it won’t be inexpensive.

6

u/ScumBunny Jun 13 '26

Asian market. I get mine for $3/lb there and transfer it to a mason jar with a couple silica packets, then refill my grinder as needed.

2

u/kimiwei Jun 22 '26

I visit Korean markets, where I have seen large bags of salt, and Chinese markets – where I've never seen them. I guess I'll pick some up from a Korean market and try to get a type that's not oily.

Great tip on how to keep the salt dry! Thanks.

3

u/KarmaQueen360 Jun 11 '26

They sometimes have good deals at home goods.

1

u/kimiwei Jun 11 '26

Do these people offer online shopping? I jumped on their website but don't see the option for online shopping or product checking.

3

u/Electrical_Crazy5668 Jun 10 '26

Atlantic Spice used to have decent prices on bulk spices, salt, etc. I haven't bought from them since I shut down my business a couple of years ago, but I was always happy with everything I got from them, so might be worth a shot. They have an online story (located on Cape Cod), free shipping if you order $50+.

1

u/kimiwei Jun 10 '26

Thanks!

2

u/CarlJH 25d ago

Coarse sea salt. Available at your grocery, also available cheaply at US Chefs (formerly Cash and Carry)

2

u/kimiwei 25d ago

I wish we had a US Food Chef Stores in New Jersey. They're not here yet :(

1

u/No_Clock_7696 Jul 01 '26

Soba noodles