fwiw i've got my first couple kuksas drying out in the shop and __didn't__ opt for the salt water boil technique. i'd heard that there were other, less "flavourful", methods.
in particular i found this:
long story short: wrap the kuksa (i'm assuming here you carved it from green wood as i did) tightly in clean paper of some sort, pack it in a cardboard box with lots more paper and set it aside in a cool dry place.
after a couple days unpack the whole thing, re-wrap the kuksa in "fresh" paper -- in other words not the exact same paper you had wrapped the kuksa in before -- and repeat the above. basically you are cycling the paper so you don't develop molds or suchlike.
i'm about a month into the process with my two kuksas -- now wrapping and re-packing once a week -- and so far so good. the paper appears to have slowed down the drying process enough that even though the wood has warped a bit here and there there are no cracks or splits.
one of the kuksas actually feels pretty dry to the touch at this point but i'll continue for another month just to be on the safe side.
i'm also using the same method to dry out a couple small burls i was able to acquire fresh off the tree. same results (so far).
in case anyone is interested i've discovered that a poor man's way of checking how well the drying is going is to weigh the kuksa -- or whatever wood thing you are drying -- each time you unpack it. when the weight doesn't change from one week to the next over the span of a few weeks you know you're getting pretty close to a dry kuksa (or whatever). i use the same trick for spoons and walking sticks. you do need a scale that can measure a few % change in weight reasonably accurately.
once the weight of your thing is stable and relatively unchanging you can start looking at the oil and sanding process.
next time i've got my kuksas out for some fresh air i'll take photos and post here.